Setting yourself up early financially

Start with The Millionaire Next Door and Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Those are good books for beginners to get a sense of how to view money and debt.

Honestly just worry about your education and racking up no/as little student debt as possible. It wouldn't hurt to take some money and buy single shares of stocks just to learn about the market, knowing you aren't really doing it to make money, if you are in to that sort of thing.

Don't get married for at least 10 years unless her family is wealthy.

I have a little over 200k in debt that i never plan on paying off early. Just whatever the mins are.

My advice is: It's about time in the market, not timing the market.

The books mentioned before are also good.

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Anyways, y'all have any suggestions on getting a solid base set up for someone young without tons of money to play with?

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1. Avoid debt, consumer debt, at all cost. Even a mortgage is a necessary evil - people view debt as an opportunity, it is not - it's a trap.

2. Delayed gratification. The single biggest factor in spending, especially for a young person, is the difficulty in delaying gratification. The purchase often fuels the same centers of the brain as addiction. You should be spending money on experiences, rather than things, anyway. As you normally have to plan and budget "experiences" more so than impulse purchases, you generally get into less trouble (although you can spend too much on experiences, too)

3. Take your wins where you can. You need an emergency fund. At least on that part, as well as his debt avoidance strategy, look at Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps - I wish I had access to them at 20.

LINK

Many people, myself included, have specific concerns with his investment strategies and assumptions, but his advice about budgeting, pay as you go, if you can't pay cash for it, you can't afford it, etc., is absolutely golden.

His free cars video is extra priceless - again, I wish I had access to it at 20.

LINK

As far as specific investing - when you go to work, ensure you qualify for the full amount your employer will match. 15% of your income should be funding your retirment account - the younger you start, the richer you will be when you retire, even if you're only giving $5 a pay check. The magic of compound interest will do the rest.

Amazingly, putting your money to work for you, at a young age, and having it pay you the rest of your life is far more lucrative than incurring finance charges and continuing to pay someone else for items you purchased years ago it. Funny how that works?

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"I Will Teach You To Be Rich" by Ramit Sethi.

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Just started this and I really like it so far. I was a beginner to say the least but this is a great book to start with.

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If you have anything to spare, even 50 dollars a month, start putting some in a Roth

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I just graduated this year, but I started a roth (with the idea from my family) a couple years ago. It's not huge, and now that I'm working, I'll start trying to put more $$$ in over time.

Develop good habits. Avoid credit card debt. Instead of throwing spring break on the credit card, set aside money each month to fund spring break/road trips for football games/backpacking trip to Europe, etc.

If you graduate with no student loans and no CC debt, you're ahead of the game.

Wear a condom on one night stands. Better yet, wear it all the time.