Financial moves to make by age 35

When you turn 30, you're likely becoming established in your career and thinking about your next big (financial) move: buying your first home, starting a family, or maybe uprooting to a different city for a new opportunity. Perhaps you've landed a job or gotten a promotion that enables you to focus more on savings and retirement.

But you might wonder what steps you should be taking to hit your benchmarks. Here are seven financial moves to make by age 35:

While you may have learned to manage different types of debt — credit card balances, student loans, car loans, medical bills — now is a good time to re-evaluate your debt payoff strategy. Making tweaks to your debt repayment plan could help you reach your larger financial goals quicker.

If you're saving for a down payment to buy a house, for example, you might want to consider transferring your credit card debt to a card with an introductory annual percentage rate (APR) of 0% for the first 12 months. By eliminating payments before the introductory period ends, you could save money on interest in the long term.

If you haven't been able to pay off or pay down student debt on your own, you can look into consolidating your federal student loans or refinancing federal loans or private student loans.

Federal student loan consolidation allows you to combine multiple federal student loans into a single new loan. This is a free federal student loan program that may simplify repayment but doesn't otherwise alter your monthly payment or interest rate.

When you refinance a student loan, you take out a new loan with a different interest rate. Your new lender pays off the existing student loan.

The benefits of refinancing include potentially reducing your monthly payment and saving on interest, as well as freeing up cash every month to put towards your living expenses or a big-ticket goal. However, if you refinance a federal student loan to a private student loan, you will no longer be eligible for federal loan forgiveness plans or payment programs.¹

Spending plans are living, breathing things that can and should evolve as your and your family's needs change.

To start, make sure you stick to budgeting basics, such as tracking all your expenses including fixed costs (housing, health insurance, transportation, etc.), fluctuating but regular items (food, household supplies, clothing, etc.), and occasional expenses (holiday and back-to-school shopping, entertainment, vacations, etc.). Think of your budget items as "needs" and "wants" or "essentials" and "non-essentials."

Ask yourself where can you scale back and what areas might need more funding. For instance, maybe you're eating in more, so you’re saving on your food bill. But if you're starting a family, you might want to anticipate including childcare to your ongoing list of expenses. You can further consider the value of a purchase, especially if it's a big-ticket item. What function does it serve now? Will it be useful later? How will it improve your and your family's life?

You can never have enough stowed away for the unexpected. The general rule is to save three to six months of basic living expenses. Once you reach that goal, you may want to continue building your emergency fund until you have one year's worth of expenses, or apply any extra funds towards other savings goals.

The amount you need for an emergency fund depends on your situation. If you work for yourself, you might want to have more in your emergency fund. If you have a salaried position and/or a partner who also contributes financially, you may need a smaller amount.

You'll want to explore insurance coverage that goes beyond healthcare and car insurance. If you're starting a family or planning to have children in the near future, you’ll want to consider life insurance and disability coverage or acquiring your own coverage beyond what might be available from your employer.

Your earning potential is a foundational piece to building your wealth. There's only so much you can save by clipping coupons and searching for online deals, but by increasing your earnings, you open up new possibilities.

When you bring in more income and keep your living expenses relatively the same, you may have the opportunity to save and invest more to reach your personal milestones. You can bolster your income by landing a promotion at work, receiving bonuses or commissions, or by taking on side hustles or starting a side business.

Wondering how much to save for retirement in your 30s? Most experts recommend saving as much as can you afford, as early as possible. But the amount also depends on how much you anticipate needing in retirement and when you plan to retire.

Even if you're still paying off debt, you need to save for retirement. Whether you're saving through an employer-sponsored retirement plan like a 401(k) or an individual retirement account (IRA), you can set up automatic contributions. Once you're meeting your goals for retirement savings, you might want to consider other types of investing if you have additional funds available.

While your financial needs in your 30s might not look like someone else's, you can use these benchmarks to determine if you're on track with your money goals and the steps you can take to get there.

Now that you’re in your 30s, your financial goals may have shifted — and may seem more difficult to attain. Refinancing your student loans with Citizens can help you take control of your finances and prepare for what’s next in life. Learn more about the Citizens Education Refinance Loan® to see if refinancing makes sense for you.