+2
In what sense are you just starting out?
What is your approximate age and situation (student, working full time, living with parents, etc)?
YouTube is full of financial channels. I would say some basics to consider are:
--Take a look at your spending. Many people advocate for the 50/30/20 split, meaning you use 50% of your monthly income on needs (rent, electric bill, groceries), 30% on wants (eating out, movie tickets, vacation), and 20% goes into savings/investment.
--Make sure you have an "emergency fund". People vary on the exact amount, but do you have enough money to survive for 2 months if your income stopped? And that fund needs to be accessible and stable. You shouldn't consider Bitcoin an emergency fund OR money that's in a CD or something where you can't get to it for 6 months.
--Take a look at what your retirement situation is. The younger you are, the more you benefit from compound interest on what you save. This is money that you DO NOT TOUCH.
If you're really just getting going, a good start can be to simply track your spending for a month. You might be surprised at what you think you're spending versus what you are actually spending. For example, I thought I was giving about $200 per month in charitable donations, but the total is actually more like $350. You might think you're spending $300 a month on groceries, but when you add it up you're actually closer to $400 when you count all food purchases. Some small changes (like canceling a streaming service you aren't using or getting fast food one less time per week) can give your overall budget a boost.
I use a budgeting app called YNAB (you need a budget), but there are other ones like Mint.
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