Need some advice: Should I move out on my own?

[ALago1]

Ok so here's the scenario:

I'm 22, just graduated college this past May and started working full time at the end of August. My job is an office gig at a software company and it doesn't pay an enormous amount of money. However, I'm very thankful to have it because most of my friends are still looking for someplace, anyplace, to work.

At the moment, I'm currently living back at home. I love my parents and my sister but I'm the type of person who likes to be alone and have a lot of private time and space. That's hard to get living where I'm living now.

There is a very nice studio apartment near my job I could rent that would cut my commuting time from 1-1.5 hours depending on traffic to 20-30 minutes. However, if I were to rent it, after counting additional expenses like food, gas, car insurance, etc, I would have a net amount of money equaling $400 per month for misc. personal spending and savings.

So, there exists a trade-off between living at home and getting a place by my job. If I stay at home I pocket pretty much all the salary I'm getting (minus car insurance), but don't get to be on my own and have privacy. If I take this apartment, I'd have a nice little living space of my own, all the privacy I need (which is great because my girlfriend and I get so little now!), and much less time sitting in traffic. But, I would be left little room for saving and personal spending.

So, I don't know how I should weigh my options and would love some advice from people who have either made similar decisions, or know what is more important. Thanks everyone!!

[tjdee]

1. You have a girlfriend? OUT NOW!!

I understand your desire to save money, but with the other factors you named, like privacy and decrease in commuting time, I'd go now.

When I read that you had a girlfriend (that I'm sure you're having sex with), I ESPECIALLY felt you should get your own space.

Sleepovers are nice, and that's coming from a person who won't be having any anytime soon.

[ALago1]

5. That is a major factor

I had my own little space in college that we could share which was so nice. I miss that now and may be one of the main reasons I decide to move.

[tjdee]

6. Honestly, that peace of mind/freedom factor may mean more than a few cds.

The best thing about moving out is the freedom to do what the hell you want. You want to leave the tv on all night? Sleep naked on the floor with a bottle of tequila next to you? You can.

That sense of freedom is worth sacrificing some personal things like clothes, cds, movies, etc., IMO.

[ALago1]

7. Very true. Thanks for your input!

nt

[tjdee]

9. Good luck with whatever you do--I didn't move out til way after 22....

but I wish I did!

[bullimiami]

2. can you live on 400 a month?

is your income completely fixed or do you have any prospects for overtime, outside work, freelance etc.....

whats your deal with bonus and raises?

evaluate, then decide.

good luck.

[ALago1]

4. Well, I'd be able to "live"

Rent, utilities, food, and all the basics would be able to be paid. It's just that I'd have little room for buying lots of personal things (books,music,clothes,etc.)

[Midlodemocrat]

17. Go for it.

I moved out when I was 23, earning the staggering sum of $9700 per year teaching school. It was the best move I ever made. I got closer to my family, because we weren't always in each others' faces, and I got to learn adult type things. I have never regretted it. You are young, and frankly, if you wait until you have enough money to do, you may never do it.

[buckettgirl]

26. you will learn

that all that stuff means nothing. you need personal supplies, and of course basic clothing needs must be met, but beyond that it is material goods. It all depends what you are willing to give up.
You can do this if you really want to, regardless of how much money you make - its HOW you handle your money that matters.

[tk2kewl]

3. If staying at home is part of a larger, well thought out plan

for your future, then stay home. If there isnt much of a plan and its just about a few bucks, go out on your own - let wings take dream.

[Nicholas_J]

8. You cant live on 400 a month beyond your rent

Trust me. Its almost impossible. You ewould be better off finding some friend you could split a place with that runs 500, or 550, and then just lock yourself in the room and not argue about the rest of the apartment. Its not hard to find a freid to live with as long as you can tolerate a lot, and not worry about the part of the house that is jointly shared. Otherwize you would be better off staying home and saving the money you save on rent in order to buy a place to live for yourself. It not hard to pick a condon in some areas of the country for the amount of money you can save in a couple of years if you really save and dont touch it. Even if you dint save enough, for the whole thing even being able to put down half on a condo brings your monthly mortgage down cheap.I was looking at ads for condo's near Myrtly Beach SC a few weeks ago and they even have efficiency condos running about 25 thousand You cna save half of that kind of money in a few years, and be paying less than 200 a month for all expenses having to do with a living place. There are likely to be things like this available all over the country and when you get a better job, even if you have to move, thats not an expensive item to keep paying for.

