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Liubomyr Vorona \/ iStock.com<\/p>\n
We all have fond memories of special financial milestones: perhaps it was that twinkle in your eye when you looked at your first paycheck after landing your first job or when you saved your first $10,000.<\/p>\n
But what do the experts think? What key milestones should we aim for? To find out, GOBankingRates spoke with Steve Case, financial and insurance consultant at InsuranceHero.<\/p>\n
Contrary to what some believe, a key milestone isn\u2019t necessarily about becoming a millionaire or landing that first six-figure job<\/a>. Having helped many people over his long career, Case said his most successful clients aren\u2019t the ones who had major goals; rather, they\u2019re the ones who sorted out the basics and are comfortable.<\/p>\n What are the basic key milestones?<\/a> Read more to find out.<\/p>\n Discover Next: 3 Signs You\u2019ve \u2018Made It\u2019 Financially, According to Financial Influencer Genesis Hinckley<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Check Out: 11\u00a0Subtly Genius Moves All Wealthy People Make With Their Money<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Eliminating High-Interest Debt<\/p>\n Eliminating this kind of debt<\/a> is the first and foremost important milestone Case advises his clients. \u201cEverything else you build while carrying it (the debt) works against you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n According to a study conducted by the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute<\/a>, people who struggle with debt are far more likely to face mental health challenges than those without debt. The same study also outlined that owing debt makes it difficult to remember bills and account details as a way to cope, which further compounds the stress.<\/p>\n Simply put, eliminating high-interest debt frees you to pursue other milestones rather than hold you down. Or as Case put it: \u201cClearing high-interest debt is where it begins.\u201d<\/p>\n See Next: Suze Orman Reveals the No. 1 Bill You Should Pay First Each Month<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Build a True Emergency Fund<\/p>\n Now that you\u2019re free to save, the next milestone is building an emergency buffer. Life can throw unexpected curveballs and if we\u2019re not prepared, it can sting. This could be anything: illness, getting laid off, divorce or a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic as we saw not too long ago.<\/p>\n While standard benchmarks suggest three to six months, the COVID-19 pandemic lasted much, much longer. People often underestimate how much they need to save<\/a>, given the sky-high cost of living in today\u2019s economy. The bigger your emergency fund<\/a>, the better.<\/p>\n Transitioning From Surviving To Building Wealth<\/p>\n We have, at last, reached the best part. You\u2019ve successfully taken the albatross of debt off your shoulders and you\u2019ve built an emergency fund in case something goes wrong. Now it\u2019s time to herald your finances into something bigger and better: wealth.<\/p>\n Case posited building wealth<\/a> as a shift from day-to-day and month-to-month to \u201csomething that stands.\u201d That could be \u201cpension contributions or getting onto the property ladder,\u201d which both point to the same shift.<\/p>\n Alternatively, it could be investing in an ETF<\/a> that tracks the S&P 500 index in a tax-efficient account and regularly contributing to it through dollar-cost averaging. This framework catapults you from surviving toward long-term financial security.<\/p>\n More From GOBankingRates<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com<\/a>: What Financial Advisors Consider Key Wealth Milestones \u2014 Have You Reached Them?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liubomyr Vorona \/ iStock.com We all have fond memories of special financial milestones: perhaps it was that twinkle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,247465,147,530,260080],"class_list":{"0":"post-597531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-milestones","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-personalfinance","12":"tag-steve-case"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}