Money is always an exciting topic. Everybody is interested in money one way or another. However, have you ever thought that your money goes through stages as well?
Managing your money can be a challenging task, but it’s a vital part of achieving financial stability and success. Whether you’re just starting out or well into your career, understanding the different stages of a person’s money journey can help you make informed decisions and create a financial plan that works for you.
Afterall, money is an integral part of our lives, and managing it efficiently is crucial to lead a financially stable life.
Speaking of its stages, there are 6 stages of money in general:
- Making money
- Saving money
- Investing money
- Multiplying money
- Maintaining money
- Enjoying money
Having a bigger picture of money stages could help in your own planning. Let’s explore each of them!
1. Making Money
The first stage of money is making it. It is essential to have a reliable source of income to have a steady cash flow. This income can be generated from various sources, such as a job, a business, or investments.
At this stage, it’s important to focus on building a career or business that provides a steady income stream and opportunities for growth.
To maximize your earning potential, consider investing in education or training to develop new skills that will help you advance in your career or grow your business. Network with other professionals in your field and stay up to date with industry trends and developments.
Making money by building up your career would be the best way for starters.
2. Saving Money
Once you have a steady income stream, the next stage is saving money. Saving money is crucial for emergencies and future financial goals. It is essential to create a budget that tracks your expenses and helps you identify areas where you can cut down costs. Saving money requires discipline and consistency, but it pays off in the long run.
What is involved? Establishing a budget, living below your means, and setting aside money for emergencies and future expenses. Saving money can help you build a financial cushion and prepare for unexpected events such as job loss or illness.
Budgeting and tracking your expenses can really help in identifying areas where you can reduce costs. Consider setting up automatic savings plans to make saving easier and more consistent.
3. Investing Money
After you have built up some savings, the next stage is investing money for your money management. It is a way to grow your wealth by putting your money to work for you. There are various investment options available, such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and real estate. To read more on these, you can head to my other article on the different Asset Classes and Investment Vehicles.
Investing can help you grow your wealth and achieve your long-term financial goals. However, investing requires research and analysis to identify the best investment opportunities that suit your financial goals and risk tolerance.
Therefore, to make the most of your investment stage, it’s important to understand your risk tolerance and invest in a diversified portfolio. Consider working with a financial advisor to create an investment strategy that is tailored to your individual needs and goals. You can also read my article on Things to Do Before You Start Investing.
4. Multiplying Money
As you continue to invest and build your wealth, the next stage is multiplying money. It is the stage where you can take calculated risks to increase your wealth. It can involve leveraging your assets to generate more significant returns. One can use strategies such as leveraging, compounding, and diversification to multiply their money. However, this stage requires caution and proper risk management to avoid significant losses.
Other than leveraging (which I personally am not really comfortable about), you can also take calculated risks and seek out opportunities to increase your returns by investing in high-growth stocks or starting a side business. Still, these 2 involve risks.
To make the most of your multiplying stage, it’s important to continually educate yourself about investing and entrepreneurship. Seek out mentorship or join networking groups to learn from others who have successfully multiplied their wealth.
Again, this stage requires caution and risk management. The reason being it usually involves high risk. Therefore, be really careful on how you want to multiply your money.
5. Maintaining Money
Once you have accumulated and multiplied your wealth, the next stage is maintaining money.
Maintaining money is the stage where you focus on preserving your wealth, reducing/managing risks, and protecting your assets. This stage involves creating a comprehensive financial plan that accounts for your financial goals, risk tolerance, and tax implications. It is crucial to review your financial plan regularly and make necessary adjustments to ensure that you stay on track.
At this stage, it’s important to diversify your portfolio, review your insurance coverage, and consider setting up a trust or other estate planning tools.
To make the most of your maintenance stage, it’s important to regularly review your investment portfolio and adjust it as needed. For example, as you approach retirement, you may want to shift your investments to more conservative options, such as bonds or annuities. It’s also important to review your insurance coverage and make sure you have adequate protection for your assets.
6. Enjoying Money
The final stage of a person’s money journey is enjoying the money.
After years of hard work, saving, and investing, it is essential to reap the benefits of your financial success. It is crucial to strike a balance between enjoying your wealth and preserving it for future generations. This stage involves creating a plan to fulfill your dreams and desires, such as travel, philanthropy, or retirement.
At this stage, you’ll have accumulated enough wealth to enjoy your life without worrying much about finances. You can perhaps retire, travel, pursue your hobbies without having to worry about no income stream or not making enough, or just focusing on spending time with family and friends.
To make the most of your enjoying stage, it’s important to create a retirement plan that takes into account your income, expenses, how long it can last you as well as the financial engineering behind sustaining the money so that as you retire, you can still have enough money to last you.
Wrap Up
Managing money is a complex process that requires discipline, consistency, and proper planning. Each stage of money is essential to building and preserving wealth.
Knowing these stages can help in planning in a sense that one can become more aware about the different processes. As such, one can focus better on achieving financial stability, growth and fulfillment.
With that, thank you for reading. If you think this might be helpful to other people, feel free to share. Also, this article is by no means an advice to buy nor sell. It is also mainly from personal research and opinion. Always do your own research. If you have any comments, feel free to comment below so that we all can learn together.
Thank you for reading.
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