A Salaried Worker's Personal Finance Checklist (2025 Edition)
Early this year, there was a lot of talk about personal finance around me, so I put together a checklist based on what I actually do.
Step 1. Understand Your Cash Flow
- Calculate available amount after excluding fixed expenses from your salary
- Separate accounts (living expenses, emergency fund, investment)
- Keep at least 6 months of living expenses in savings as an emergency fund
Step 2. Start with Safe Assets
- Deposit the maximum amount into the youth-preferential housing subscription savings account first
- Compare fixed deposit rates every month and switch if needed
- These have nearly guaranteed rates, so they serve as a baseline without taking losses
Step 3. Investment Allocation
- Put 70% of your monthly available amount into stocks (domestic + overseas ETFs)
- Use 15% for rebalancing into bonds/deposits
- Keep the remaining 15% and only buy more when a specific theme drops sharply
Step 4. Track and Review
- Update net worth in Excel on the last week of every month
- Every quarter, review whether you're investing too aggressively
The most important thing I believe is to never invest with borrowed money, and that no strategy beats consistency. Let's all slowly get rich this year too.
9 answers
Yeah, putting 70% into stocks is a bit risky... but still, looking at the long term, it's not bad.
I'm also running something similar, and splitting up bank accounts really seems key. Back when I managed everything with a single account, I'd always hit 0 won by the end of the month lol.
Oh, I didn't know this.
Well, that's a bit iffy. 70% in stocks—people have different risk tolerances, and without even specifying an age range, isn't it risky advice to generalize? Especially in a volatile market like this year, a beginner could get burned following that.
Got a source? Curious if it's based on stats or something.
I just replaced bonds with short-term bond ETFs, and it worked out better than switching CDs. Also, quarterly rebalancing turned out to be more annoying than I expected, so I switched to semi-annual lol.
Putting in the maximum amount for the housing subscription is the way to go. I've been contributing since last year too—the interest is decent, and I like that it feels like forced savings.
That's true lol. Especially the 'don't invest with borrowed money' part, I really relate. I've seen quite a few people around me get burned from buying stocks with an overdraft.
Hmm... I think six months' worth of emergency savings is a bit much. Wouldn't three months be enough? It's also a waste to just leave that money sitting around.