No matter what, the unexpected always happens and cutting yourself this thin is risky.

[ALago1]

10. Well, it's not 400 beyond just my rent

It's 400 beyond all necessary expenses. The 400 would be all I would have to allocate for savings and leisure.

On edit: I just started looking up the housing info you gave me. Interesting stuff. Thanks.

[tk2kewl]

11. I think it was 400 for savings and discretionary spending

after rent, car, food, bills, etc

[Nicholas_J]

16. I wish I had thought to ask for such advice when I was younger

Just if you find something, try to find something in the less than 40 thousand range, and than put at least 25 percent down AND get a 15 year mortage. It only raises your monthly payment a little, and a lot more of it goes to principal rather than interest, so you end up with equity much quicker. Then if you want to sell it, you can do so for less than you paid, eat the loss, and consider the money you saved in buying the thing rather than renting. As long as you dont end up owing money because you sold for less, you come out even.

Another thing to consider.. especially if you are fresh out of school and dont own much is an RV. Even small ones provide as much room as your room at your parents, and have everything a single person needs to live. REntal spaces at RV parks are not expensive oiif you rent them long term and remember, if you get a job offer somewhere else in the country. you move your home with you and dont have to thinks about apartments and moving everything and such. Satellite Dishes for the Dish Network are available for RV's and the Satellite Internet is not greately more expensive than CAble Internet. Sone new RV's cost as little as 40,000 and these models a few years old can be gotten for considerably less. Even a small one is as large as many efficiencies. Buyting one that is two or three years old can cost 20,000 or less, and if you can put doen half, again monthly payments with park rentals can be much less than renting an efficiency.

The Idiots Guide to RVing is a good book to tell you all about this stuff. I have been seriously considering it myself. Then if you want to get out of a Red State and have enough money put aside to lvie for a while without work, you just fill up the tank and go go go.

[buckettgirl]

25. I beg to differ!

You can if you really want to! Thats all it comes down to...what are you willing to sacrifice for your freedom?
I've lived off less, and I have never not been able to pay my bills.
You have your whole life to save money and buy a house.
I have several examples, but here is one:
This past July, my husband lost his job. He was only making a net pay of just under $1000/month FOR BOTH OF US (i'm in college). We could have moved in with my parents (they offered) to see how things panned out, but NO! We wanted our own freedom from my parents, especially since we're married. We have no savings, but we managed to find a new house to rent in another town where he found work, and pay all the deposits necessary, even though it meant doing without because we wanted our freedom.

[Nicholas_J]

30. Unfortunately

Once you are out on your own, a lot more than you could ever plan for occurs and it occurs far more often than you would like to beleive. If you think you can do it on 400 you end up needing 600. A good rule of thumb is to do a budget and than add fifty percent to it in order to deal with the unexpected, If it doesnt happen you have some savings as a buffer, if it does, and is always does ou are okay and dont have to keep hitting parents up to help. The worse expense is always rent, and utilities continually go up a lot more than your salary does, so does food. Rent starts at 400and in a few years its up to 500. And your salary does not og up as high as your cost of living ever (Thisis why the Reagan administration changed the way CPI was calculated in 1983, in order to remove some of the items that go up the most when calculating inflation, in order to allow bosses to give raises thatare lower thant COLA) I remember during the carter administration when inflation went into double digits. Using the old style way of calculating COLA's I got 8 percent for several years, and then when Reagan came in and changed the method of calculating, the new scale reduced thisto 4 percent even though on the old scale the rate would have still been closer to 6 percent. And thats only in jobs that you have contracts for COLA's in. Once reagan wqas in office, my county government job decidedd to be more like "businesses" and got rid of COLA's totally and only gave fixzed merit raises of 3.5 percent. Private indistry doesnt even do this at all so raises never keep up with cost of living. Its best to find some way of minimizing your housing costs and then you can live on a very minimal salary.

[buckettgirl]

31. But

That is one of the stumbling blocks of life that everyone has to deal with or we'd never leave our parents house. Once you get started and get a taste of what's like and are able to get a realistic idea based on experience, everything does fall into place - for some people sooner than others.
Again, if you want it bad enough, its possible. And it is more about managing money than having 'enough' - there's no such thing has having enough money; the more you make, the more your lifestyle changes and you end up needing that increased amount to accomodate your lifestyle, its an endless cycle.

