How a 25-year-old first-generation immigrant making $62,000 a year in New York spends her money
CNBC
3/10/2021
Replay Video
series, which details how people around the world earn, spend and save their money.
Ask Maria Melchor how she spends her money, and the 25-year-old pulls up an elaborate budgeting system she has fine-tuned over the past few years. Whether it's going toward one of her many financial goals, is earmarked for rent or is slotted into the "unaccounted for" column, Melchor can account for nearly every cent she earns.
She didn't grow up being so fastidious with her finances. But the system is one of the ways Melchor has taught herself to make sense of her money, a topic she once found difficult to navigate.