Lesson 2: Building a strong financial base in your early life

Lesson 2.1: Budgeting Basics

How you can master your money early?

Before you plan how to spend your money, be clear on where you get the money from:

Is it from a job, internship or from your parents?
Do you get it every month, once a year or every 3–6 months?

Understanding this type of information helps you set the perfect budget plan that is tailored to your needs and wants — while ensuring that you invest and save a good amount.

💡 Tip: Try to track how much you spend weekly. It’s easier to notice patterns in your spending when you check regularly.

Now that you’re clear with this information, let’s make a budget plan for you:

The 50/30/20 Rule

This is the ideal way to manage money: 50% needs, 30% wants and 20% save.

However, that is what an adult can use because they have a stable income and get it at regular intervals. How can a student use this rule?

🧾 50% Invest – Investments get compounded and if you invest in the right things at an early age, you can make a lot of money. If you don’t have any major needs, put 50% of your money in a high-yield savings account to invest later. Want to invest now itself? Use CashClimb’s Investment Guide
💰 20% Save – Keep this portion aside for emergencies or future goals. Tip: Always keep them in your purse or in form of online money.
🧍♀️ 30% Needs – As a student living with your family, most of your needs like food, water, and shelter get covered by them. If you truly want to finance some of your own things like transport, stationery, or books, the remaining 30% can be used for that.

💡 Tip: If you have major needs like needing money for transport everyday then adjust the percentage according to the money needed. E.g., 50 or 60% needs and 30 to 20% invest/save.

Key Takeaway: Learning to balance your money early builds strong financial habits.
Start small — track your expenses, set saving goals, and invest wisely.
Even small, consistent steps today can grow into financial independence tomorrow.

Knowing how to manage your money is already a useful skill but now let’s explore: How you can start budgeting:

💡 Steps to start your budget plan:

Leave time to budget: Budgeting takes time so choose a free day where you can easily spend more than an hour. Don’t do it in a hurry
Write down money you get each month

Note: Don’t get money each month? Try totaling the amount of money you have and try to use it for the next few weeks using the same budget plan

💡 CashClimb's Tip: Find the math in budgeting boring? Use CashClimb's budget tracker which will allocate all your needs, wants and savings perfectly for you. Comes with a compounding simulator to calculate total money after investments, an in-built calculator and a graph to simplify budgeting for you.

Lesson 2.2: Money Mindset

It is the way you think about money. Do you see it as something that grows exponentially or something that comes and goes frequently?

There are two main types of mindsets around money:
· Fixed mindset
· Growth mindset

What you say	The type of mindset
I am bad at managing money	Fixed Mindset
I can learn how to manage money better	Growth Mindset

Your budget table

Screenshot this table or copy it down on paper and fill put the empty spaces every 3 months.

Month	Money each month	Needs (money needed)	Savings/Investments (money needs + where to invest/save)	Wants	Goals (achieved or not)
Month 1
Month 2
Month 3