Planning for the future is difficult. Just figuring out where you’ll be a year from now is hard, let alone five or ten years from now. This doesn’t mean you don’t try though. As you’ve heard over and over again, the earlier you start preparing financially for the future, the better off you will be. But how exactly do you prepare for your financial future when you can barely get a grasp on your financial present?

It’s definitely not an easy task and most likely something you’ll be working on for the majority of your life. The good news is that there are steps you can take now to help set yourself up for a better tomorrow. Let’s take a look at how you can build a better financial future:

Take Time to Understand Your Life Goals

First and foremost, it’s important to understand both your short term and long term goals in life, as what you want to achieve and accomplish will greatly affect how you prepare financially. Bigger things to consider are where you want to live, whether you want to start a family, and when you want to retire. Each of these decisions comes with a different price tag, which can vary drastically depending on when in life you want to accomplish these goals.

For example, it’s wise to start thinking about retirement as early as possible. It might not even be on your radar now but preparing for retirement in your 20s and 30s is crucial if you want to retire early and enjoy more of your life outside of a 9 to 5. That’s because quitting the rat race earlier than normal means that you not only have fewer years of work income,…

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