Launching your potential financial independence, shouldn’t start a few years before you “retire” around age 60-65. If you want to maximize the opportunity lead a fulfilling adulthood, which may last from 20-100!, the time to start is once you’re earning money.

Increasingly, financial experts and advisors are encouraging adults of all ages to develop financial literacy so they can address core financial issues once the job market and then learn more as they get older. Many start with the basics:

• How to maximize earnings
• How to budget daily expenses
• How to save the difference for emergencies and items that may life special, (e.g., children, travel, vacations, houses, houses, retirement, etc.)
• How to maximize savings growth through smart, cost-effective investing
• When you retire from earning an income, how to manage spending savings so you never outlive your nest-egg.

Andrew Hallam, recognized that most of us don’t learn this material in school. Coming from a middle-class background, he worked – eventually becoming a highs school teacher, controlled expenses, saved and invested, and became a debt-free millionaire in his late 30s. In Millionaire Teacher, he shares his experience and insights to help others. He identifies nine rules of wealth that include:

• Spend like you want to grow rich ( He shares stories of billionaires, including Warren Buffet, who live a decent, yet affordable life, so they have savings and can grow them to be rich and afford  expensive things they want as they get older.)
• Start investing early – by paying off credit cards debt and other high income loans as soon as possible
• Use the power of Compound Interest to grow savings even faster
• Invest “smartly” by understanding basic principles of actual returns and brokerage fees given the many options available, including stocks, bonds, ETFs, index funds, and actively managed funds.
• The role of human emotion in making buying and selling decisions.

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article called The 6 Concepts You Should Know to Be Financially Literate which focuses on similar issues including:

• Compound Interest
• “Good debt”
• Diversification of a portfolio
• Liquidity

Since they’re just starting out, emerging adults often manage their own finances – which make basic financial literacy so important. As they get accumulate some wealth, young and middle age adults often turn to advisors to help manage their money. Some of the best advisors, go back to basics in order to help their clients take better charge of their financial budgeting and rethink investment opportunities. They also invite them to engage their children in learning what they’re doing since, as Andrew notes, they are unlikely to learn it in school. For instance, several financial advisors have adopted a new tool (www.livingflo.com) to help promote financial literacy through effective planning of budgeting, saving and investing.

In sum, there are lots of resources available to help you develop the financial literacy needed to become financially independent, especially as you enter the middle, later and senior stages of adulthood. Since it is one of the six life essentials for a fulfilling life the earlier you start, the better. Make good financial decisions and let the power of compounding do its magic for you.