People always say that boys mature slower than girls, there’s a truth to it. Boys stick to their toys when they are little. When they become working young men and are able to afford things for themselves, they not only stick to their fancier toys, but also constantly upgrade them. Shiny game consoles, cool electronic gadgets and turbo-charged computers – all the stuff that doesn’t come cheap, men want it.

Young men also spend a lot of money to impress friends, especially girls, but never seem to be worried about savings. They impress their way through life as if they could fund their lifestyle forever.

But seriously, if you are a young man in your early career, you should start saving money today. Your lifestyle is not going to stay the same forever. As the focus of your life shifts, you need to save money for a lot of more important things in your future.

Engagement ring
You can wait until 35 or even 40 to get married. Compared to women, there’s not that much pressure on men if they stay single that long. But unless you are determined to be a bachelor for life or retire to a monastery, you will get married at some point in time.

And who knows if your dream girl might just turn up some day? When that time comes, the first big thing you need to spend on is the engagement ring for your future wife.

What kind of woman doesn’t like diamonds – those sparkling stones which are supposed to be rare but there’s always a glut, and they are always overpriced.

Believe it or not, women use the size of the engagement ring to measure how much you love them. (Yes, they deny it – but believe me dude, they do.)

Don’t be naïve to think your fiancée is not the stereotypical stone-loving woman. Even if she tells you the ring doesn’t really matter, she might be singing “Single Ladies” in the shower all the while measuring her finger.

Wedding
Don’t even bother to ask your future wife if she’s fine with a wedding at a roadside restaurant. You will even have a hard time trying to convince yourself.

A wedding ceremony with a big budget is almost a must, because that’s your face on the line. None of the friends of you or your wife is going to pour praises on you for your frugality.

You can use the gift money to pay back a temporary loan for the banquet, but a wedding always involves a lot of things and you shouldn’t expect everything to go smoothly according to plan. You will be thankful to have some savings you can use to pay for some of the cost upfront, or to make up for the difference if the total cost goes over your budget.

Raising a child
Don’t depend on the subsidies you’ll receive from the government, it’s never enough to raise a baby.

There’s the medical cost for the regular check-ups during your wife’s pregnancy, and then the delivery. Adding a ton of things you are going to buy for your newborn – yes you are and you definitely will – you’ll realize how some extra money comes in handy at that stage of your life.

Rainy days
You may think that you are still young and as long as you take care of yourself, you will always have your health. But you’ll meet surprises – pleasant or unpleasant – at every turn of your life.

In this fast-paced society, things change fast. Don’t get too comfortable even if you are working for a big company. What we should have learned from the past is that the world is fragile and we are all vulnerable. There’s never a shortage of crises  – financial or political, natural or man-made – and there’s no prediction for it. When a crisis hits, even big shots have difficulty hanging on to their jobs.

So start saving money as early as you can, you never know when the rainy days will come. Make it a habit to save money and look at it as your insurance for whatever financial challenges that might come up. You will thank yourself someday.

 

This article previously appeared on Yahoo.