Now that we have all of our finances squared away, it's time to start talking about living situations. There's a couple options you can go with - each with their own positives and negatives. You should think carefully about where you'd like to spend your money on living because chances are that you'll be staying there for the next 12 months.
LIVING AT HOME:
Living at mom and dad's place can seem tempting to anyone. They've probably provided you with shelter for the past 18 years, have fed you, clothed you, given you a bed to sleep in, and all in a comfortable and safe environment. So it seems pretty appealing to keep staying with them, right? Well, yeah, but the whole reason you're reading this is hopefully because you're ready to move out and move on with your life. To be quite honest, you start to look pretty silly and or pathetic when you're in your mid to late twenties still living at home. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people in situations all over where this works fine. Some people have medical issues. Some people didn't spend and save their money wisely before and are now forced to live with mom and dad. What I'm trying to say is that if you need to live with mom and dad, that's totally fine, but you should limit yourself to how long you're going to do it. You should also check to make sure it's fine with them in the first place. Lot's of parents I know allow their kids to live at home after college but ask that they pay rent. It's a much lower rent cost than usual, but it's still rent. If you're still worried about making regular rent payments, check out my previous post on budgeting here.
RENTING WITH ROOMMATES:
This is a fantastic option for those of you looking to move out of your parents house but either still want to save some money or don't feel comfortable all on your own just yet. Or, you know, both. It's also a great transition between college life and the real world as it gives you a bit of a padder from the safety net of university and being a real grown up. Renting with roommates generally lets you live in a bigger and or nicer place in a nicer area. If rent for a cute two bedroom apartment in a really safe neighborhood is $750 to $800, then you're only paying $375 to $400 a month per person! Of course you'll have to share the living space and kitchen (and possibly bathroom) but it'll be a nicer place and probably closer to more interesting things. You can either choose to live with a friend or with a stranger also looking for a roommate. If you're looking in a place or at a time when none of your friends are looking for an apartment, there are these sites here where you can search for a roommate the way you might look for a date online: roommates.com easyroommate.com roomsurf.com The last one is generally for students still in college but I included it anyways. With any sort of situation like this, please be sure to be careful with who you choose to live with. Do a quick background check. Ask for references. Ask how they like to live at home and see if it matches up with you. All in all, just use common sense and be safe!
RENTING ALONE:
Renting your first apartment alone can be scary and exciting all at the same time. You get to decide everything about where you want to live and what it looks like inside and out. Well, within what's available to you and what you can afford. But still, everything inside that apartment will be yours for the duration of your lease and you won't have to share it with anyone! No roommates to steal your food from the fridge, no annoying siblings or parents to play loud music when you want to sleep, it's just you! Sure, it might be tiny and stuffy and not have a dishwasher but you can claim that dinky little place as yours and yours alone and be proud of it! The best resource I've found when looking for an apartment is padmapper.com. It compiles together a list and map of all the apartments for rent around you through all sources such as Craigslist, PadLister, ApartmentSearch, ApartmentFinder, and more. You can also change filters based on cost, # of bedrooms and bathrooms, full leases/sublets/rooms, pet friendly and more. It's a great way to search all the apartments around you without having to go through ten separate sites and filtering all those other things on your own.
BUYING A HOUSE:
This is a stupid choice - don't do it.
So those are your main choices for living situations now! If you find yourself homeless, please check out this site for links to finding a shelter near you or talk to a friend or mentor about your next move. It's okay! You can do this! Check back for the next post on finding, applying for, and renting your first apartment! We'll get into the nitty-gritty on things like deposits, contracts, and more!
Friday, May 30, 2014
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Money - SPENDING (and saving)
Okay, now that you theoretically have money (or will soon) we can start to talk about what to do with it. This is actually my favorite part of being an adult. Making a budget and figuring out exactly what you have to spend where. This is the real base of everything else in your life, it's how you know what you can afford to do - and then do it!
Budgeting. This is the key to living within your means, staying out of debt, and having extra cash to spend on fun things. The budgeting tool I use is Mint. No, I'm not paid to endorse this website, I really do just love to use it and think it's the best budgeting tool out there (it even has a smart phone app!). There's lots of categories you have to budget for but first lets focus on the things I said awhile ago in a prior post. Shelter, Food, Clothing, Transportation, and Health-Care. Let's also throw in a short term savings fund and a long term savings fund like retirement. And yes, it's important to start saving for retirement now, even if it seems a million years away from now.
