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Finance for Beginners: The First 5 Steps to Start Right

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Just starting to manage your money? Learn the 5 essential first steps to organize your personal finances and build a healthy financial life from the beginning.

5 Essential First Steps to Organize Your Personal Finances

📌 Introduction

If you’re taking your first steps into the world of personal finance, know this: managing your money well is one of the pillars for a calmer, safer, and less stressful life.

Unfortunately, most Brazilians have never learned how to handle money the right way — neither at school nor at home. The result? Debt, lack of control, and little financial freedom.

But the good news is: you can change this starting today.

In this Dicas de Bolso guide, you’ll learn the 5 fundamental steps to start your personal finance journey, with practical and simple tips you can apply every day.

🪜 1. Understand Your Financial Reality

The first step is to become aware of how much you earn and how much you spend.

How to do it:

  • Write down all your income sources (salary, side jobs, commissions, etc.)

  • List all your monthly expenses, fixed and variable

  • Use a spreadsheet, notebook, or app to track everything

📌 Tip: Tools like Mobills, Minhas Economias, or even a simple Google Sheets spreadsheet work very well.

💳 2. Separate Fixed and Variable Expenses

Knowing what’s essential spending and what’s discretionary helps you make more conscious choices.

Fixed expenses:

  • Rent

  • Bills (water, electricity, phone)

  • Subscriptions

  • Transportation

Variable expenses:

  • Food delivery

  • Leisure

  • Impulse purchases

  • Extra subscriptions

📌 Goal: Reduce variable expenses to free up your budget and start saving.

💰 3. Create a Monthly Budget (And Stick to It!)

Your budget is the flight plan for your money. It shows where it should go instead of just “disappearing.”

A good rule for beginners: 50-30-20

  • 50% for necessities (housing, food, transport)

  • 30% for wants (leisure, entertainment)

  • 20% for financial goals (savings, paying off debt, investing)

📌 Important: Adapt the percentages to your reality, but never skip saving for your future.

🧼 4. Get Out of Debt (If You Have Any)

Before thinking about investing, you need to clear the ground. High-interest debts (like credit cards and overdrafts) are enemies of financial growth.

Practical strategies:

  • Renegotiate with creditors

  • Join campaigns like Serasa Limpa Nome

  • Use extra income to pay off debt

  • Pay off the most expensive debts first (avalanche method) or the smallest ones first (snowball method)

📌 Avoid taking on new debt while reorganizing.

🏦 5. Start Your Emergency Fund

An emergency fund is your shield against the unexpected: job loss, health problems, car repairs, etc.

Basic rules:

  • Goal: save 3 to 6 months of basic expenses

  • Where to keep it: in safe, liquid investments like Tesouro Selic or a remunerated savings account

  • Start small: R$50 or R$100 per month is a great beginning

📌 Important: The emergency fund is not for trips or purchases — only real emergencies.

🎯 BONUS: Focus on Continuous Learning

Financial education is like a muscle: the more you practice, the stronger it gets.

Start with:

  • Books like “Me Poupe!”, “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, and “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”

  • YouTube channels (Nath Finanças, Primo Rico, Me Poupe)

  • Podcasts and blogs like Dicas de Bolso

✅ Conclusion

Starting well with your finances is simpler than it seems. With a bit of organization, discipline, and patience, you can:

  • Get out of the red

  • Save money

  • Invest safely

  • And achieve greater financial freedom

Remember: your financial journey is personal but doesn’t have to be lonely. Keep following Dicas de Bolso to learn more, step by step.