Single? Simple investment tips to make YOUR life easy!

Follow these and you will find yourself in a comfortable financial situation.

Being single throw up new financial challenges. Managing money single handedly can be a tedious task. If you are a bachelor (bachelorette), it can very well happen that you can indulge in mindless spending thus ruining yourself of crucial early years of investment which can prove significant in context to your long term goals later on.

So it is always recommended to start investing early irrespective of how small that amount is. Such an activity will not only induce good discipline to set aside a specific amount every month for your investments but will also make sure you start investing early for your long term goals.

Courtesy: Investment-mantra.in

Define a monthly budget

Budgeting is essential for anyone regardless of being single or married. In fact even more significant when one is single. Make sure you keep an account of your expenses and not indulge in un-necessary expenditure which you otherwise can avoid. For instance, singles spend a lot of money eating in restaurants. Improve your budget by cooking and eating at home.

Keep your accounting simple and straightforward and make sure you keep a good percentage of your inflow for investments. This stage is best time to save maximum as responsibilities are minimum. So make maximum of it.

Start saving for retirement

Planning for retirement in early 20s sounds weird but you can really spend a sound financially independent retirement life if you start early. So make sure you start diverting a definite amount of money towards your retirement corpus. Earlier you starting doing it, better it is.

Creating an emergency fund

Creating an emergency fund is of utmost significance irrespective of you being single or married. One of the drawbacks of being single is that if financial crises happen, you need to handle it all alone. So make sure you have an emergency fund setup equal to 4 to 6 months of your expenses. If you do not have an emergency fund, make sure you start creating it now.

Emergency fund also hold great significance as these days with fear of recession always looming large, one should always be prepared for such crises situation.

Stay away from credit card debt

Make sure you make judicious use of your credit card and don't swipe it more than what you can afford. Most youngsters often get carried away by plastic money and indulge in unnecessary spending. This generally leads to youngsters piling up high interest credit card debt against their name. So be mindful while swiping your credit card.

Stay away from impulsive buying. Use your card wisely. If you already have existing debt, then your best course of action is to come up with a plan to pay this off fully in the soonest possible time.

Invest wisely

Youngsters are often targets for some financial managers seeking to sell their policies which may not necessarily suit their profile. Make sure you evaluate every investment product you come across and evaluate whether you need to invest in it or not. There's loads of information available on the Internet. Make sure you make full use of it.

Since singles do not have too many responsibilities, they have more surplus money at the end of the day. While this may not be true for some, in general, singles do have more freedom to invest if they choose to do so. Make sure you invest certain percentage of your income in long term equity related schemes such as mutual funds through systematic investment plan (SIP). This way, you can secure your future and make your money work for you. The money that you will be able to save from giving up a few unnecessary things or activities can be put to use more wisely -- invest it.

Pay your bills on time

Since good credit history holds so much significance these days, make sure you maintain a good credit record by paying all your bills on time. Develop habit to pay bill as soon as you can afford to without waiting for the last date to arrive. In addition, make sure you examine your bills as you may be able to identify certain expenses that you can do away with.

Buy yourself a health insurance

Untimely medical expenses can really drain out all your investments in no time. Make sure you buy an adequate cover for yourself so as to be prepared for any such unforeseen situation.

Summary

A single person may be faced with fewer expenses but at the same time, certain purchases can be more overwhelming. The fact that there is only one person making a living -- that's you -- can also be a disadvantage at times. Make sure you spend and invest your money wisely and bear fruits of starting investing early later during your lifetime.