How to build a solid financial foundation?

I've been attending classes at school for over ten years, yet I haven't encountered that I was being taught how to save the right way the money that we will earn by the time we'll start our life outside school, the working stage.

Since I was a kid, my parents trained me to really spare some of my school allowance. I learned to budget as young as seven years old since I lived away from them and that they'll just have to give my allowance good for 15 days. I have to budget that so it will last for the next 15 days. That was my training ground of saving.

When I reached the college years, I learned even more how to value money since I have to work for it. I was in my third year when I started a part time job to help my parents in financing my studies. I worked in the morning and attended classes in the afternoon until nine in the evening. It was a little hard but I have to survive since I badly want to finish my degree. I learned how to budget not just the money I earned but also time. Indeed, I proudly graduated with a bachelor's degree in management accounting.

I got my very first full time job two months after my graduation. My salary wasn't so high but then I saved more than half of it every month. I lived with my family at that time, my parents were still working so I didn't have much expenses. Only I spent for my self. 

I love to travel together with my friends. Almost every month we went out for a trip within the same province or outside. So to speak, I don't have that much savings since I spend it for my trips. After almost 3 years of working, me and my boyfriend, who is now my husband decided to buy our own house for our future. We didn't have any plans of settling down yet at that time but maybe we just felt that it's a good investment for the future. The same year, a friend of mine introduced me the basic of managing my finances. I attended an hour seminar about investment. At first, I cannot appreciate it that much since the concepts introduced to me were very much different from what I used to know. So I invited my boyfriend to come with me and listened to the financial talk once again. He got interested. So we decided to attend more financial talks to learn more. We even attended some international conferences with the same circle of people to learn it. But of course, the things we learnt we tried applying them since it's very useless to learn without doing any action. I learned a lot for the many years I've been attending. In this short write-up, I will share how to build a solid financial foundation.

Below is an image, a guide how to effectively build a solid financial foundation. Try to apply this while you are still young with less responsibilities in life.

Just like a staircase, you have to start your step from the bottom before you reach the top.

1) Healthcare (Long term & short term care) - While you are working in a company, you have the company healthcare, that's the short term care. You have that benefit as long as you're connected with the company but then you'll lose that once you're no longer a part of the company. So while you are active and still able to work, build your long term care, this is a personal healthcare that you'll be paying for certain years but then most of the benefits, you'll enjoy them in your retirement years. Build it now while you're young.

2) Protection (Life Insurance) - Most people think, "Why will I get life insurance, I'm not dying?" Do you know until when you are going to live? The best time to get this is really in your younger yours, when you don't have much savings yet especially you're the breadwinner in the family. The more you need this. If you decide to have one, get the PURE LIFE INSURANCE, not the bundled one. It's a lot cheaper but same amount of benefit than the bundled insurances.

3) Eliminated Debts - If you happen to have debts, slowly eliminate them. You can cut down unimportant expenses to pay your debts. You may also find other sources of income to increase your cash flow to pay your debts immediately. There are so many opportunities out there that you can do out of your talent and your spare time.

4) Emergency Fund - If you have extra fund, build up your emergency fund in cases of unforeseen events. It is recommended that you have at least 3 months of your monthly salary in your emergency fund.

5) Investment - If you're somehow able to build up or almost complete building up your first 4 steps, then try to learn how to invest. At first, you are working to earn money but then later on try to learn how to let your money work for you.

I'm now 28, married, almost complete paying my healthcare plan with pure life insurance. We are still paying our house, with my husband but we do not forget to have our emergency funds just in case there will be some emergencies. I have 2 accounts of Mutual Investment and a joint account in Stock Market. I'm working online, home-based and an entrepreneur. Together with my husband, we hope to completely finish each steps a hundred percent in the future. I hope these information somehow help you to start building up a solid financial foundation.