Okay. Let's say you make minimum wage here in Pennsylvania. Some of you don't think you can survive on this but trust me, you can. Let's break it down. If you work 40 hours a week on $7.25 an hour, this is what everything will look like:
Hours Per Week: 40
Hourly Wages: $7.25
Total Gross Income Per Year: $15,080.00
Total Net Income Per Year: $14,577.20
Total Monthly Net Income: $1,122.00
Total Bi-Weekly Net Income: $561.00
Total Weekly Net Income: $280.50
If you're not sure what Gross or Net means, basically Gross means everything you would earn before taxes and deductions and Net means after those are taken out, so Net is what you get to take home. Depending on where you live your taxes can change pretty drastically so it's best to do research on what your taxes look like in your area before you start using my numbers and budgeting for yourself. The tool I used to find these numbers was from this simple conversion calculator. Again, be sure to do your own research on what your actual net income will look like based on your income, location, taxes, and etc, but for now, we'll use what's above.
The two big things you want to look at are generally the Bi-Weekly income (for me it's actually Bi-Monthly) and, more importantly, Monthly Net income. The monthly number will tell you exactly how much you have to spend each month. That's it. No more, no less.
So now you have $1,122.00 to work with each month. With this thousand and some odd dollars you need to make it stretch to at least cover your 5 basics from above. A quick look at local apartments for rent near me tells me that the cheapest apartment is listed about $450 a month plus gas and electric for a small 1 bedroom apartment. (It'll be a shitty apartment, no doubt, but it'll do the job.) Gas for this building is $0 in the summer because most things are run on electric but in the winter it will probably be around $100 a month. If you split your money up and save for the winter, you'll be putting aside $50 a month for gas, and electric usually never goes above $20 for an apartment of this size.
What we have so far:
Income: $1,122.00
Rent: $450.00
Gas: $50.00
Electric: $20.00
Left over: $602.00
So now we have $602 to work with for the remaining 4 necessities. You took a big chunk of your paycheck out just with rent and utilities but bear with me; you can budget for everything else on $600. The next biggest thing should be transportation. At this income I don't suggest buying a car so finding local transportation is important. The local bus and train system in Pittsburgh has passes for various length of time needs but a pass for a month is $97.50. Let's assume that if you can't get a co-worker to drive you, you'll be taking something similar for a similar price. Take your $97.50 out of the remaining $602 and now you have $504.50.
Now you have a place to sleep and a way to get to work. Food and clothes come next. To start, budget very small for clothing. Save the amount each month if you want or use it at stores like goodwill but to start, set aside about $25 a month for clothing. It's not a lot, but it'll get the job done when you need it to. Food is important too but dining out is expensive. Set aside $125 a month for groceries. That's not a lot either but it's actually more than enough for someone who's sensible about what they buy. I lived on that for more than enough time.
The last of the 5 necessities you need to save for is Medical Insurance. If you're not eligible to be under your parents coverage any more (you can covered by them if they let you until the age of 26) then your cheapest option is averaged about $36 (or less!) per month in my area for your premium (this doesn't include deductibles or co-pays if you get sick though, so be careful). A good tool to find out what plans you can apply for are at this website. Now that we have all of our 5 major costs out of the way, lets add it up.
Rent: $450.00
Gas: $50.00
Electric: $20.00
Transportation: $97.50
Food: $125.00
Clothes: $25.00
Medical: $36.00
Total: $803.50
Total left over subtracted from monthly income: $318.50
Wow! I bet you didn't think you could come away with over $300 in your pocket every month with a minimum wage job! It's only when you start to add in the other non-necessities that that pocket change gets smaller. Phone bills, internet, going out to eat, movies, and all that other stuff really starts to add up so when you do decide to do those things, make sure you budget for them. It is so incredibly important to live within your means. That means no taking out credit cards to pay for things you can't afford. No "Well I'm sure I'll make the money up later this month or next month!". And no "But it was just so (pretty, cool, new, nice, etc) and I deserve to treat myself!". Yes, you can treat yourself but dammit just listen to me and budget for it! Now if you were me, you'd put most of that $318.50 into savings accounts.
