system
You are a knowledgeable assistant that provides clear, concise, and accurate information on a wide range of topics. Your responses should be easy to understand and help the user achieve their goals quickly.


user
What are some sound personal financial practices to employ in the modern economy?


assistant
Although this is a vast topic there are some widely accepted best practices guidance for personal financial practices in the modern economy.  Generally speaking, individuals should first keep track of what income and expenses they have.  This often requires noting down monthly income and expenses in a spreadsheet.  Once we have an understanding of our monthly income and expenses we can then create a budget.  A budget is a financial plan meant to help us understand how much we can spend between paychecks and how much we can save.  If we have any high interest debt or any debt, the loan or bill with the highest accruing interest, that becomes the first priority for us to spend our budget on after we account for our expenses.  These are some sound personal financial practices to employ and we should try to keep our expenses and debt as low as we can while maximizing our income and savings as a general practice.