How Millennials Can Get Ahead Financially

Tips from personal finance bloggers about how young adults can pay down debt and take charge of their money.

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Editor Janet Bodnar recently shared tips in her Money Smart Kids column for parents who want to help their adult children improve their finances. In Money Advice for Millennials, she recommended sources and tools parents can use to provide their kids with trustworthy advice. And in The Right Way to Help Your Adult Children, she offered guidelines for parents looking to motivate their millennials to move on.

To complement Janet's advice, I rounded up tips from personal finance bloggers to help millennials themselves take control of their finances.

The Millennial Debt Sentence: Will They Ever Escape? [Credit.com]

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"Instead of enjoying their youth, millennials are losing sleep over their high debt levels, bad job prospects, low incomes and dim futures."

What Can We Learn from Gen Y’s View of Money? [Get Rich Slowly]

"The way people are challenging traditional measures of success is an indication that we’re adapting. Yes, that might mean moving back in with your parents for a while so you can build an emergency fund. It might mean that you decide that renting is okay, because you don’t want to be house-poor."

The Conservative Generation? Recession Creates New Type of Millennial [ReadyForZero]

"This risk-aversion in Millennials doesn’t just prevent them from growing their money – it’s also preventing them from moving forward with their personal lives."

6 Out of 10 Millennials Really Need to Get a Credit Card [Broke Millennial]

"As with nearly all money-related topics, the debate about whether or not to own a credit card could go on indefinitely. There are numerous factors to consider, and each person's level of responsibility and psychological relationship to money plays a huge role. But in the end, owning and responsibly using a credit is a simple way to build and maintain a strong credit score and report."

How One Young Entrepreneur Paid Off $40,000 in Student Debt by Age 24 [Wise Bread]

"To reach her goal and pay off her debt, Schroeder took three simple steps. Read on to discover how you can follow in her tracks."

Why You Must Make Peace With Your Financial Situation [Blonde on a Budget]

"I’m still learning that success isn’t just what you see when you cross the finish line; it’s every morning you wake up in a slightly better position than you were in the day before."

Cameron Huddleston
Former Online Editor, Kiplinger.com

Award-winning journalist, speaker, family finance expert, and author of Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk.

Cameron Huddleston wrote the daily "Kip Tips" column for Kiplinger.com. She joined Kiplinger in 2001 after graduating from American University with an MA in economic journalism.