Personal finance is something that many U.S. residents struggle with. We are often under-educated about how to lock in good spending habits and take advantage of research surrounding new opportunities on the investment front. However, learning to leverage insights that will build industry expertise is something that you should be working toward. When it comes to personal financial freedom and investing experience, these insights aren’t just reserved for rich people or the class of U.S. billionaires. 

Fiscal responsibility is crucial to long-term wealth generation and a healthy cash flow in the immediate future. Fortunately, responsible financial habits are easy to build, and they provide a growing foundation from which to secure future opportunities in real estate, personal investments, and retirement savings, among others.

A strong commitment to research with resources like WealthRocket is crucial for making waves in your own savings practices and your investments for the future. Wealth Rocket is a fantastic space for all things investing and personal finance. Here, you can uncover detailed profiles of credit card providers, savings accounts, and eBooks that shed light on many of the trending topics in personal finance and savings strategies. Reading is critical to finding success in the financial world, and it pairs perfectly with a shift in attitude toward money itself. 

Start with your mindset.

In order to break through into new opportunities in finance, the majority of people must change their attitude about money. One great example is with the coronavirus stimulus payments that the IRS sent out last year in coordination with the U.S. Federal Reserve. A small percentile of stimulus aid recipients spent the cash on new purchases, while more than 50% leveraged the windfall in order to assist in repaying debts.

With the average U.S. credit card APR coming in at 20.29 percent, it’s no wonder why so many Americans are choosing to spend this money on debt reduction, yet a 50% margin is still relatively low when you consider how much debt the nation carries as a whole. Credit card repayments put a damper on the new opportunities and cash flow health of millions of Americans, but thinking about credit card debt and investment opportunities in a novel way is something that we all must do in order to create the conditions that will facilitate future wealth growth. 

Lean into research opportunities for a brighter future.

Reading and research are crucial to improving your personal finances. For the first time in many years, investors are relying on data-driven trends to make personal finance decisions. One space in which this is prominent is with the GameStop boom that seemed to derail the market metrics that drive stock price. Investors in the relatively worthless company six months ago began to create a unique market momentum that stirred an artificial short squeeze.

Retail investors following the market momentum didn’t know it, but they were contributing to a squeeze on Wall Street shorts that were coming due on the company. As more and more money pumped into retail buys of GameStop shares, institutional investors had no choice but to dump short sales on the stock as the price ticked gradually and slowly upwards along with growing momentum trading. Coupled with the massive volume of buys, these large dumps sent the shares skyrocketing more than 1600 percent in a matter of days.

For perhaps the first time, retail investors have learned firsthand that market conditions are predicated upon share price—and that the inverse holds equally true. Momentum can be arbitrary or influenced by powerful market trends, and the best researchers and investors understand the relationship between them.

The way retail investors and savers approach personal finance is shifting. Make sure you are taking advantage of every opportunity available to you.