In general - stay out of debt and prioritise it for any incoming money.
- pay off debts first before worrying about "savings" - if you have a mortgage consider putting in extra to help avoid paying as much in interest - you can usually find some arrangement that you can dip back into if needed.
- pay off credit card first of all as it generally has highest interest rates - do not carry any amount beyond a month except if you know you are going to be paying it off (plus interest etc) next month - even then, make sure you pay the minimum amounts.
- beware of cash advance rules with credit cards: often it is the last money to be paid off and you'll continue paying if you don't get a payout amount. Treat this as a last resort for absolute emergencies and pretty much go without eating to get the whole amount on credit card paid off. Far better to buy something for someone else and get cash off them if you needed the cold hard cash.
- never go guarantor for anyone, not even family - lend the money instead so you are not on the hook for them deciding not to pay.
- don't go into debt for luxuries like holidays, clothes, presents etc
- try to avoid finance wherever possible - don't be fooled into thinking that you need to "get a credit history" by signing up to debt when you have the money - avoid those "interest free" scams with buying furniture etc as they tend to hide the fact that you'll be paying monthly fees that probably exceed just paying for it.
It's unfortunate that our tax system favours speculation and debt driven stuff over savings, but that still isn't a good reason in my book to go with negative gearing.
- get a high interest savings account to keep the pool of money that is not put into longer term savings (so you can transfer in and out into your day to day savings account which will pay zero)
- divide your salary into your day to day and have some go off into a savings account and try not to touch the savings side except to put into longer term - be realistic about that division though - you want to have to dip into it as an exception - not every week.
- aim to have enough in savings to go for X months without any pay as a buffer - as soon as you get a job after studying aim to get this buffer and then work will be less of a "stuck with it" and more of a "well, I can leave and still be fine for X months". Push this window out as much as you can without living on bread and gruel.
- invest in low cost index funds that track the overall stockmarket (e.g. like Vanguard) - largely forget about these and leave them alone - top them up each month or whenever possible after you've paid your bills.
- forget buying individual shares - you are not going to beat the index funds on average (remember the "Actively managed" funds with full time "experts" watching them 24/7 fail to beat the index funds on average and charge much more for the privilege of being a worse performer)
- diversify your savings when you can afford to - don't put everything in one basket - e.g. shares: consider Australian + International. Or split between index share fund and index property funds.
- going into something that requires debt or risk purely for tax reasons is probably not worth it because you'll end up paying more to a bank anyhow and you carry the risk of having an asset worth less than your debt plus all the application fees/charges
- always consider opportunity cost with any investment - what else could the money earn. Same with your time really - consider what a minimum wage job would earn you as a base for something that's time intensive (e.g. like spending 5 hours a night watching and trading stock market - vs working at McDonalds for that same time with zero risk)
- consider entry/exit fees of various investments - housing is one that everyone glosses over - you might have to spend $60K or more on lawyers/loan fees/inspections/agent fees etc. Also consider the time lag to get your money out.
- pay attention to your super when you move jobs - roll multiple accounts into one or you're paying for unnecessary things like insurance/acct fees etc. There's an automated government service to do this now so this really shouldn't be an issue ever again.
- if you can't understand the basis for some complex investment - chances are it's bullshit and you're better off avoiding.
- periodically review your investments every quarter or half year - don't do it nightly or you'll burn too much money on entry/exit/transfer type stuff.
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