Cars are a rapidly depreciating asset, meaning they quickly decline in price soon after you buy them and steadily decline in value over time. Thus they (like other items in their same category including clothes, furniture, jewelry and electronics) should go through extra scrutiny to determine if you really want and/or need them!

Plastic is the easiest way to deal with gaps in paychecks when buying major items, but they are also the easiest way to destroy your financial picture early. Continually holding credit card debt across several months allows interest to build on these balances anywhere from 12% to more than 20%.

It seems odd, and somewhat frightening, to be thinking about incapacity, death and estate planning when you are young and don’t have much of a net worth, but it’s important for everyone to understand a few concepts and take several basic steps to make it easier on your family and loved ones.

You must manage your borrowings to your benefit alongside smart saving and investment decisions in order to achieve the most out of your financial situation.

Not having the appropriate insurance coverage in place to protect you from the unexpected can wreck any well thought out financial plan. If you lose your ability to earn and save and are under or uninsured from a loss of life or disability, then all of the reading you have done thus far will be of little to no help to you.

Though annoying to have an overhang, don’t rush to pay off your student loans since your interest rates on these loans likely ranges from 4 to 7%. This rate is well below returns you can expect by fully funding your 401(k) to get an employer match and long-term equity return averages of about 10%.

In summary, taxes stink. So it is good to know how they work and how you can avoid them in cases where you are able to do so. Due to the complexities of the IRS tax code this section could be a website by itself, so what follow is a brief focus on how the tax code applies to young professional readers.