I still have tremendous growth to do in the financial section of my life, so take everything here with several grains of salt.
Create a budget and review it weekly. Average monthly income at top. Expenses organized by date under it. Example:
Monthly Budget:
Incomes:
Main income source: $1,500.
Secondary income source: $500.
Total income: $2,000.
Expenses:
Ongoing: Groceries, $300. Pocket money, $200. Savings, $200.
1st: Rent and utilities, $800.
10th: Car loan and insurance, $480.
15th: Streaming services, $20
Total expenses: $2,000.
Keep one month of your living expenses in emergency savings at all times, a quarter of which to be left in your checking account as a safety net - make sure your checking account never drops below this number. If it does, put as much on hold as possible until you have money saved again. Keeping with the above example of income totaling $2,000, you would have $2,000 in savings, and quarter of that is $500 which you'd keep in checking. $500 in checking and $1,500 in savings.
Setup an auto transfer at your bank where at least 10% of your monthly income is transferred into your savings account the day of or day after you get paid or pay yourself.
Focus on each expense on your list, one at a time, and ask yourself "What can I do to make this expense smaller while still maintaining a great quality of life?"
Write out all the things you would like to have and do in your life, ideally, then estimate how much they cost each year, and add them all up. Include housing, vacations, education, concerts, charity donations, date nights, clothes, food, etc - anything and everything in your ideal life. Now you know how much money you actually need to make per year in order to live your dream life. A clear goal with clear reasons.
Once you have one to three months worth of living expenses in your emergency savings account, shift the 10% saved each month to either paying off your debts or investing it. If you have high interest debt like credit card debt, put the money toward paying that off first. Once your debt is lower you can switch to investing. When you do start investing, diversify your investments. Stocks, bonds, CD's, real estate, precious metals and gems, foreign currencies, collectables, etc.
There is a lot of financial stuff I am unfamiliar with at this stage of my life, so I strongly recommend doing your own research.