After the introductory first part , we finally turn to the promised specifics. It turned out so much that at first I thought of dividing it into two parts, but the people again began to ask the blood to say that little was written on the case - and I decided not to divide it. For those to whom it is still not enough, the initial goal was to convey the idea that it exists, that it is not difficult, etc. Therefore, I try to provide information in a detailed format. And for those who find it difficult and difficult, don’t worry, it’s all being introduced gradually, so you don’t bother much. This is where I dumped everything in one heap and at once. Go.

A brief overview of the following text:
1. How to save painlessly?
2. What to do with the accumulated?
3. Advantages and pitfalls of different tools.
4. How to save more?
5. How to combine all this into a system (few digits)?

I will not specifically consider issues of accounting and cost optimization (there have already been several articles on Habré) - we will talk about the case when you earn more than you spend. If this is not so, then there is no point in reading until you learn to control your expenses - otherwise you simply will not have anything to manage. After all, you must understand that a person earning $ 10,000 and spending $ 9,999 in this context loses to a person who earns $ 1,000 and spends $ 900.

How to save painlessly. Golden Rule

I wrote about how important time is - the sooner you start, the better the result. So here I want to supplement this rule with the third paragraph - discipline. Moreover, the priority of these items is again not in favor of the money itself (read the “amount of money”): TIME, DISCIPLINE, MONEY. It is in this sequence, and nothing else.

By "discipline" in this matter, I mean the regularity of certain actions. And here I would like to talk about the main, “golden” rule: always and under any circumstancesYou must save 10% of the profit * that you receive. Someone can put “tithe” in this concept, etc. - I look at this matter solely from a practical point of view - you need to start somewhere. 10% is a universal rule, not I came up with it. Just a tenth of your money is such an amount that you are unlikely to feel a loss (by "loss" I mean using this amount for savings, not for spending), but which can work "miracles", I’m not afraid of this word.

* In this case, I attribute the salary completely to profit (although financiers will say that this is income, but we are not talking about that now). But if, for example, you trade in something on the Internet, then if you save 10% of income (price of goods sold), and not profit (the difference between price and cost), then you will eat the back part - and this not very good for business.

Imagine that a person earns $ 1,000 and has a regular monthly cost of $ 800. To begin with, we’ll be happy for him - this is actually not easy. There is always money to spend. So, what should this person do on “payday”? That's right - he should immediately set aside 10%. Not the next day, not in a week, not at the end of the month “if it remains” - immediately. If this is not done right away, then until the end of the month the salary may not survive and there will be nothing to save. And the first time, until discipline appears, I recommend putting aside 10% somewhere in the account, and not in an envelope - so it will be harder for you to get to them. About the tools “where” - a little lower in the text.

What will happen next?

You survived these troubled times and began to save 10% - they will become the basis of your capital. This process should become a habit, rooted in you. Do not ask yourself the question “Why?” - just do it. And I’m talking not only about salary, but about any income. For example, you donated money to the DR - 10% to pick up and postpone. And spend the rest on health! I read in various books that the culture of savings in Europe and the West implies putting aside a larger amount - from 20 to 50 percent of their income. Probably, these books were written before 2008 ... It’s difficult for me personally yet, but 10% is not a problem at all. In the end, I will talk about a couple of painless ways to save more than 10%.

Further. Some kind of capital is starting to form in you. Remember that our goal at the moment is the Defense Plan. This is a figure that should be your incentive, goal. While it has not been collected, there can be no question of any serious investments.

It can be hard to believe, but you will achieve your goal MUCH faster than you expect. I don’t know how to explain it, but it works.

The plan is not in vain called the Protection Plan - it implies that the tools that you will use must be low risk and easily accessible. If something happened, he went and took it. Today. Not tomorrow and not in a week. That is the point. Therefore, I ask you not to think about interest, inflation, etc. - at this stage, they are not important to us - you need to collect the amount, and then put it in different baskets for the sole purpose - if necessary - to quickly access them. This is difficult to perceive, especially in the key to inflation and high percent of income, which advertising slogans promise from everywhere, but you just need to hold your horses to remember the goals of Plan No. 1.

