A Head of Wealth and Private Banking Shares Most Important Advice

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Racquel Oden, US head of wealth and private banking at HSBC. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I’ve worked in global banking for HSBC, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Merril Lynch, and many more. Over the years, I’ve given my clients plenty of advice on saving, budgeting, investing, retirement, and financial planning.

When it comes to my family and friends, the most important financial advice I give them is to start putting away money as soon as possible.

You’re never too young to start saving or investing — and there are many things that even Generation Z could be doing now to help themselves reach their financial goals, whether that’s saving up for a down payment for a house, a dream trip abroad, a lavish wedding, or even an early retirement.

If you’re working, you should be focused on retirement and your personal savings

I know it sounds far away, but you should always be saving for retirement by paying into your 401(k).

Simultaneously, you should also be getting to the point where you have enough in your personal savings account to support your living expenses for the next six months in case you happen to lose your job for whatever reason. This money is what I call short-term cash on hand, what you can use to pay your basic needs — things like your apartment rent, car payments, grocery bills, etc.

You’re ready to invest once you have more than short-term cash on hand

I think for a lot of young investors, they’re unsure of when to start investing. We often think, “I need to have all this money to invest.”

I want to take that stigma away. Any amount of money will work better for you in money markets than in a savings account, which doesn’t provide much or any interest. Once you have more than short-term cash on hand, you can create another account in preparation for investing.

Create a financial plan with the help of a financial advisor

What’s great about sitting down with a financial advisor is that most banks do not initially charge for this service.

Making a plan is a point of entry into investing, and it’s a comfortable one because you get to sit down and ask yourself, “What do I want to achieve with my finances? Do I want to buy a home, plan a wedding, or take that next big trip?” With this plan, you can think beyond just retirement.

I encourage people to think of their lives in terms of different buckets — for example, saving for a house can be one bucket. Each of these buckets or larger financial goals has a different time horizon. Creating a larger financial plan can help you understand the timeframes for each goal better and remove some of the anxiety around investing.

Always seek out accurate financial resources and screen out the non-factual ones

We like watching TikTok and surfing Instagram, but do yourself a favor and ground yourself with the basics before you look through those places.

Reach out to traditional resources, like financial advisors at your bank. You can follow social influencers for some things, but not for something as crucial as your finances. Become comfortable with the traditional sources of this info, like banks — it doesn’t mean you ultimately have to pick them or choose their services.

You can shop around and find the right financial advisor for you.

Make your money work for you

Checking and savings accounts are the lowest interest-bearing accounts out there, right now. Short-term vehicles like CDs, or Certificate of Deposit, a type of savings account that earns a fixed interest rate, can be better options than a regular savings account.

CDs can be a great option, allowing you to make a short investment of, say, nine months or so and earn an interest of 4% in some cases. But you must remember these interest rates are always changing, so stay on top of them.

Prioritize investing and savings over paying off your student loan debt

I encourage clients to, of course, pay their minimum monthly payment that’s due. But the concept of paying off student loan debt should not be something you’re concerned about because having cash on hand — and making sure your cash is working for you — is the smarter way.

However, if your cash is just sitting in checking accounts, not collecting interest, then pay off the student loan because, in this case, your money is not working for you. You are not gaining any yield on your cash sitting in a checking account. However, lowering debt does bring up your credit score, so this is also something to think about.

Do you have a story to share about financial planning? If so, please reach out to the editor, Manseen Logan, at mlogan@businessinsider.com.