For recent years, no one would deny that saving money is essential for young people to ensure financial security and achieving long-term goals. While some people believe that young individuals should enjoy their youth rather than prioritizing savings. I strongly agree that saving is essential for everyone, including young people, as it can ensure future opportunities, specifically to reach financial freedom.
One of the main reasons, I believe in the concept of financial freedom, which is the condition where people have control of their money and no need to work actively to fulfill their needs in life. There are seven levels to reach financial freedom. First thing first is clarity. In the first level, we need to understand our financial situation, starting with how much we have calculating any debts. Once we have this clarity, we can set the purpose we want to achieve. Level two is called self-sufficiency, this means that, if we want to be financially independent, we have to move out from our parents and cover our expenses by ourselves. Level three is the breathing room, this is a condition where people work, get paid, can live with their own money and can manage to save half of their income. However, it doesn’t mean they have significant wealth yet. Level four is when we no longer have any bad debt, and we already can have six months’ worth of expenses for emergencies. Next is level five, it is a flexibility where we have saved at least two year’s worth of expenses and we could take a year off work. The second to last is financial freedom, at this stage we can live off the income and our income is getting from our investment such as cryptocurrency, obligation, money market, and other investment products. The last one is abundant wealth, the condition when we don’t have worries at all about money because we already do not work for money, but money works for us.
However, some argue that young people should focus on enjoying their youth and spending time on experiences rather than saving. While this view emphasizes living in the moment, it overlooks the potential long-term benefits of savings. Allocating a portion of income to savings while still spending for self-reward allows individuals to meet their desires without compromising their financial stability.
In conclusion, saving money is crucial for everyone, including young people, as it can be our determinant in the future, the earlier we start saving money, the faster we can reach financial freedom. Personally, in my 20s I have already started learning about investment and how to make more money through them, instead of relying just on a full-time job. I also take a lot of side jobs, the more money we have, the greater the returns on our investments.