Your 20’s are a great time to establish your career goals, figure out the things you want out of life and get your finances in order. The finance part is especially important as it has the potential to determine your lifelong financial security.

With that in mind, here are five financial milestones you should aim to achieve by the time you hit 30.

Establish a good credit score

The higher your credit score, the easier it will be for you to borrow money at an affordable rate when you need to. This can be in the form of a mortgage, an auto loan or even a personal loan. Credit is easy to get, but it’s also easy to harm your credit score if you’re not using it wisely.

The best way you can go about boosting your score is by living within your means, paying your bills on time, and not carrying too much debt at once.

Start a retirement savings fund

If you haven’t hit 30 yet, you may not feel it’s necessary to start setting aside money for retirement. But making a point to put away money before your 30th birthday is a great way to help you accumulate some serious wealth by the time you retire.

Try sticking to this basic retirement savings rule: by 25, you should be saving at least a third of your salary every month and putting it towards your retirement nest. If you haven’t done this, don’t sweat it. It’s never too late to start!

Build an emergency fund

When you’re in your twenties, it’s easy to forget that you’re not actually immune to financial emergencies. As you get older and begin taking on more responsibilities, like buying a house, a car and other important financial milestones, you will realize sooner or later that you need savings to cover any unplanned expenses. That’s where building an emergency fund comes in.

Ideally, you should aim to have enough money in your emergency fund to pay for 3 to 6 months of essential living expenses. So, if you’re nearing the big 3-0, and don’t have nearly enough to cover that – try thinking about where you can cut back on to start socking some money away.

Understand personal income tax

Now, we’re not expecting you to shell out thousands of dollars on financial management classes. But we do however, suggest that you take some time to understand what tax category you are classified under as well as what tax rebates, reliefs and exemptions you’re entitled to.

Getting a good grip on these means a little more money in your pocket every year – making you a little closer to reaching your financial goals.

Start investing

This is one of the most important financial milestones, because it’s one of the easiest ways of achieving steady, long-term wealth. Weather it’s something simple like a mutual fund or more advanced like common stock trading, by age 30, it’s important to have your money spread out across a diverse portfolio. The bottom line is, your idea of savings should be beyond a basic savings account.

If you’re not sure how to get started, consider meeting with a financial advisor at your bank – or alternatively, take a crash course on investing for beginners through Udemy.

We’ve identified a list of milestones that should be considered by everyone before they move onto new financial stages in their life. However, everyone moves at their own pace – and that is completely fine. There is no gold standard to achieving financial freedom because it looks different to everyone.