How this McDonald's worker saved over $34k in 15 months
He had no idea what he was doing, but he needed to figure it out fast.
Henry had just secured his first job as a manager at McDonald’s, after moving to Australia from South Africa with his father, step-mum and sisters.
This was the first time in his life Henry was earning an income. It was immediately clear to him he was out of his depth and needed some help learning how to properly manage his money.
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“It was my first time earning money and no one had ever taught me what to do with it. I wanted to set myself up for the future from the start. So, I knew I had to educate myself,” he told Yahoo Finance.
For Henry, every dollar was precious. He has a big goal to accomplish. He wanted to bring his mum to Australia as soon as possible, but the visa can cost up to $50,000.
“I knew I couldn’t afford to waste money because I had this big goal. So I was determined to learn how to manage my money well from the start, I didn’t want to waste time or money on trial-and-error,” he said.
So, Henry enrolled in Mastering Money, an online financial education program run by SkilledSmart. Developed in collaboration with experienced financial professionals, the program teaches adults practical financial skills to save, invest and manage their money.
With the help of the program, Henry started hitting big milestones faster than he had thought possible.
Within three months of the program, Henry saved up enough to move out of home. Another 12 months later, while living independently and paying his own rent and living expenses, Henry had saved up $34,000 and also bought himself a car to drive to work.
Henry shares three money lessons that helped him fast-track his financial success:
1. Creating a streamlined cashflow system is key
“The best part is that the whole process feels really simple. The program taught me how to structure and streamline my money so it’s mostly automated. I know where all my money is going and how much I have left to spend, without needing to constantly be worrying about it. It’s really freeing,” Henry said.
Reflecting on his journey, Henry admits he was a bit nervous learning about finance at first because he thought he might need to be ‘maths’ or ‘numbers’ oriented to be good with finance.
“I’m not a big numbers person. So I didn’t want to be analysing complicated spreadsheets. I needed something that was simple and time-friendly so that I could manage my money quickly and easily, in a way that allowed me to get on with my life,” Henry said.
