Personal finance is more behavioral and less to do with finance. All it takes to understand personal finance is seventh grade mathematics and a little bit of common sense. Below are the 10 most important things or best practices in our opinion about personal finance

1: Basic Education Skills

Basic education helps to improve the learning skills of young learners on key subjects that would be of great importance to them in the future. There are lots of people who have succeeded financially without great education, so it is entirely possible for people to succeed without an education – but it will be more difficult. The higher the level of education that you receive, the higher the amount of money you are likely to earn.

The difference that basic education can make to human life is easy to see. Education is inherently linked to financial success for most people.

2: Budgeting

Budgeting is one of the most important skills anyone can learn, yet you’ll barely hear a peep about it while you’re in school. Unfortunately, not learning about budgeting can leave you at a disadvantage once you move out on your own.

At the very least, that may include knowing how to plan for – and pay – bills like rent, utilities, insurance, and car payments, while making sure there is money left for groceries, savings, etc.

You could also try “tactical budgeting” – sit down to create a financial plan any time a major life event is coming your way. This type of budgeting doesn’t require you to watch every penny, but it can help you achieve your goals and spend less over time.

3: Spend less than your cash flow

Easy enough concept and it is the number one rule.

4: Minimize expenses

There are dozens of ways to save money each month. It can take a little effort figuring out how to reduce expenses on things like transportation, insurance premiums, phone, and cable bills, but the result usually is less strife in your life and that’s a good thing for anyone.

5: Never get into debt

There’s something about the debt that tempts you to keep spending even when you can't afford the payments. Part of the allure of debt is the fact that you can get the emotional high from getting new things now, without having to deal with the pain of parting with the money now. It can feel like you’re getting something for nothing. But eventually, that spending will catch up with you, and it won't feel so good then.

All it needs is some financial discipline and lots of focus and determination. The only benefit of debt is that you need to scale down your expenses and you need to live on less than what you make to pay off your loans. Once you are out of debt and if you continue to live as before then the savings that you make can go a long way to heal your wounds.

6: Set up your emergency fund

Once you are out of debt, you need to create an emergency fund equivalent to about 3–6 months of your expenses. Keep this money deposited in a checking/money market account where you will not lose the money. It won’t appreciate in value but will also not depreciate. You should not touch this emergency fund as long as you have a steady income and no unaccounted expenses.

7: Be Disciplined and Consistent

Learning discipline with money is not always easy, but it’s necessary if you want to get ahead financially. Many people do not worry about their finances and they stacked into financial problems at the end.

Are you struggling to stay disciplined when it comes to saving? There are new Digital Financial Planning Applications that can help. It can help you build a plan that helps you stay on track – and monitor your ongoing progress.

8: Invest your savings

With interest rates being near zero if you do not invest your savings then you will never be able to optimize your savings. In fact with an average inflation rate of 3.2% over the past 30 years, without any investments, your savings will lose value over time.

9: The Power of Compound Interest

While young people may not reach their income potential for years, they have one major advantage over the rest of us when it comes to investing – time. With time on their side, they can take advantage of the full potential of opening and adding to a savings account to tap into the power of compound interest.

By putting even small sums of money in a high-interest savings account while they’re young, high school students, graduates and college students can start building wealth that will compound over and over again.

10: Always expand your knowledge on making financial choices and understand yourself.

You have never learned everything you need to know. I don't care what school you went to. Keep reading, keep learning.

The financial world is designed to confuse you. That’s why it is so easy to get into debt but so hard to get out of it.