Instruments

Исходя из вышенаписанного, для нашего капитала нам нужны такие инструменты, которые будут:
1. Диверсифицированные (не храни все яйца в одной корзинке)
2. Надежные (нам не нужны высокие проценты на этот капитал, нам важно его сохранить)
3. Легкодоступные (в случае ж*пы вам некогда будет заниматься бумажной волокитой и упрашиванием — вам нужны будут деньги СЕЙЧАС)

Я выделил несколько инструментов, которые позволяют максимально отобразить три характеристики, написанные вверху:
1. Банковские депозиты (не спешите кричать «фуфло» делать выводы, они тоже бывают разные — подробнее ниже)
2. Золотой лом (именно лом, а не банковские металлы или монеты)
3. Under the mattress (funny, but this is practically the most reliable place, albeit with its own nuances)

We will now go over all three points, and after that we will talk about how to separate what we managed to accumulate into different baskets and how many there should be. I think "how much" will really surprise you)))

Bank deposits

Probably the most common and easily accessible tool, so let's start with it. There are just a lot of nuances that would be nice to know. Everything that I will talk about is relevant for Ukraine, but the legislation of the countries of the former USSR is very similar in these moments, so it will not be difficult.

Banks (financial allocations), like their smaller colleagues (glass jars into which your mothers and grandmothers fill conservation), are very fragile. We have heard more than once that a particular bank went bankrupt and went bankrupt. Many people remember the year 2008 (and some of them were in 1998 and, possibly, in 1991), when even the largest banks on the market were shaky. And many simply did not survive until 2013. In 2008, I withdrew money from my current (!) Account and Platinum card of one of the banks for a week using such ingenious schemes that they deserve a separate story. And it was a bank from TOP-3 at that time. People who did not have time to do this then, were waiting for their money for a very long time. But, nevertheless, this is more an exception to the rule, and banks still remain one of the most affordable tools for your savings.

• How to choose a bank?
• How to choose a deposit?
• How not to leave a deposit in the bank forever?

In order for the bank to be a suitable tool for the preservation of our capital, we look at the following criteria:
1. The bank must be state-owned or
2. The bank must be in the TOP-3 of the largest private banks, or
3. The bank must be the largest international bank
4. The bank branch should always be near you (near the house or office)
5. The bank should not have sky-high rates on deposits
6. IDEAL, if you can not take the deposit in the branch where you open it, the

State Bank is the most reliable bank. If he has problems, the state will save him to the last. There are exceptions to this rule, but we don’t say that you will leave all the capital in one bank.

A private bank from TOP-3 is a very large bank. A large cabinet falls louder, but it is more stable. If one of the TOP-3 banks in your country “falls”, it will be bad for everyone, because now everything is very connected, so although you need to keep abreast, but the chances that such a bank will be bad will be very small.

Why should a bank branch be near you?Well, firstly, it’s calmer for you, and secondly, it’s always before your eyes. You can go there to replenish your mobile account, pay utility bills, etc. And, if something is not right - you will notice it immediately from the dissatisfied cries of visitors. For example, you go to a bank to pay utility bills and you see that some retired woman is “hard-pressed” to give money from an early terminated deposit. This is an alarm. Money should be taken immediately and not think that something will improve tomorrow. But thirdly, if you decide to stop working with one bank in favor of another, or with one branch in favor of another, then you will not be so far and scared to take your money if the bank is in proximity to your home or work. But this doesn’t have to be exactly that branch,

Why shouldn't there be sky-high rates?Remember: our goal is not to earn, our goal is to save. High stakes signal two options. First, the bank found some very cool way to earn money (to take money from you for this percentage that is profitable for you, but to earn even more on this money) and it simply does not have enough working capital. The second is at the bank, it must give money (to depositors, creditors, etc.), but it is not enough for it - it wants to take money from you in order to lend itself on time. Both options do not suit us. If the bank wants to make money, it’s not a fact that it will work out for him. If the bank does not have enough money, then it may not be enough for it even when the time comes to give our deposit. In both cases, money at a high percentage is usually taken for short periods (1-3 months). If the bank constantly keeps high interest rates, it means he’s either very bad (then we don’t need it), or it’s a small bank that wants to attract customers in this way (then we don’t need it anymore, because it does not meet our criteria). One bank in Ukraine fell under this item, and I had money there. Well, when I opened an account there, there were no sky-high rates. And a couple of years later, along with information appeared in the media that the bank was “bad”. He was openly blamed in the media. I took the money and transferred it to another place. Another friend of mine took the money for a week later. The bank resisted. For now. there were no sky-high bets. And a couple of years later, along with information appeared in the media that the bank was “bad”. He was openly blamed in the media. I took the money and transferred it to another place. Another friend of mine took the money for a week later. The bank resisted. For now. there were no sky-high bets. And a couple of years later, along with information appeared in the media that the bank was “bad”. He was openly blamed in the media. I took the money and transferred it to another place. Another friend of mine took the money for a week later. The bank resisted. For now.

