7 Tips for Living on Your Own After College (And in General)
Moving to a new city to live on your own can be exciting and daunting. Here are tips that have helped me in this new stage of my life
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Moving to a new city to live on your own after college to start your career or personal endeavors can be exciting and daunting at the same time. Now that I have lived on my own for the past 7 months in the New York City Metropolitan Area, here are some tips that have helped me in this new stage of my life.
1. Understand Your Budget
Understanding your budget is important. Knowing where every cent in you have and earn goes is necessary in becoming a master of your finances. Some of the common things you should budget for every month are rent, transportation, bills, groceries, personal care, discretionary (entertainment, eating out, etc.), saving, and investing. If you think you see that you are paying too much in any area that your income cannot keep up with such as your rent or transportation cost, work out the reasons why.
Take a step back and become understanding of what is truly necessary in this stage of your life. If your rent is more than 30% of your gross monthly income, maybe you should consider getting a roommate or adjusting another portion of your budget. If your transportation, such as a car, is more than 20% of your gross income, you should reconsider if that car you have is necessary for where you are at in your life.
A simple way of understanding your budget is by using Mint. Their app simplifies my budgeting. I am all for simplification. Some things in life do not have to be complex and your budget is one of them. Mint allows you to connect your various accounts to its platform, allowing you to see your income, expenses, and balances all in one place. Also, you get free access to your TransUnion Vantage credit score.
You can also elect to go with the Excel spreadsheet route, which Mint offers a useful simple template for.
2. Avoid Having too Many Subscriptions
Do you need 14 different subscriptions? Most likely not. This goes with understanding your…