[Nicholas_J]

35. Its also a good idea

to not just leap out and do what you want without looking at all of the possible things that can go wrong, adn that you need to ocnsider before doing them. 22 is not all that olkd, and waiting a few years to get onself a little nest egg as a buffer is a smart thing to do. I had a friend much younger than myself who did exactly what is beingg discussed here and kept having to move back home intermittently because they underestimated what they would need, adn underprepared for unforseen evants. In fact the amount of money they kept losing by
moving in and out of apartments and losing security depositd and such or having to pay two months rent to get out of the leases would have easily put down a down sizable down payment on a condo, which in fact her parents ended up doing. They simply went out and spent 23,000 dollars on a condo west of Fort Lauderdale in a rlatively nice neighborhood and then she could live well enough on her salalry to not have to worry about much because the major expense of a living place was gone. Arrange for that first and you can pretty much live on almost any salary, in particular one in a new job that you could lose in a few months to outsourcing or even if you have not gotten past your first year on the job and passedany sort of probation period. Until a person has a job for at least a year, it is not a secure job. So its is best to wait until you have at least a year under the belt on the job before counting on it as a long term situation. In that year a person could save almost five thousand alone as a down patment and as much as ten thousand if they are careful and then it would be a lot less expensive to live

[MatrixEscape]

12. One suggestion:

If you could, why not save big time like a squirrel for four to six months so that you have some rainy day money before you move out?

That $400 is going to go fast and you may not be saving much at that point. Pay yourself first, as they say.

Without some backup cash, you could be living on the edge.

[jmm]

13. Do you have any money saved?

How secure do you feel at your job? Are you sure this studio is the best deal you can find?

I recently moved out on my own a couple of years after graduating. I could've done so sooner but I wanted to make sure that I had some emergency money saved up (about four months of rent) in addition to moving expenses and new furniture. Also it was important to me to feel that I would be at my job for awhile.

[ALago1]

14. Well I do have about 3K saved up (plus 10K in investments)

This studio, because I sort of know the person renting it, is done on a month-to-month basis. So, if some unforseen catastrophe occur, such as a job loss, I can just pick up and leave (after giving 2 months notice).

[neohippie]

21. since you have some savings

I was going to say stay at home and save some money, but you sound like you have your act together already. Move, I live alone and there is nothing like it. Roommates invite disaster.

[miss_kitty]

15. well are cds books and crap more important than privacy?

you can burn CDs outta the library, or borrow from friends. There are DJ and Bootleg sites you can download music for free that don't involve P2P file sharing.

And what is your time worth? Even being closer to work, could you use public transport? Read on the way to work, save more money by not driving your car-I have a friend in Manhattan who leaves her car at mom's in Bronxville, mostly. Make your lunch and bring snacks. That'll stretch your leftover $$$.

Make some savings out of that $400-that is very important.

Your folks love you, but they probably are waiting for the day. I can't tell you how crestfallen my sis-in-law looked when she told me a couple of the kids were coming back. "I raised my kids to move out at 18!" has been her mantra, though she misses them when they are gone.

[LaurenG]

18. Go on, move you'll be fine and you'll like it

22 is old enough, I was way gone by then. Yes I did eat many pb and j sandwiches and tons of bologna but I loved it. You too can do this. You can :party: and:toast: and be :silly:

[Left Is Write]

19. I would, unless there is...

...something significant that you are saving for, such as a down payment on a house. It would be hard to save for that out of $400 discretionary income per month.

Otherwise, yes, I would move.

[Iris]

20. Do it now.

I know the $400 a month part seems scarey, but you will learn so much about yourself - how to take care of yourself, set priorities and goals, cook, clean, etc.

I lived with my parents for 3 years after I graduated college, mostly b/c I thought I couldn't live without a tv and a nice sofa. Seriously. Now I wish I would have just plunged in and learned to figure stuff like that out on my own. I really wouldn't have had a lot, but at least I would have had my self-respect.

My parents still hold this 3 years against me, but hopefully you don't have that problem. . . .

[nonconformist]

22. Honest opinion?

Move out.

Sure, it will be tight and there is always the risk of living on Ramen intermittently, but I doubt you'll regret it.