Why is point 6 important?In most cases (if banks fall under the first 5 points), you can open and close a deposit in only one branch. If you opened a deposit near the house, but want to close it in the office near the work, you will be asked to put it mildly. But there are banks where it is possible to be serviced in any branch (at least within the framework of one administrative unit - city, region). Why is it important? It happens, though very rarely, that you urgently need money. And at the box office there is no specific branch of this amount (especially if the deposit is in foreign currency). At best you will be told "you need to order the amount the next day." Therefore, if you can take a deposit in any department, you go to the next one and take it there. Or next ... If not,

How not to leave money in the bank forever?

1. Deposit Guarantee Fund.
2. Keep your finger on the pulse.
3. Do not be greedy.
4. Know the people in the bank.

Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGV).This is such an organization where each bank makes contributions, and then, if the bank has problems, then this fund is calculated with depositors. I never had to (which I am very happy) to communicate with the guarantee fund, in principle, for all this time only one bank was problematic, about which I wrote above, everything was solved there until the bank had big problems. But I know that this thing works, you just don’t need to count on it at 100% (as you already noticed, I recommend trusting nobody and nothing) - because this fund will not be enough for everyone in the event of a global financial problem in the state. If we take Ukraine as an example, that is, we have such a Privat bank here. If something happens to him suddenly, then there are many times more deposits in him than the entire deposit guarantee fund taken together. This, again, is unlikely, but you should not forget about it. In Ukraine, FGV pays a maximum of 200,000 hryvnias (about $ 25,000) per bank depositor. Therefore, if you have quite a lot of money, then it is better to lay them out in different banks so that in one bank there are deposits (all deposits with all percentages) no more than this amount.

Keep a finger on the pulse.Here we again do not forget that anything happens, so even if you put money in the most reliable bank, it is not a fact that it will be reliable forever. The fact that it’s nice to periodically go to the bank to pay the same utilities or for something else I already wrote above. As well as advice, you can use such a cool thing as Google Alerts - this feature allows you to drive in the queries you are interested in, for example, Sberbank, as well as the period of receiving news (I put it “once a week”) - and once a week you comes a summary of new articles (mostly news) that Google indexes. It’s enough to read the headings of this bulletin - so you always stay up to date on the selected queries. It will not be superfluous to mention that such requests should be made for all banks and institutions that are of interest to you. Clear, that the news is a little late thing and you will be a loser to those who, for example, have friends in the bank who can merge information quickly. But you will benefit from those who made a deposit and forgot about it and the bank for a year.

Do not be greedy. If the bank has problems, it is better to score on the interest that you lose by breaking the contract ahead of schedule and take your money, than worry about some 10%, and lose 100%. Well, not to lose, sooner or later you will pick them up either from the bank itself or in the Federal State Guarantee, but this is time, and time, as we remember, is more important than money.

Know the people in the bank. Everything is clear here. If you have acquaintances, then they can merge information to you faster than it gets into the media and through Google Alerts to you. Then you calmly go and take the money, while the rest peacefully suspect of nothing. If there are no acquaintances, then you are like everyone else. I have problems with this moment, because although I am a financier by training, few of my friends work in those banks that interest me.

So, we have chosen the bank (s). Now let's talk about deposits.

There are a lot of them (I'm not talking about the currency of the deposit, more about the format of the deposit), but we are only interested in those that fit our criterion of easy availability. I would single out three formats:
1. Current account with a higher percentage
2. Interval deposit
3. Regular deposit with the possibility of one-time access

Current account with a high percentage.This is a normal current account, but it has an increased percentage. For example, in one bank there is such a deposit - you put money into your account for an unlimited time - at least for a couple of hours or a couple of years. The rate is 5% in dollars on the account, money is capitalized (interest is added to the amount of the deposit and interest is accrued on them for the next period), but at the same time, if you want to withdraw this money, they will charge you 1% for cashing out. In fact, the rate on the account is 4% (5-1). But access is quick - at any time I came to any department with a passport and took the money.

