10 Goals For Your 30s
When you’ve reached your 30s, you’ve usually figured a few things out by now. You’re getting into the swing of planning some kind of future for your life.
In order to create the future you want, you need to be achieving financial and personal goals. From one person in their 30s to another, here are some top goals to set for a great future in your 40s.
1. Pay off your loans and credit cards
It’s not uncommon for many people in today’s generation to have student loans and credit card debt to pay off. Paying that debt off will go a long way to building your credit score and opening you up to better home loan and auto loan opportunities. Here are some resources that you’ll find helpful to achieving this goal
2. Create an Emergency Fund
Unexpected expenses can come up anytime. Something might need to be repaired, or you might need to take care of a medical issue. Worst-case scenario, you could find yourself unemployed, and without an emergency fund, you’ll be back at your parent’s house.
Money Under 30 notes the ideal amount to save is about three to six months of basic living expenses. You can check out this Securian article on 5 Steps to Build an Emergency Fund.
3. Build a great credit score
As mentioned earlier, building up your credit score can open you up to better loan options. There are five things that factor into a credit score, according to Experian:
- Payment history
- Amounts owed
- Credit history length
- Credit mix
- New credit
Consistently paying off your credit card debt every month is one of the best ways to build your credit. You can read these tips from Investopedia on how to improve your credit score to help.
4. Grow your retirement savings
Most of us begin to realize in our 30s that lives move pretty fast. It probably feels like just yesterday you were finishing up college.
But with knowing how fast life is moving, its important to start building up your retirement savings. A Merrill article mentions that retirement experts recommend saving up at least 12 times your pre-retirement salary.
The idea of IRAs and 401ks can probably seem pretty confusing. For a more detailed explanation of these things, you can read this article on tips to help you boost your retirement savings.
5. Create multiple streams of income
With how unstable the world can be, it may no longer be an option to just have one source of income. We’ve seen major world events can completely take away people’s livelihoods.
So beyond having a good-paying job, it’s a smart idea to look into side hustles. You could pursue freelance writing, offer tutoring services, or some other useful knowledge or skill that you could provide.
Knowing you can make a couple extra hundred dollars a week if you need to can provide a little peace of mind. If you’re struggling to think of any ideas of what you can do, you can read this article on the best side hustles you can start earning with now.
6. Take the best care of yourself
A lot of us feel indestructible throughout our 20s. But by your 30s, you might begin to feel some of the wear and tear of your younger days.
Not to sound too negative, but our bodies are pretty much slowly declining moving forward. Still, it won’t be so bad if you take good care of yourself.
Make it an objective to start eating better, being physically active, and getting regular sleep. Mental Health America has a great list of things to do to take good care of yourself.
7. Have regular check ups
Along the same lines as the previous goal, make sure you continue to get regular medical and dental checkups. It’s also not a bad idea to look into counseling services to make you’re taking care of your mental wellbeing.
8. Set up a long-term plan
By your 30s, if you haven’t already figured out your long-term plans, now would be a good time to figure things out. Some questions that would be worth pondering include:
- Do you have a career aspiration you want to achieve?
- Is there somewhere you want to make your permanent homebase?
- Are you hoping to start a family in the next few years?
It’s your responsibility to chart the path you want the rest of your life to take. If you’re unhappy with how things have been going, you have the power to start making changes. Decide to do things now that the future you five or ten years from now will be glad that you did.
9. Do things you enjoy
Some of you in your 30s may already have busy careers and families to take care of. Still, you shouldn’t get so lost in the daily hustle you forget to enjoy this time in your life. You’re still young enough to enjoy a lot of physical activities that you might not be able to as you get older.
Some of you reading this may be single, which means you’re pretty free to do what you want. You can do all the traveling and activities you like before family life starts tying you down.
It’s important to find time for fun every now and then. One of the top five regrets of the dying was people wish they hadn’t worked so hard. Make this decade of your life a time you can look back and appreciate the experiences you had.
10. Go back to school if you want
If you’re unhappy with the career path you chose, it’s not too late to go back to school. Getting more education can also be a good way to enhance your value as an employee.
Even if you have a job, you can do night school or you could try out online school. Chippewa Valley Technical College has a good article on tips for adults returning to college.