Most millennials are now in there 20s and 30s, beginning a career climb and also the time when you are making major financial decisions. These financial decisions can include home ownership, investment strategies, and family planning. Certainly, you want to try and avoid some of the financial hazards that have transpired in the lives of previous generations.

Financial literacy is seldom taught in school, so if you didn’t learn it at home growing up, your first time in the “real world” may get you into some financial distress. Read below to learn some of the top financial tips that will help millennials make smart financial decisions.

Take online money management courses

Because most millennials excel at technology, I would suggest signing up for courses in basic economics, accounting and budgeting. These types of courses can be very affordable and very well delivered by the online professor. I feel this is a very efficient way to update yourself on financial topics that may simplify and improve your financial life.

Build up your retirement savings

Did you know that Wells Fargo revealed that almost 50% of millennials weren’t planning for retirement? Make sure you participate in your employer’s 401(k) plan, even if you can only afford to contribute the minimum every month.

Make a list of your whole financial picture

I recommend you make a list of everything that is spent each month. After you have digested this information, ask yourself this question. How am I going to pay for all of this? There are also four essential things everyone should know about their finances: income, expenses, assets and liabilities. Having a firm comprehension of these items will help you make sense of your finances. There are many online tools that can help you connect all your accounts – Mint, Quicken just to name a few. I believe this is your first step in improving your finances.

Research passive income opportunities

Most of us work for money all our lives and never really put it to work for us. It is possible to use your job income for passive income from your investments. For example, the IRS says passive income can come from two sources: rental property or a business in which you do not actively participate. Make no mistake; passive income is not about getting something for nothing. It involves a lot of work and is definitely not a “get rich quick” scheme.

Start a savings account

Open up a share account at your credit union even if you can’t make regular deposits. You can use this account to put extra money aside for your short term and even long-term goals. This can also be used as your emergency fund. Shoot for 3-12 months of expenses, put aside for emergencies.

Pay yourself first

Once you have money in your hand from your paycheck, IRS refund, etc. always pay yourself first. Arrange for automatic transfers from your checking account directly to your share account every payday or on a monthly basis.

Do you know the impact of your credit score?

Everyone, but especially entrepreneurial millennials need to understand that their personal credit can be the defining factor in getting working capital in the future. Getting approved for a loan can be very challenging when your credit score is low. Learn how to read your credit report and check it frequently.

Reduce your debt faster

Pay off small debts first and gradually tackle the larger ones. This will allow you to see results and stay motivated.

Enlist the assistance of a trusted mentor

There is an overabundance of information online regarding financial literacy. However, picking the brain of someone you know and trust is better. Their insights are often tailor-made to your specific needs.

Remove extra costs

It is a proven fact that millennials have expensive habits ($5 lattes every day, eating out on a regular basis, designer fashions, etc.). Keep a close eye on your expenses and trim them where you can.

Raise your children to be financially savvy

At this point you may already have young children or planning to start a family. Teach them that saving money is essential. When they are old enough take them to your credit union and help them open up their own accounts. This will hopefully excite them to continue saving their own money.

If we pushed hard enough to actually reach, sustain and pull into a far higher level – we might actually find that our perception and vision for our lives changes significantly.

It’s almost as if we do not care that our lives and worlds as a whole completely and totally rely on good manners and just having a good heart – though our minds in general aren’t too bad whatsoever.

I am not talking about making reality and this world better through our products, goods and services – but it can certainly help to twist and shift our minds and personal close up lives into a very obviously different direction in general.

If we really truly want to change and that desire and deeply seated want to become the best of ourselves very soon and over time, then we merely need to focus and enhance our mental image of what we truly want out of this life – and for far too many people this simply gets lost in the hustle and bustle of what intense emotion and very narrow but raw buying decisions means for us all.

Few can say why they make the thought noises that they do, or even the buying actions that leave them breathless in very curiously different ways.

Nothing gets worst – nor even better, than to say that we have what we own in our lives, only because mass media influence got to us, and mistakes happened which led us to buy certain things.

That will lead us certainly into madness and sadness of a very different variety, and a lot of the world won’t like or enjoy where we are headed and why things feel the way that they do in general.

It is a general vision and perceptual change overall that we must sustain higher level of vision based goals in order to push and pull into ourselves deeper.

That might actually produce goals that are incredibly and intensely better and deeper than what we have ever fully and technically reached for – so we have to focus very curiously and ravenously deeper, but it’s not about depth at this point.

We have to accept that our money based decisions come from something far simpler and more subtler, but still psychological and default kind of regular – almost plain and bland, which is not a bad thing.