SoFi Blog

Being an adult is a state of mind. It doesn’t matter whether you know how to roast a chicken or how many towels to buy, as long as you know where to go to find the answers. (Hint: the internet is always a great place to start.)

Ready to join the ranks of competent, bill-paying adults but not sure how to do it? Part of adulting is learning as you go along, so congrats on taking the first steps in taking care of your own business. One place to start—your career. What’s more adult than holding down a job and positively thriving while doing it?

According to a Deloitte study, the average American with a full-time job spent just over nine hours a day at work or on work-related activities. When you consider a person’s career, that’s a lot of time spent at the office, so you might as well enjoy it.

In addition to spending the bulk of your waking hours at work, it’s also likely your main source of money and can have all kinds of other implications for your lifestyle now and in the future. So, taking the time to find a rewarding career can pay off in the long run.

Master’s degrees are more popular—and maybe more necessary—than ever. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the number of people with a master’s has doubled since 2000 and, on average, a person with an advanced degree earned 3.7 times as much as a high school dropout.

Of course, whether you get a good return on your education and if it results in higher earnings depends on a lot of things: the type of program, the field of study, job prospects. Graduate school is a big time commitment and can be costly, so you want to weigh all the pros and cons. That’s also partially why online graduate degrees have become more popular.

If you’re wondering, ‘Can I get a master’s degree online?’ The answer is: yes, you can. Over 50% of master’s students got their degree either entirely online, also known as distance learning, or partially online.

Online classes can be an effective way to advance your education on your own schedule—and maybe save yourself some money. Graduate-level classes are no different.

It seems like only yesterday we were welcoming a new year. For many investors, the first half of 2019 has been a welcome sight after a bumpy 2018. And d/espite some pundits trying to discount the rally or arguing the next recession is near, markets are reaching all-time highs. June was a busy month, so sit back and catch up on some highlights.

My partner and I had been in the house not more than five minutes before I turned to our real estate agent and said this—practically yelled it.

The house was a tall, two-story affair that was almost 100-years old. I’d seen the French doors and old growth timber floors online, but they looked better in person. So, I turned to our agent and made my proclamation.

I thought she’d turn to me and yell “Sold!”, we’d high five and be able to move in the next day. But, as I’d learn over the next few weeks, buying your first house is never as easy as saying “we’ll take it.”

There’s a lot of home buying advice out there, and everyone who’s been through the process learns something different. Here are the 10 things I learned when buying my first home.

Our 20s can be such a wonderful time to learn about ourselves, bond with friends, and earn our first “real” paychecks. That said, our 20s do not come and go without their fair set of challenges. If you’re like most 20-somethings, you have plenty of mistakes under your belt—financial and otherwise.

And though it may not always seem so, that’s a good thing. Luckily, mistakes and missteps are often followed by learning and expansion.

Early in adulthood, trial and error is usually the name of the game when putting together a financial education. And while that’s great as an introduction to learning about money, there comes a time when everyone must be proactive with their money. Your mid to late 20s might be a great time for this.

While it is possible to create some guidelines on what to achieve by 30, keep in mind that everyone’s goals are going to be a little bit different because everyone’s personal financial situation is different.

For example, someone who has student loans will likely have financial goals that are different from someone who doesn’t. Therefore, you could pull from this list what makes sense for you, and amend as needed. (And none of this should be considered financial advice.)

Here are eight financial goals you might reach for before you turn 30.