Savings accounts will do exactly what their name's say, save! They generate income for you just by leaving it there. It's always wise to have an emergency fund for unexpected disasters so start by putting $100 of that into your emergency fund. (This suggestion is actually a very strong one. There's a story in progress about my having to use my emergency fund, and boy am I glad that it's there.) Put another $100 in a retirement fund. It's not a lot now but you can always increase how much you put in later and trust me, when you're 70 you'll appreciate that you started putting away that $100 when you were so young. Now you have $118.50 a month to do with as you please! Save it for vacation, go to conventions, get cable or internet! You can add in budgets for furnishings, entertainment, basically whatever you want that's fun. This is a great place to start, and I hope it showed you that living on even the smallest amount of money is do-able. It's not so scary when everything's lined out in front of you like this. So get started! Make your own budget now! Let me know how yours works out and what you added and took out!
My Story:
I went back and looked at all my logged finances from my first three months living income and spending on my own. At the time I was just finishing working for the daycare and transitioning into nannying so everything fluctuated a bit. Here's the summary of the median amounts of all expenses for those three months:
Income: $1,808.00
Public Transport*: $100.00
Auto Insurance*: $108.50
Auto Payment*: $200.00
Auto Gasoline*: $41.00
Utilities: $34.33
Student Loan: $216.66
Music: $12.66
Groceries: $175.66
Furnishings: $90.66
Rent: $525.00
Hair: $0.00
Pet Food and Supplies*: $26.00
Clothing*: $42.00
Uncategorized**: $716.66
Short-term Savings: $288.00
Long-term Savings: $147.00
* Indicates that I didn't have these expenses every month. I stopped using public transportation after a month and bought a car so for two of the months logged there are auto insurance, payment, and gas instead. I also adopted a cat in the third month. The numbers in the lines are those of the median of however many months I had that expense. So two months of auto insurance divided by two. Or one month of cat expenses divided by one.
** Uncategorized is outrageously high because in the second month I bought a car as stated above and spend quite a pretty penny on it. This was a saved for item and has sense skewed my numbers to show you here.
If you add up and divide all of my transportation expenses by two, it comes to a rough $225 per month for those months. If you do this and ignore the uncategorized which was planned and saved for, I come out spending just under my income for each month. Not bad!
Budgeting. This is the key to living within your means, staying out of debt, and having extra cash to spend on fun things. The budgeting tool I use is Mint. No, I'm not paid to endorse this website, I really do just love to use it and think it's the best budgeting tool out there (it even has a smart phone app!). There's lots of categories you have to budget for but first lets focus on the things I said awhile ago in a prior post. Shelter, Food, Clothing, Transportation, and Health-Care. Let's also throw in a short term savings fund and a long term savings fund like retirement. And yes, it's important to start saving for retirement now, even if it seems a million years away from now.
Okay. Let's say you make minimum wage here in Pennsylvania. Some of you don't think you can survive on this but trust me, you can. Let's break it down. If you work 40 hours a week on $7.25 an hour, this is what everything will look like:
Hours Per Week: 40
Hourly Wages: $7.25
Total Gross Income Per Year: $15,080.00
Total Net Income Per Year: $14,577.20
Total Monthly Net Income: $1,122.00
Total Bi-Weekly Net Income: $561.00
Total Weekly Net Income: $280.50
If you're not sure what Gross or Net means, basically Gross means everything you would earn before taxes and deductions and Net means after those are taken out, so Net is what you get to take home. Depending on where you live your taxes can change pretty drastically so it's best to do research on what your taxes look like in your area before you start using my numbers and budgeting for yourself. The tool I used to find these numbers was from this simple conversion calculator. Again, be sure to do your own research on what your actual net income will look like based on your income, location, taxes, and etc, but for now, we'll use what's above.
The two big things you want to look at are generally the Bi-Weekly income (for me it's actually Bi-Monthly) and, more importantly, Monthly Net income. The monthly number will tell you exactly how much you have to spend each month. That's it. No more, no less.
So now you have $1,122.00 to work with each month. With this thousand and some odd dollars you need to make it stretch to at least cover your 5 basics from above. A quick look at local apartments for rent near me tells me that the cheapest apartment is listed about $450 a month plus gas and electric for a small 1 bedroom apartment. (It'll be a shitty apartment, no doubt, but it'll do the job.) Gas for this building is $0 in the summer because most things are run on electric but in the winter it will probably be around $100 a month. If you split your money up and save for the winter, you'll be putting aside $50 a month for gas, and electric usually never goes above $20 for an apartment of this size.
