💬 Money habits I wish I'd started in my twenties

My first salary came when I was 24. By the 20th of every month I was checking my balance twice. Then I got a raise after 2 years and moved to a bigger flat. Better phone too. Somehow I still reached the 20th with nothing left. The raise just went into the flat. It took me almost 3 years to see that I'd been spending every extra rupee. What helped was boring. I started moving a fixed amount to a separate account on salary day. Not much, just enough that I'd feel it. The first 2 months I hated it. Then I stopped looking at that account at all. It's still there, still growing slowly. My friend Imran calls it my second salary. I kind of like that name. The other thing was an emergency fund. I didn't have one when my bike broke down badly. The repair bill was more than I had that week. I borrowed from a friend and felt awful. He never asked for it back quickly, but I counted every single day anyway until I paid. After that I built a small cushion slowly, a bit each month, and the worry mostly went away. I'm no expert, and I make mistakes with money even now. Last month I bought shoes I didn't need. I read a few basic books on investing in my late twenties. Nothing fancy, and I still ask questions. My father and one close friend are the people I talk to about money. They don't judge me. What are the habits that worked for you? Even small ones count.

The borrowed money part hit home. I once asked an uncle for 8,000 rupees for a laptop repair. He gave it right away, but I could feel him wondering why I hadn't saved anything. Since then I keep a small amount aside and I don't touch it for shopping. It's not a big number, but my shoulders drop when I see it in the account.

The raise going straight into the flat is my story too, just with a car EMI instead. For me the fix was setting the transfer to leave my account on salary day, before I can touch it. If I wait till month end to save whatever's left, there's never anything left. Did you ever try a bigger amount, or does the small one feel safer?