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5 Ways to Level Up Your Finances

Looking for ways to level up your finances? Why not approach your money the same way you approach video games? Here are 5 easy ways to level up your finances.

Updated

6 min. read

- Pick your financial “build.” Set clear goals to guide how you manage and grow your money.
- Use a budget as your game plan. Decide where your money goes and prioritize progress.
- Boost XP with saving and interest. Automate savings to build consistency over time.
- Beat debt early. Paying down high interest debt improves cash flow and builds credit.
- Follow guides to level up faster. Use financial tools and resources to stay on track.

Spec your Skill Tree

Now that you have chosen your build or pin pointed your financial goal, now it is time to plan.

For your build you may go through your skill tree and choose what skills or buffs you should aim to level up towards first. For your financial goals, to uncover how you should approach reaching your goals it will start with a budget.

A budget is a plan you develop to manage your money. It will help you determine how much money you get, how much you spend and how much you can save. If you are working towards a specific build in game using a guide, imagine your budget is your guide to your finances and goals.

There are many different budgeting frameworks that can help you create a budget. A popular one is the 50-30-20 budgeting formula used to “spec” your income based on your needs, wants and financial goals.

Needs: 50%
Wants: 30%
Savings & financial goals: 20%

The BMO Insights feature in the BMO Mobile Banking App can track the progress of your day to day spending to better understand your budget. ^*

The 50-30-20 budgeting formula is a popular method to keep your finances on track

Boost XP

Now that you have your build planned out, it’s time to start grinding experience.

In game, you are always looking for ways to boost your XP gain. Items like accessories can give you passive boosts to your XP. Savings and investing can help you work twoard goals over time, but investing involves risk.

Beat Mini-Bosses Early

In game bosses and minibosses usually offer higher tier rewards than your run of the mill mobs. If you are looking to boost your financial XP and prepare for the endgame grind getting, taking down big targets will give you the boost you need. Now that you are building your XP by saving money it’s time to explore the other side of interest, debt.

Building your credit early on gives you a competitive edge later in life. Paying down debt is one way to build your credit. There are a couple of different approaches to building credit, one approach is tackling the one that charges you the highest interest vs the one with the highest balance aka the credit miniboss.

Paying down debt will open up your cashflow which will allow you to save even more for your passive interest boost. One way to track your credit score is by using a handy guide.

Use guides

Early on when you start your build, unless you are already a pro at the game, you may want to start by using a guide. Guides can be handy when building your character, finding quick ways to level or the best equipment for your build. Luckily in real life there are plenty of guides to level up not only your finances but your financial knowledge as well.

Getting started with your credit early will set you up for your end game much like grinding XP early game. Credit Coach can be your personal guide to leveling up your credit score. It tailors general guidance on your credit profile, to educate you on how build your credit.

Final thoughts

If you are looking for your own guide to everything financial, BMO NXT LVL can help you get the skills you need to level up various aspects of gaming and finance.