On your latter question https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/young_adult/ https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/young_adult/ is pretty good. I

On your latter question https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/young_adult/ https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/young_adult/ is pretty good. I've never been great at tracking spending - what worked for me was just being strict about separating "spending money" from "savings money". I'd get paid $X into a savings account every month, my rent $Y would be drawn from that, and I'd transfer a $Z "monthly allowance" into a separate checking account. Credit card and everything else would come out of the checking account. I know I'm spending $Z every month. I know each month I'm accumulating $X - $Y - $Z in savings. I can adjust $Z however I like, make emergency transfers from savings to checking if I have to, and the transaction history for the savings account is easy to understand. There are lots of ways to do it and it's important to find something that works for you. I know people who have big mortgages, with an expected windfall when they retire and trade their huge house for a smaller one, because they know it's the only way they'll save enough!