Interval deposit.This is a long-term deposit at which you can withdraw money at the end of each period (month or, more often, a quarter) without loss of interest. Here the stakes are higher than in the first case, but access to money is already more difficult. Since you don’t need all the money at Hour Ch most likely, you can use these deposits in such a way that every month you run out of the interval of one of the deposits and you can withdraw money.

Normal deposit with one-time access. This is a very rare format, but if you find one, consider it happiness. Here, usually the rates are the same as with a regular term deposit for half a year or a year, but you have the right to withdraw all money once at any time (usually not earlier than a month after the start of the deposit) without loss of interest. You understand that this is very cool.

So far, all on deposits.

PS I remembered a little later a moment. We have now started the practice of “Deposit Online” when you open a deposit through Internet banking. Remember, paper with the seal and signature of the department manager is your best friend. Even if you open such a deposit, be sure to require a paper contract with a seal and a signature, with the same conditions. Even if it is a regular deposit, make copies of the contracts and keep them somewhere separate from the originals, as well as make a scan of the copies that you store on your computer. We are all connected in one way or another with IT - should we not know how it happens there, in these computer systems ...

Gold scrap

Since we are working on the complete security of our capital, in addition to sharing money for different deposits, different banks and in different currencies (which I will write about below), we should not forget about the hypothetical moment when paper money can turn into candy wrappers. If anyone does not believe that this is possible - read about the experience of the same Argentina, they only had it 10-12 years ago, if I'm not mistaken. Therefore, we need to store part of our savings in something that in its form weakly resembles banknotes. One such tool is gold. One can argue for a long time that gold may be another “bubble” that will burst sooner or later, but since our world is not stable and this can be said about every instrument for saving, we will miss this moment. Nobody knows for sure in the meantime, gold has been a measure of wealth for several millennia and a tool for storing capital. And here it is important to understand the difference between bank gold and scrap gold in the context of interest to us.

Bank Gold- 999 gold (read the purest gold), a laminated ingot or coin, with engraving (on the laminate and on the ingot itself), a certificate, etc. I briefly described the “right” banking gold, and not the bullshit that you can slip in if you decide to buy gold without understanding the issue seriously. Banking gold is sold approximately in such bullion: 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 grams, less often 1 ounce (31 grams), well, then we are not interested in it - too much money. So, the smaller the number of grams per bar, the higher the price per gram. For example (the price is not accurate, just an example), to buy 1 gram of gold, you need to give 50 dollars, to buy 100 grams of gold, you need to give 4000 dollars. In the first case, the price for 1 gram is $ 50; in the second case, $ 40. Well, intermediate bullions with intermediate prices have a place to be.

Gold scrap - gold of various samples, in different formats (ingots, coins, jewelry), which will be very difficult for you to evaluate (if the ingot has engraving and a certificate, then this is not on the scrap) without the help of a professional appraiser-jeweler.

So in our context we are interested in precisely scrap gold, however strange it sounds. I will explain why. You buy bank gold at the bank and at the same time you must sell it to the bank. Moreover, the bank is not obliged (!) To buy it from you. And even more so, the bank where you did not buy it, but decided to just come to sell it, is not obliged. This is the market. If the bank needs this gold at this moment, he will buy it. If not, he won’t buy it. And so, if he doesn’t buy it and you take this gold to a pawnshop (for example) - there nobody will look at all these certificates and engravings - the pawnshop will regard this gold just like a CROWBAR. And scrap, of course, is cheaper than bank metal. It is like jewelry. I bought a ring in the store, you can’t even remove the tag - I went to a pawnshop, and they already give you less money for it. We are not talking about that bank gold is bad or they will refuse to buy it from you, etc. - we say that it is hemorrhoids. And we don’t need hemorrhoids in the context of the Protection plan - we need easy accessibility. Turning a 100-gram gold bar into a pawnshop will be very difficult, and buying 100 bars of 1 gram is not profitable.