I never had the opportunity to live by myself. I grew up in a house with far too many people living in it (extended family), so the only alone time you got there was in the bathroom with someone (or 4) banging on the door.

I had roommates in college, and afterward I had a series of roommates. I was actually in the process of trying to figure out if I could swing a studio alone when I met my future husband. So I stayed put with the roommates until we married, to save money.

10 years and two kids later, again the only alone time I get is in the bathroom with people banging on the door (and we have two bathrooms, go figure). I still have that nagging desire to live alone, btw.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have definitely made more of an effort to get my own place even if it meant taking a second job. It was awkward enough at times living with friends and having boyfriends over, I can only imagine what it's like still living at home. How do your parents feel about you moving out?

I haven't read the other replies, but I would personally look at it like this: if you can cover all your expenses with cushion (and it appears that you can), move. If not - or you really think it will be tight - spend a couple of months literally saving every penny you can to build up an emergency savings fund first. As well, and you probably don't want to hear this, but if you happen to fail and are forced to move back home - you're only 22. It happens and it won't be a life-changing setback.

Besides, own pad = girlfriend love you long time.

[Nikia]

23. That's plenty, especially if you already have savings

And really did realistically calculate your expenses. If you are spending most of that money on stuff, you will end up with a lot of stuff. My husband and I have a large cd and book library only buying a few of each every month. After a while, as your apartment gets cluttered, having more stuff won't seem like such a need. It is also good to get in the habit of budgeting now. There may come a time in the future, when you will have even less discetionary income, like if you have children, medical expenses, accidently buy too much car or house to afford, or lose your job. Many people have much less.
For me, having space, freedom, and time (I have not even considered commuting much more than 30 minutes to work) would very much be worth it. Of course I married out of college and my sister literally starved before briefly moving back home so I may come from a different point of view.

[buckettgirl]

24. well...

you have graduated from college, and you're 22... MOVE OUT!
It's time for you to move out. I'm sure that even though your parents aren't saying anything, they're praying for the day they get their house to themselves.
I have lived on my own since I graduated high school (I was only 17 then)...Its hard, living is hard, but you gotta do it sometime!
At least you have a college education to back you up, I was making minimum wage when I moved out. If I could do it, you can do it.
I know I don't know you at all, but generally speaking, I (and alot of people I know) don't have much respect for people who live with their parents at that age.

[Gryffindor_Bookworm]

27. I would suggest......

that you stay at home until you've saved approximately 6 months' salary. That gives you a serious "cushion," and you will be starting your adult life out in much better shape. Your anxiety level will be less, and that's worth more than I can possibly describe. It's certainly worth a couple more months of little privacy. Being on your own for the first time can be quite a shock, and a nice little cushion in the bank is a great buffer.

Best to you! :hi:

[PittPoliSci]

28. do you have any student loans?

if you do, i'd pay those bastards off before i consider moving out.

[Nikia]

33. I don't even have half of my loan paid off

I've been out of college for 4 years. I had 4 years of the maximum amount of federal subsidized loan. If he has that type of loan, it will probably take at least a year before he'd have that paid off even if he did put most of his salary towards it. Federal loans don't have that bad of an interest rate. As long as you can keep up with the payments, there is nothing to worry about. If you find yourself losing your professional job and making near minimum wage, you can have your loan payment reduced to a percent of your income. Many people have larger car loan payments even if he did borrow as much as I did.

[Droopy]

29. If it's $400 a month beyond all expenses including food

I'd say you won't be sitting too badly. It'll be tight. You'll have to watch your expenses, but I think you'll be able to get by alright. Just do yourself a favor and stay away from credit card debt. With only $400 of discretionary income you cannot afford to run up your credit cards. If you do you'll have $0 discretionary income and may actually find yourself going backwards and further into debt trying to keep up with the bills.

[liontamer]

32. move out

saving is important, but you can get away with saving less when you're 22. for the next few years it's good for you to learn to live on your own.

[skygazer]

34. Get out

You're in a perfect position to get out on your own relatively painlessly. You can afford it and there is a suitable place available.

It's important to have your own space and to take care of yourself. Don't wait until you're ready to move in with a girlfriend or get married - this is the time to have your own life. Besides, it will give your parents a break, no matter how much they love you or love having you there.

In addition, it will show them you CAN take care of yourself, something we parents worry about. I can see absolutely no advantage to remaining at home - there is nothing better than independence.