It’s graduation time. The National Center for Education Statistics estimates that 1,882,000 individuals are graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 2017. If you’re among these recent college graduates, you may think you know everything you need to succeed in life. That’s what all those expensive courses were for, right? But there’s one more essential lesson you still need. It’s about your personal finances.

In college, your financial goals were probably pretty basic. You needed to pay for tuition, textbooks and hopefully a little pizza now and again. Now that you’ve graduated, you’ll need new long-term financial goals. To reach these goals, you’ll need a budget that includes all your expenses. That way, you won’t have to call your parents when you realize you can’t cover rent. You also need to decide where to live; sticking around your college town might not be the best option anymore.

Don’t worry – we’ll keep this lesson short. Instead of lectures and textbooks, you can learn the basics from the infographic below.

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