Put your money on a plan

Making a plan with your money is kind of like figuring out what to do with your day. Each day, we wake up and have a limited amount of time and energy to save, spend, invest, or waste. What you decide to do with it is up to you:

• When you use your time and energy to get to and from school, you're spending it.
• When you take a shortcut to get to school, you're saving time and energy.
• When you use your time and energy to study or practice a sport, you're investing it.
• When you use time and energy worrying about what other people think … well, you're wasting it, right?

Money works just like that. You have a certain amount, and you decide what to do with it—that's your plan. Think about how much money you have coming in and from where; what do you owe; what do you want to save for; and how much money you might want to invest for the future.

Write your plan down. Then follow it. But don't feel bad if life changes and you end up revising your plan. That happens all the time. A plan is simply meant to be a guide to help you reach your financial happy place.