One thing that I very much admired about my younger sister was that from the age of 12 she had a diary containing a written plan for everything she wanted to do with her life including the type of man she would eventually marry. We made fun of her for being so starry-eyed but she made us look like fools later in life. As a mother of two successful children, a teacher for many years, a successful realtor, and marriage that has lasted over 20 years I consider her to be a great success. She may not have gotten everything perfectly the way she wrote it down but the power was on her side to make wise decisions which directed her path to success.
The amount of money you create every day at your job currently or after you graduate may seem like a lot especially if you have been a student and have been moon-lighting flipping burgers.
Most people start out their working lives around $30K per year annual salary. Many may feel they have hit the lottery when those first paychecks start rolling in and that money burns tiny volcanic holes in their pockets.
They soon find that there are many new bills to pay and those nice people at the credit card companies are only nice when they are extending the credit that we so "deserve".
When it comes time to pay or especially if you fall behind in your payments and cannot get your bank account to balance (you did learn how to balance a bank account after 4 years of College right?) those "nice" people have suddenly been replaced with someone who refuses to take "no" for an answer and insists that you make some sort of payment today.
Suddenly all that moola you were rolling in does not seem like it goes very far and actually you feel like maybe you need to make even more to stay afloat.
The way out of all of this is to do the thing that most of our U.S. Federal, State and local Governments cannot seem to do: balance a budget i.e. Live within their means.
Without a budget and a PLAN to live within that budget then no matter how much money you make in a given year (especially after taxes are paid) you will NEVER be able to make enough money to get ahead. You see it all the time on Television: the multi-millionaire Professional sports athlete who had it all and then within a few years of going from making very little money to making millions they are in bankruptcy court.
It is the same principle of a purse or hard drive: no matter how large the capacity, without a little planning it can go from being "cavernous" to bulging at the seams with stuff.
Nature abhors a vacuum and the same holds true for personal finances. If their is a hole in your budget you can bet a bill will be there to fill it and then some.
A recent study showed that only about 20% of people had a plan for their lives (including finances) and of those only about 5% had a WRITTEN plan to guide their lives.
Don't be one of the 95 percenters, be in the 5th percentile like my sister was. Write down a plan for the next month, 6 months, year, 5-years and even further if you are so bold.
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