Therefore, buying gold scrap from the very beginning (for example, gold rings) - you can be sure that at any time you will come to the pawnshop and get paid for them. Or not at a pawnshop, but just exchange a neighbor for a piece of meat or ammunition, as they say in all kinds of books about the End of the World))) I will exaggerate, of course, but there is some truth to this. Buying gold at a pawnshop (if you sell it there at all, but there are other places) you lose money in the same way as soon as you exit a pawnshop (because there is a difference between buying and selling, as well as with currency). Therefore, it is more of a tool to protect against the depreciation of paper money and the percentage of this tool in our portfolio will be small (you will see this in the final part).

Money at home under the mattress.

In terms of reliability, that money is always with you - this is the most reliable tool. You just take the amount from the "hitchhiker" (you did hitchhikers in your home, right?) - and spend it. But there are drawbacks:
1. Money can steal.
2. Housing can burn, housing can flood.
3. You can forget where the money was hidden (I know people like that, don’t laugh).
4. Here the money does not work at all. In bank deposits, the percentage is also not large, but here it is not at all.

This tool also occupies a small part of our portfolio. But without it in any way, because it is the most easily accessible part of your money.

I want to remind you - this is my knowledge, my experience, and, most importantly, my MONEY, for which I personally am responsible. Just take those useful things that will help you. If nothing fits, find what works. The information is full, but do not do rash acts.

How to accumulate more?

There are several ways for those who can afford to save more than 10% or, conversely, the ratio of income / expenses tends to 1 and it is difficult to put off, but you need to start somewhere:

Level 0. TrifleI hope that most readers will nevertheless ignore this tool, because if it interests you, it means your business is really bad and you need to do something to free up capital for savings - to increase revenues, reduce costs, or do both at the same time. If everything is completely bad - start collecting a trifle (small iron money). No matter how funny or strange, but for a year a certain amount runs in, which is no longer a trifle. Plus it disciplines, you can start from this. The main rule - always try to ensure that the little things in your pockets have more! How? When the cashier tells you 5 rubles and 73 copecks - don’t give 5.73 rubles, give 10 - you will get change in change, instead of giving away your change.

Level 1. Small money. This is for the more advanced, I hope for most. Set yourself a goal (depending on your capabilities): from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014, I will put aside all trifles PLUS from my pockets, all denominations below the denomination such and such. For example, for Ukraine, you can start with notes 1, 2, 5 hryvnia. Next year, include the next bill - 10 hryvnia. In a year - 20 hryvnias. And the same rule as for the little things - when you are told 10 hryvnias, then you do not give a banknote of 10 hryvnias, but give a banknote of a higher denomination in order to get more notes of a lower denomination for delivery and put them in your piggy bank at the end of the day. Believe it or not, for the first year, about 500-1000 dollars run in small bills.

Level 2. 10% of the costAt some stage, we add the third method to the first two levels - 10% of the costs. These are not the 10% that you save on income. This is an additional 10%. Again, for example, a person earns $ 1,000. He immediately set aside $ 100, he spends 900, but after each spending he puts aside 10% so that in the end he spends $ 810, and he puts 90 aside. Of the $ 1,000, he had already spent only 810, and 190 went into savings. This tool is easiest to organize if you pay everywhere with a credit card, in which you can connect a function that automatically takes 10% of the costs and puts them on a deposit or just a separate account.

Level 3. Any ideas? Write in the comments if you have ideas what else could be added here.

We organize everything in the system

Huh. How much we already know, we can do almost everything already, but how to organize everything correctly? I do not want to impose any kind of system, because everyone has to decide for himself and bear responsibility for it. Roughly speaking, I can allocate 10% of my capital to gold scrap, and someone who knows the owner of the pawnshop decides to allocate 20% - because he has the opportunity to buy profitably and sell it profitably. Well, etc.

I remind you that we are talking about capital, which we are going to ensure the implementation of Plan No. 1 - the protection plan. And we use the maximum diversification for this, as well as extremely safe (as it seems to us) tools.

Based on the original numbers. We have a plan to raise $ 10,000. For example, we collected the first $ 1,000 (we saved 10% of the salary, put aside small bills, etc.), we keep it at home and we think what to do now. First you need to decide how to diversify your savings as correctly as possible. I propose the following scheme: 10% gold scrap, 10% cash at home at hand, 80% bank accounts and deposits. With scrap and cash, everything is clear (wrote in detail above), so let's talk more about how to diversify the remaining 80%.

In my understanding, there should be three levels of diversification:
1. We divide by currency.
2. We divide by types of deposits.
3. We divide by institutions.

