Have you ever thought about what you might say if you were up in front of a group of shiny new graduates, tasked with giving them advice to help them get their adult lives off on the right track?

Would you counsel them about the virtues of humility, staying hungry and foolish, or wearing sunscreen?

We recently asked Morningstar.com readers to share their best financial advice for new grads, or anyone just getting started with their financial lives. Readers had much valuable wisdom to impart, weighing in on everything from taking advantage of employer matching contributions to driving used cars to reducing daily outlays for coffees and lunches.

To read the complete thread or share your own wisdom on this front, click here. The following is an overview of some of their comments.

'The Answer Is Pay Yourself First'

Uinutah made the very good point that selling 20-somethings on the merits of saving for retirement is tough; this poster suggests that some reframing is in order. "Maybe we're using the wrong word: To a 20-something, 'saving for retirement' sounds deadly, like prepaying for a funeral. I like to think of it as 'buying my freedom.' So long as I depend on a job to pay my bills, the job owns me. It was only when I'd saved enough to know that I had the choice of not working that I began to breathe freely and enjoy going to work each day."

From a practical standoint, posters agreed that a best practice for those just starting out with a retirement-savings plan is to adhere to a savings target and adjust other expenses accordingly.

First out of the box with this advice was Juris 2, who wrote, "At risk of resorting to a cliche, the answer is 'Pay yourself first.' Especially once you get a full-time job, always turn the first dollars (5%-15%) of your pay into contributions to a tax-qualified account (IRA, 401(k), etc.). Your 'net' after this is your operating weekly/monthly budget, which you can also spend, save, or invest."

Posters also enthused about taking advantage of company retirement plans as soon as first eligible.

As Myshkin noted, newbie investors who don't take advantage of the opportunity to contribute to a company retirement plan are potentially missing matching funds and a tax break. "[I]f you have a 401(k) with a company match (or some other employer incentive), you are passing up free money if you do not contribute enough to get the company match. ... Also, the 'sticker shock' when they see the taxes that are being withheld from those first checks makes a good talking point. ... See how much lower that withholding could be if you contribute to a tax-advantaged investment."

However, ctyankee also pointed out that investors on starting salaries may be ideally positioned to make Roth contributions--that is, contribute money that has already been taxed. "[W]hen you're young and likely in a lower tax bracket than you're going to be [later on] ... this is the time to do a Roth investment or a traditional IRA to Roth conversion."

Respondents also discussed the virtues of increasing the savings rate along with the paycheck. Reneeh63 advised, "[R]evisit [your investment contributions] at least annually and increase the amounts--for some accounts you can even automate these increases."

Woninvegas has found it valuable to enjoy those raises a bit while also enlarging the nest egg. "As I received pay increases over the years, I've tried to strike a balance between adding more to my 401(k) contribution and keeping some for myself as a reward for my hard work. For example, if I received a 2% increase, I increased by 401(k) contribution by 1% and kept the other."

Several posters also touched on the importance of not raiding retirement accounts once they're up and running. "The real trick with retirement accounts is to leave the money in the accounts and allow the accounts to grow over a lengthy period of time," said seaside1. "If you are an individual who changes jobs and chooses to cash out retirement account assets instead of rolling them over to another employer retirement account or rollover IRA, you will miss out on all the compound growth for those accumulated assets and may find yourself short for retirement funds."

'Just Start Something and Stick With It'

BBUDD suggested automating IRA contributions, to come close to the forced savings that accompany investing through a company retirement plan. "Sign up for automatic withdrawal from your checking account to fund your IRA to its maximum," this poster advised.

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