Millennials are starting to reach that turning point in their lives where their childhood is behind them and their adult life looms in the future. At 21, I know I’m at that point, and the future both excites and intimidates me. What can happen in the next six or so years? A career, a house, a wife, kids? Maybe not all of that in the next six years, but it all awaits me in the near future, and to this day, I’m making steps (or planning to) in order to assist my future self in all of his endeavors.

1. Saving Money in the Short Term

A simple concept, yes, but much more difficult in practice when my future is bound to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. They say every penny counts, and, I guarantee you, it will. That’s why we all need to save every dollar, every cent, where we can. I am a counselor at a summer camp, and an ice cream truck comes twice a week. Do I want a delicious treat? Yes. Do I want to spend $2.50-5 for said delicious treat? Hell no. That is ridiculous, and that would be $5-10 a week for two popsicles. At my second summer job (two jobs, another good way of saving money), I work at Target where they have a Pizza Hut Express. I’d love to buy a pizza for $3.99 for dinner each day, but I spend $.85 (with my discounts) on Chef Boyardee just to get me through the workday spending under a dollar. Every dollar and cent will add up in my savings.

2. Saving Money in the Long Run

Another way I plan to save money once I get out of college is by taking a percentage out of each pay check and putting that in a separate account. This is a trick I learned from my father. Once my sister was born, he took a percentage out of his paychecks to put into an account to save up for her college fund. Once I was on the way, he increased that percentage. Whether it’s 1% or 20%, any amount you can sacrifice to put away in an account like that will help you save up for more important and expensive parts of your life. As this will also limit your day to day spending money and your money towards bills, it can also help teach you how to manage your money more efficiently.

3. Get More Knowledgeable About Politics and the Market

Let’s be honest here. Barely any millennial wants to be political or entwined in the daily affairs of the business world, but it would give us all a kick-start to at least pick up a thing or two now and then. Politics play a role in our day to day lives whether we like it or not and can determine a lot ofimportant aspects of life in certain communities.When it gets to that point in time where you need to seek out your permanent home, you’re going to want to know about the place you’re going to be living in and how things work there; on top of that, you’ll want to know things like the sales tax of the area, gas prices, availability of certain items, etc. I’m not too knowledgeable in all these areas, but I plan to take a closer look in the coming years.

4. Get a Credit Card

Yes, a scary thought, but it plays a role in a very crucial part of building your future: acquiring credit. We all have a credit score, and that plays a big part in most of your future important purchases. When it comes to credit score, we all want it to be higher rather than lower as a lower credit score will not look good when buying a house, requesting a loan, etc. I’m no expert on credit scores, however, I do know a few facts about it. When you get a credit card, you get a credit limit. This is the amount you can charge to that credit card. Your credit limit will increase as you show that you can consistently pay your bill on time. This is a good thing because your credit score can go up in a way because of this. Not only does paying off your credit card bill help increase your credit, but the less you charge to your card compared to your credit limit plays a factor in your credit score increasing. I don’t know how much sway it has, but if you have a credit limit of $1000 and you charge $100 and pay it off, this will definitely look good and help increase your credit. There are several other factors that affect your credit, but this is one that all of us millennials can handle and start doing in order to help build our credits.

5. Learn How to do Your Taxes

Death and taxes are all that’s guaranteed in life, so it might be a good idea to learn how to do them; I know I sure don’t know a thing about them yet. However, I do know how they can save you a lot of money. My father does my income taxes still, and because I don’t make enough money, I earn all of income tax back. I know there are income, mortgage, student loans, and many other kinds of taxes, and most of it we’ll probably have to hire a professional to do for us, but the more we can do ourselves, the more knowledgeable we get in that area, and the more money we can save for ourselves.

6. Job Hunt

You may be in your late teens or early twenties, so whether you’re still figuring out what to major in or searching for a long-term career, you need to job hunt. Even if you don’t have a definite on what you want to do, you must have some interests. Learn what types of jobs are out there for those interests and what is required of them. Learn about companies that deal with those types of skills and start following them to learn about what they do and how they work. This will give you a head start in finding a career and may help you decide what job fits you best.

I’m no expert by any means in preparing for adult life. I know I will make mistakes and plans will be changed by no fault of mine, but there is never any harm in preparing a little. Think about it this way: five years from now, you’re trying to make a payment but you’re a few hundred short. If you saved up a little at a time when you were younger, you may have had enough to pay it off. At that same time, you could be searching for a house but your credit isn’t at a high enough level so you don’t qualify for a home loan. Every little decision we make now will help in increments as we move forward towards the time in our life where all of this really matters. If we sacrifice a little time and money now, we can give ourselves a long-deserving break down the line.