Currency separationEverything is the most complicated here. Today the dollar is on horseback, the euro tomorrow, the day after tomorrow the yuan, etc. It is rather difficult to say something here, except for two points - the currency of our country in most cases loses to the foreign one. And the second: exotic currencies may be good, but we need to control those currencies that we can spend at any moment. You can pack up the yuan, but then go and change it somehow is not comme il faut. And it’s not clear what these Chinese are there. Another thing is the United States and the European Union. Yes, they are constantly sausage (this is the present time), but these are large administrative units with democratic regimes and the likelihood of major disasters IMHO is much less than in other countries. I chose for myself the diversification between the dollar, the euro and the Russian ruble. Why ruble? Because Russia is the first country I go to in the case of some big fuck in Ukraine. And it would be nice to have some money right away in this currency. Plus, interest rates at banks on deposits in Russian rubles are quite large, although this is understandable - the Russian ruble is not a very stable currency, like the hryvnia, in the long run, of course. Therefore, the ruble we allocate some savings, but small. Let's say 10% of the total (!) Of our capital. The rest, sadly (I would like more "baskets"), goes to the dollar and the euro. Here everyone is free to choose. Who believes that once there comes a white fluffy animal in the USA and the dollar collapses - most of it is in euros. Who believes that Merkel will get tired of sponsoring Greece and the like, and the EU will begin to burst at the seams - more in dollars. My IMHO is this - if the first or second scenario happens (or China collapses, for example) - Well, everyone will have it and you won’t be able to understand whether you made the right choice or not when dividing the currency. With an increase in your capital, you can adjust your portfolio by decreasing or increasing the interest of certain instruments, currencies, etc. While we are talking as an example, everything else will come with experience.

Breakdown by deposit typeEverything is a little simpler here. When we have already divided our capital by currency, half of it should be put on income accounts or deposits with the easiest access (I wrote about them above). We do not pursue interest, we simply do not want to keep money at home and want to at least a little at the expense of bank interest to beat off the depreciation of our hard-earned money. If something happens, we’ll go and get this money TODAY. And tomorrow and the day after tomorrow we can take the rest, breaking deposit agreements, etc. The second half can be halved again - the first quarter can be invested in instruments with medium access difficulty (the same interval deposits, for example), but with a higher percentage. And the second quarter can be put on term deposits (half a year or a year) - this is to ensure that interest at least beat inflation.

Division by InstitutionWhen we ourselves have already figured out how we want to sort things out - it's time to look for partners. These are banks that meet our criteria (see above), as well as those who have types of deposits suitable for us. Since we have a separation by currency, as well as a separation of types of deposits - there are enough options, sooner or later there will be banking products in the banks you need with the conditions you need. There is no need to rush - percentages do not play a role. It’s better to wait and discover exactly on the conditions that you have determined for yourself, than to violate your plan. It is clear, on the other hand, that sticking to it very strictly is also not worth it. You need to be flexible, plus or minus a couple of percent in one currency or in another currency will not play a big role. But to completely deform the original plan is simply due to the fact thathere the percentage is higher for the euro, I’ll invest in a better euro more than I planned so much, it’s not worth it.

Summarize. Our 1000 dollars will turn (example!):
100 - under the pillow;
100 - gold rings;
In Euros:
100 - on a six-month deposit with Bank No. 1 at 6% per annum
100 - on a current income account with Bank No. 2 with 3% per annum
In dollars:
300 - on a current income account with Bank No. 3 with 5% per annum
100 - on Interval deposit at Bank No. 4 with 7% per annum
100 - on a term annual deposit at Bank No. 5 with 9% per annum
In rubles:
100 - on a semi-annual depositat Bank No. 6 at 8% per annum.

You have read to the end and ask yourself the question “Why do I need it?”

Maybe really not necessary. You can live for today and not think about the future. For some, this is the right approach to life. Everyone has their own path, their own plans, etc. I just want to convey an idea - all of the above can save you at some point in life, or it may never come in handy. But if this does not happen, then he will not be able to save you. So much text just seems complicated - if you don’t try to implement EVERYTHING AND IMMEDIATELY, then everything is elementary, there’s nowhere to rush, especially if you are young. Time will work for you, but you need to take the first step NOW.

PS I tried to set out as accessible as possible, if you have questions - feel free to ask in the comments.