Don’t freak out when you look at your bank statement and you only see $7.12. This is an every day occurrence with most twenty year olds. Spending habits are up, and savings habits are down. What are some things that 20 year olds can do to improve their positions?

• 1^st Learn- I truly believe that learning from other people’s experiences can improve your own wellbeing. If you know how some people fall into debt, don’t try to replicate the same mistakes.

• 2^nd Education- Read the ways to get out of debt and how to become wealthy. There are so many books out there that have such important information on how to get rich, yet only a few hand full of people will go buy them. Be a sponge and soak up as much knowledge as possible before going out in the real world.

• 3^rd Control your spending habits. I know it seems fun to blow your whole paycheck on a weekend of partying, but it doesn’t pay off. The younger you control your spending the earlier you get to retire and buy whatever you want. I’m not saying to never go out and have a good time, but don’t do it every single weekend.

• 4^th Save for something. You know the earlier you start saving the younger you will be able to retire. I recognize that working your whole life and never being able to retire at a young age sounds like so much fun, but I think you may be different. The money you save needs to be invested the right way. Step one is to open an online savings account.

• 5^th Take risks. When you do start wanting to really invest your money, invest in riskier asset allocations such as small cap stocks. You are young and can withstand the ups and downs of the market. The historical long term returns on small caps are in your favor, so abuse them as much as you can.