Thirdly is figure out what your goals are, right? If you don't know where you're going, how you're going to get there, right? It's hard to know where your money should be going if you don't know where you want it to go, right? If you're just kind of living and you have no idea, you're not going to get there, right? You need to have some goals, basically a road map of where you're headed, So do some soul searching if you need to. Answer some questions for yourself. You know, these questions will help to clarify what your financial goals should be. Be, my financial goals or investment goals are different from yours, but you got to figure out what yours are first.
So here's just some quick examples, okay? Hopefully this will help. You know, what kind of life do you want to live? You ever thought down, sat down and thought about that yourself or with your spouse, your significant other? Where do you want to live? We're looking to make a move now; we're deciding to move to another state. You know, what financial issues are causing you the most stress? You might really want to think about that. I kind of buried my head in the sand quite a bit when I knew we were going in debt we should have been, and I felt powerless to stop it, but I kind of really ignored what issues are causing stress. I should would have had a lot easier life if I did that earlier. But guys, just know what issues are costing you stress.
And then, you know, do you want to own a home? I just got to figure out how much you want to spend. We have a budget for the home that we want to move into in another state. Okay, we could afford more, but we wanted to scale back. So you got to figure those things out. And then maybe, what are the top five things on your bucket list? Stuff that you would love to do that you dream about doing. That's important to have that, okay?
Fourthly is create a budget. Okay, we've got a budget. I'm not, I admit I'm not a big budgeting guy, I'm not a big numbers guy, but you gotta. Now you know where your money is and where you want to go, it's time to kind of basically create a framework to make that happen, right? You got to know, you know, how much comes in every month, right? As well as how much goes out. You know, what's your income, what's your expenses on a monthly basis? And it will specify and I'll say, based on your needs and priorities, how much you should be spending on what, right?
And budgeting can help establish needs versus want. That's huge guys. We are bombarded by advertising on all levels that really tries to, I think, confuse those and flip those around to make, you know, wants needs versus they're not. Do you really need that extra card? You need the jet ski? Do you need the you know timeshare condo? Those same things. You got to figure that out. But basically, it also helps keep your bills and receipts organized; you should do that for number two above, being organized, really important, okay? So that's all I'm going to say about that, but just if you don't have a budget, have a basic one, know something what's going on with your money, where it's going.
And that fifth is you want to make sure you're saving for retirement. Now I am guilty of not doing this. I'm not being able to, I thought, I think I made a lot of excuses, but I got a really late start on that, right? And it kind of, when you're young, you know, retirement can seem so far away, I get it, you know, it's not worth preferring preparing for, right? Your mind is kind of occupied with the present, the here and now. Now that'll happen someday guys, you need to start now, you know? But honestly, the earlier you start saving for retirement, the better off you'll be. I can't stress that enough.
Both my girls are saving money; my oldest is doing way better than we were at her age. She's in a good position; we've kind of helped guide her and coach her a bit, and I'm proud of her for doing that. But start saving now guys. Don't wait for some day or I'll get to it someday, right? Compound interest has been called, you know, I guess the eighth wonder of the world, something like that, but it can be your friend right if you allowed enough time to work.
So for instance, if your company offers a 401k, especially if they offer a matching amount, take advantage of it. Again, 401k, I don't think, there's no guarantees with them, I'll say that, but if they do offer it, that's somewhere to start, you know? That's at least up to the match amount offer, right? If you don't work with somewhere with retirement plan, maybe open an IRA and start contributing now,
The key thing is it doesn't have to be a lot of money, but you need to start somewhere, right? Maybe start at five percent of your monthly net income, then maybe 10. We were giving 10 percent the last 12 years of my employment; we needed to do that. But do it as you can fit it into your budget, number four, right? So know what you've got and where you can put it.