Moving Out at 18?
June 21st 2007 12:51
You’re about to start college and you want to – what? – move out on your own into an apartment? At the same time that you’re just starting college? Seems like a lot of extra money to spend when you have probably just loaded up on student loans. Here’s when this may be a good, or bad, idea.
Times when it’s good:
1. You are attending school too far away to drive. Depending on how cheap you can find an apartment, roommates, and the cost for living in a dorm on campus, this could be an okay idea.
For example, my room and board at school is $6,552 for the year. That would mean $546 per month for TWELVE months. I’m only there for nine months of the year. I probably could have found an apartment for around the same amount, or even cheaper. If I had a roommate, costs go down by half. (This only works if the addition of utilities and groceries added to rent cost less than the $546. If you want to go this route, do the math first before you jump into a lease on an apartment).
Okay, so I really only have that one instance when it’s a good idea, unless you have parents that are evil. And I don’t mean ones that make you clean your room every week either.
Times when it’s not so good:
1. You have a 45 minute or less drive from school to your parents’ house and they don’t make you pay rent. Even though it may be a drag, research what apartments cost in your area that you might want to stay in. Then, put that amount into a savings account (preferably one with a higher APY – for instance INGdirect or Emigrantdirect) every month for as long as you stay with your parents. If you can stand it, stay the full four years with your parents, and you will have a nice little amount to move out with.
The math: Say you find in your area one bedrooms cost around $525. (I’m from the Midwest, and you can find apartments this cheap, or cheaper, I swear!). That’s $6300 a year. For four years, you would accumulate $25,200! (This amount is without the interest added). Perhaps you’d like to instead think about using this as a down payment a small house. Or maybe you should have been using this money to pay for college, if it is not already covered by scholarships or other money you won’t have to pay back.
2. Even if your parents start charging you $200 a month for rent to stay at their place, try it for a year. The other $325 (from the above example) that you would have spent on your own place, put that in a savings account. (After a year this is $3900 in savings).
3. You haven’t been saving money and don’t have any type of “cushion” in case something unexpected happens. You never know what kind of unplanned things, and strange expenses that you never thought of might pop up. (I have to pay for water??!! Milk costs what??)
4. You haven’t done your homework. Research a few different apartments where you wouldn’t mind staying. Ask questions. What other utilities might you have to pay for? Are there laundry hook-ups in each apartment, are they on-site, or will you have to drive somewhere else just to do laundry?
Good luck in your apartment search and keep saving!
Times when it’s good:
1. You are attending school too far away to drive. Depending on how cheap you can find an apartment, roommates, and the cost for living in a dorm on campus, this could be an okay idea.
For example, my room and board at school is $6,552 for the year. That would mean $546 per month for TWELVE months. I’m only there for nine months of the year. I probably could have found an apartment for around the same amount, or even cheaper. If I had a roommate, costs go down by half. (This only works if the addition of utilities and groceries added to rent cost less than the $546. If you want to go this route, do the math first before you jump into a lease on an apartment).
Okay, so I really only have that one instance when it’s a good idea, unless you have parents that are evil. And I don’t mean ones that make you clean your room every week either.
Times when it’s not so good:
1. You have a 45 minute or less drive from school to your parents’ house and they don’t make you pay rent. Even though it may be a drag, research what apartments cost in your area that you might want to stay in. Then, put that amount into a savings account (preferably one with a higher APY – for instance INGdirect or Emigrantdirect) every month for as long as you stay with your parents. If you can stand it, stay the full four years with your parents, and you will have a nice little amount to move out with.
The math: Say you find in your area one bedrooms cost around $525. (I’m from the Midwest, and you can find apartments this cheap, or cheaper, I swear!). That’s $6300 a year. For four years, you would accumulate $25,200! (This amount is without the interest added). Perhaps you’d like to instead think about using this as a down payment a small house. Or maybe you should have been using this money to pay for college, if it is not already covered by scholarships or other money you won’t have to pay back.
2. Even if your parents start charging you $200 a month for rent to stay at their place, try it for a year. The other $325 (from the above example) that you would have spent on your own place, put that in a savings account. (After a year this is $3900 in savings).
3. You haven’t been saving money and don’t have any type of “cushion” in case something unexpected happens. You never know what kind of unplanned things, and strange expenses that you never thought of might pop up. (I have to pay for water??!! Milk costs what??)
4. You haven’t done your homework. Research a few different apartments where you wouldn’t mind staying. Ask questions. What other utilities might you have to pay for? Are there laundry hook-ups in each apartment, are they on-site, or will you have to drive somewhere else just to do laundry?
Good luck in your apartment search and keep saving!
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Comment by katyzzz
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And even then, it depends on what city you're in, 'cause costs can be WAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY too high to work out logically.
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