- Read a finance book and educate yourself: I did not take a finance or a business class. But, you can still learn about the bare bones of what you need to know with a good basic finance book. I really like Tony Robins book Money. I got the audiobook version and listened to it while driving. It's a great starting point and tells you what you need to know about how to get started for average non-finance people.
- Open and contribute to a Roth IRA starting now. After reading my first finance book in fourth year medical school, I opened a Vanguard Roth IRA account in medical school and continue using it today. It's simple to use and I'd recommend it. Search Vanguard Fund List on Google and you can see all the index, EFT and mutual funds. For starters, pick an index fund and invest in it, like S&P500. You can keep track of funds directly on google and search "My Stocks" to keep track of the index, ETFs and mutual funds.
- Take the minimum student loans; you'll be thankful when you're done. Medical student cost 2-3x what it cost when I went to medical school and it seems like the loan burden and interest rates only continue to rise. Taking out as little loan as you need will minimize your burden 10 years later when you're finished with training.
- Do your own taxes. I use TurboTax so I became familiar with deductible versus non-deductible expenses.
- Decide when you want to be financially free: One of the things Tony Robin teaches you in his book is to learn how to calculate how much you need to save to retire; it sounds like a long time from now, but it helps to start thinking/planning your financial future.
Resources:
Compound interest calculator (I love this feature because it motivates me to save for the future.)Tony Robin's Money book
White Coat Investor
Google My stocks
Mint.com: free resources to help to track your spending, savings, investments, etc.
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