You love to live in the moment. Taking Greece down is your latest vacation goal; that too after an upgrade to a swanky set of wheels. Your friends dig your posts on Instagram for all the new places you check into. Last but not the least, you swear by your cross-fit session with a personal trainer. You sure don’t want a single regret in this life.

You must be loving such an enviable lifestyle. It’s safe to assume that you may be on top of your financial situation. Or maybe NOT. If you like to live on fleek, chances are you haven’t taken stock of your money. And that could be a huge mistake.

There are many oversights and misconceptions one carries when it comes to money habits. For absolute starters, here are the 5 habits that you need to break now.

Saving after spending

• You normally go about your business every month. Towards month end, whatever is left in the bank is taken as savings. Sometimes, there could be no savings also and you settle with that. That’s calling for serious trouble. As a rule of thumb, 20 – 30% of income savings should be kept aside first and then regular spends should follow. That is the only way to manage a sizeable sum and get into a discipline of savings. Repeat to yourself: Money saved is money earned.

Blindly Saving not Investing

• If you manage good savings every month but just sit on it, you are not helping your case. Inflation is out to eat your money that’s lying idle. Not literally, but yes inflation makes things expensive. So, you need more money to buy the same things. The savings, therefore, need to be channelled towards investments that can beat inflation. If for some reason you find investing a drain, consider a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) which automates your investments. Are you a 20-something who doesn't know what a Mutual Fund is? It's time to find out.

My salary structure takes care of everything

• Did you just say that? Your employment may be offering Provident Fund, Insurance, Hospitalization benefits and auto loan, but that is not enough. With time, you will need large corpuses for purchasing home, child’s higher education, retirement and so on. Fixed expenses will continue to grow in share. There could be contingencies as well. You have to make sure none of this comes as a rude shock for you. It would be smart to take stock of current and future needs and provide for them adequately than merely relying on salary.

I don’t need to plan finance

• You are confident of growing your career and reaching great heights. With power and position, you will also taste money. Perhaps a very decent amount of money. In that case, you are in a greater need of planning. Things could go astray when they are in plenty. Taking help of a financial planner will help manage and grow wealth. With well managed money, you can enjoy true financial freedom and not having to bother before unplanned expenses.

Retirement is far

• It is a common mistake to ignore retirement planning. First few years may not be so bad for new retirees, but as inflation rises, basic things also sometimes go out of reach. Try to imagine, if your monthly expense is Rs. 1.5 lacs today, it would be Rs. 3.98 lacs some 20 years hence at an inflation rate of 5%. Are you sure you are saving enough for that kind of retirement income?

Feel like you’ve just smelt the proverbial coffee beans? You aren’t as bad to start NOW.

Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks, read all scheme related documents carefully.