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Girl Money Notes and Explanations

## [Girl Money Spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N3zp3fmUNKMy8G5j-qvFf7f_YrX7FLSThEXYOmzJiOk/edit?usp=sharing)Spreadsheet Explainer


### Some of my thoughts about how your money is organized and a few crib notes of the [/r/personalfinance wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics)wiki and their [young adults wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/young_adult)wiki.


##

Some Steps to Take


###

Step 0 

Set up a realistic budget for yourself. Since you’re in school, you could break it down by each semester and the summer (~15 weeks in each). You largely know what your expenses are. To help you get a better understanding of what things cost, I think you should include all the stuff your folks pay for (tuition, phone, car insurance, etc) and include them on the income side too. In the personal finance world, we say to cover your “four walls” first: 

  1. 1. Housing (rent/mortgage/dorm), 
    2.

  2. Food (groceries/meal plan)
    3.

  3. Essentials (water/heat/toiletries, etc)
    4.

  4. Income earning expenses (car payment/insurance, internet/phone plan)

Great news, your four walls are adequately covered! Again, I’d still account for them in your expenses so it helps you have a good understanding of your finances, but you’re in great shape.

You could do a simple budget in Google Sheets (I’ve got your first year school setup in the spreadsheet) or use budgeting software like [Actual](https://actualbudget.com/)Actual. I have [Actual self-hosted for free](https://accounting.dogiakos.com/)free on my personal server, if you want to do something like that. I would love to help you get it setup. 

My advice is to break your budgeting down by weeks per semester, throw all the things that you might spend money on and all your sources of income in there to have a good understanding of what is going where. Don’t break out expenses across the semester as an average, instead put the amount that is due/earned in the cell of the week that it happens.

Don’t get too worked up about this, it’s just for visualizing purposes. **You’re safe, secure, and blessed.** You are enough. Your parents are taking care of most of this stuff for you, _andand that’s ok._

###

Step 1

Build a “baby” emergency fund of $1, 000. Now that you have an idea of what it costs for a semester, you might have a better idea of what your “regular” emergency fund should look like. You said you are setting aside $1,000 for your emergency fund - that’s AWESOME. This is checked off the list! 

Your emergency fund should be [liquid](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/liquidasset.asp)liquid, but not attached to your primary bank/checking account so that if you have an emergency you can cover the cost right away but you also aren’t tempted to “splurge” or dip into your emergency fund for frivolous things. In your current account setup the best places for your emergency fund should be either your Wealthfront account (5.5% interest until August, then 5% after that) or your the cash fund of your Vanguard Brokerage account (I think it was about 4.65% if my memory serves). Just make sure you move it out of your checking account and into one of these interest bearing accounts.


###You should only use the emergency funds for true emergencies that are unexpected and urgent. Examples include sudden medical expenses, emergency travel home, unexpected car repairs, or replacing essential items like a broken laptop needed for schoolwork. It's crucial to avoid using this fund for non-essential expenses like concert tickets, new clothes, or planned outings. The main purpose of your emergency fund is to provide financial security and peace of mind, ensuring you have a safety net for life's unforeseen challenges during your college years.

Step 2

Is technically “pay off debts”. You don’t have any. Keep it that way.


###

Step 3

Build up your fully funded emergency fund (FFEF). This is probably not going to be relevant until you’re out of school. If you decide to start working in the spring semester, it might be more relevant, but don’t starve yourself or really struggle to get this done.done until after graduation. 

The general rule of thumb is 3-6 months of _ESSENTIAL_ESSENTIAL expenses (and I like to use the most expensive 3-6 months of the year). You should grow your $1000 into the FFEF by cash flowing it or using windfalls (gifts, inheritances, etc.). Again, since you’re in school this is a low priority. Once you graduate though, protect yourself by getting this done.


###

Step 4

Step 4 and beyond are about getting your retirement in place and saving for stuff bigger expenses like a house and stuff like that. If you start a business while you’re in school or get hired full time while you’re still in school or something, we can go more in depth, but for the next 4 years this is where you should stop. If you have this steps 0 - 3 in place, you will be way ahead of most full-grown adults: you’ll have a positive [net worth](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/networth.asp)worth coming out of college! Congratulations!


##

Accounts Structure & Planning

I wanted to leave you with some notes about what all we setup the weekend of your high schoolhighschool graduation. It all happened quickly, and it’d be easy enough to not remember it all in the best of circumstances.

###

Personal Banking - Central Bank

  • * Checking account: this is where you should be depositing your paychecks. In theory, it’s attached to a debit card so you can easily access your money. Move your money from other accounts (Vanguard/Wealthfront) from here into there.
    *

  • Savings account: honestly, savings accounts like this are just not useful these days. Once upon a time, they bore more interest and were useful for consumers like us, but nowadays there are better places to keep your money. If you want to keep track of very short term savings, this is an ok place to do it.


    ###

High Yield Savings - Wealthfront

Investing - Vanguard

     \
Until you get an employer sponsored retirement account like a 401k or a 403b, this is where you stick money you want to save for retirement (plan to put in ~10% of your gross income if you don’t have a work sponsored account). You shouldn’t plan to touch it until you’re a little old lady. If you withdraw from this account, you’ll probably be hit with really high tax penalties.

 **NO.👏🏻 TOUCHY.👏🏻**


##

Long-term Planning

When we were talking, you mentioned that you wanted to start making a plan for a few long-term goals. That’s a great idea! It’ll take a little work and some sacrifice, but you can really set yourself up for a lifetime of success with good goal planning. In Boy Scouts, our leadership training uses the concept of “[building a ticket](https://woodbadgec616516.wordpress.com/ticket-process/)ticket” and SMART Goals to make a plan. Within each ticket you build [SMART goals](https://www.mindtools.com/a4wo118/smart-goals)goals that correspond to specific areas in your life. One of your tickets should be for finances. You could have short-term and/or long-term goals in a ticket. 

**For example:** “"I want to have a down payment on a house.”" As it is written, it’s just a dream. No specific timeframe, no amount, no way of knowing whether it is achieved. A SMART goal would be, “"By my 25th birthday (April 20, 2031), I will have saved $60,000, or 20% of a $300,000 house.” "

  • *Specific: Specific:theThe amount to be saved is clearly defined (as $60k60,000 for a $300k300,000 house)
    *house.

  • Measurable: itThe soundsgoal obvious,is butquantifiable; you will know if you knowhave reached $60,000.

  • Achievable: Consider whether saving $60,000 by the differencetarget between $50k saved and $60k saved?
    * Achievable: thisdate is probablyrealistic, thewhich mostrequires difficult part of SMART goal setting. In this case though, it means you’d need to save upsaving about $8,600/year600 per year. It should be within your control and not reliant on external factors like inheritances or winning the lottery.

  • Relevant: The goal is aligned with your personal desire to make this goal happen. It’s also important to recognize that it’s something that you have control over: it is not relying on someone else (waiting on an inheritance or other windfall - you have to actually save the money to make it work!) to achieve the goal
    * Relevant: does the topic itself matter to you? You wantown a house, somaking yeah!
    *it significant and meaningful.

  • Timely: This timeline on thisThe goal ishas longera thanclear Ideadline usuallyof likeyour to25th setbirthday, them.providing Ia typicallyspecific aimtimeframe for aboutachievement.

    18
    • months out or less, but for long term planning like this it’s ok. You could very easily break this down into smaller goals with the $8,600/year or some other figure based on your preferred timeline (such as waiting to save until after you graduate).

SMART goal planning doesn’t have to just be for finances! It can also be used for school, health, work, businessbusiness, and pretty much anywhere you want to achieve!achieve success.




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