What we have so far:
Income: $1,122.00
Rent: $450.00
Gas: $50.00
Electric: $20.00
Left over: $602.00
So now we have $602 to work with for the remaining 4 necessities. You took a big chunk of your paycheck out just with rent and utilities but bear with me; you can budget for everything else on $600. The next biggest thing should be transportation. At this income I don't suggest buying a car so finding local transportation is important. The local bus and train system in Pittsburgh has passes for various length of time needs but a pass for a month is $97.50. Let's assume that if you can't get a co-worker to drive you, you'll be taking something similar for a similar price. Take your $97.50 out of the remaining $602 and now you have $504.50.
Now you have a place to sleep and a way to get to work. Food and clothes come next. To start, budget very small for clothing. Save the amount each month if you want or use it at stores like goodwill but to start, set aside about $25 a month for clothing. It's not a lot, but it'll get the job done when you need it to. Food is important too but dining out is expensive. Set aside $125 a month for groceries. That's not a lot either but it's actually more than enough for someone who's sensible about what they buy. I lived on that for more than enough time.
The last of the 5 necessities you need to save for is Medical Insurance. If you're not eligible to be under your parents coverage any more (you can covered by them if they let you until the age of 26) then your cheapest option is averaged about $36 (or less!) per month in my area for your premium (this doesn't include deductibles or co-pays if you get sick though, so be careful). A good tool to find out what plans you can apply for are at this website. Now that we have all of our 5 major costs out of the way, lets add it up.
Rent: $450.00
Gas: $50.00
Electric: $20.00
Transportation: $97.50
Food: $125.00
Clothes: $25.00
Medical: $36.00
Total: $803.50
Total left over subtracted from monthly income: $318.50
Wow! I bet you didn't think you could come away with over $300 in your pocket every month with a minimum wage job! It's only when you start to add in the other non-necessities that that pocket change gets smaller. Phone bills, internet, going out to eat, movies, and all that other stuff really starts to add up so when you do decide to do those things, make sure you budget for them. It is so incredibly important to live within your means. That means no taking out credit cards to pay for things you can't afford. No "Well I'm sure I'll make the money up later this month or next month!". And no "But it was just so (pretty, cool, new, nice, etc) and I deserve to treat myself!". Yes, you can treat yourself but dammit just listen to me and budget for it! Now if you were me, you'd put most of that $318.50 into savings accounts.
Savings accounts will do exactly what their name's say, save! They generate income for you just by leaving it there. It's always wise to have an emergency fund for unexpected disasters so start by putting $100 of that into your emergency fund. (This suggestion is actually a very strong one. There's a story in progress about my having to use my emergency fund, and boy am I glad that it's there.) Put another $100 in a retirement fund. It's not a lot now but you can always increase how much you put in later and trust me, when you're 70 you'll appreciate that you started putting away that $100 when you were so young. Now you have $118.50 a month to do with as you please! Save it for vacation, go to conventions, get cable or internet! You can add in budgets for furnishings, entertainment, basically whatever you want that's fun. This is a great place to start, and I hope it showed you that living on even the smallest amount of money is do-able. It's not so scary when everything's lined out in front of you like this. So get started! Make your own budget now! Let me know how yours works out and what you added and took out!
My Story:
I went back and looked at all my logged finances from my first three months living income and spending on my own. At the time I was just finishing working for the daycare and transitioning into nannying so everything fluctuated a bit. Here's the summary of the median amounts of all expenses for those three months:
Income: $1,808.00
Public Transport*: $100.00
Auto Insurance*: $108.50
Auto Payment*: $200.00
Auto Gasoline*: $41.00
Utilities: $34.33
Student Loan: $216.66
Music: $12.66
Groceries: $175.66
Furnishings: $90.66
Rent: $525.00
Hair: $0.00
Pet Food and Supplies*: $26.00
Clothing*: $42.00
Uncategorized**: $716.66
Short-term Savings: $288.00
Long-term Savings: $147.00
* Indicates that I didn't have these expenses every month. I stopped using public transportation after a month and bought a car so for two of the months logged there are auto insurance, payment, and gas instead. I also adopted a cat in the third month. The numbers in the lines are those of the median of however many months I had that expense. So two months of auto insurance divided by two. Or one month of cat expenses divided by one.
** Uncategorized is outrageously high because in the second month I bought a car as stated above and spend quite a pretty penny on it. This was a saved for item and has sense skewed my numbers to show you here.
If you add up and divide all of my transportation expenses by two, it comes to a rough $225 per month for those months. If you do this and ignore the uncategorized which was planned and saved for, I come out spending just under my income for each month. Not bad!
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Money - Getting It
Dough. Green. Bucks. Cold-hard-cash. MONEY. Everyone needs it, everyone wants it, and everyone can get it. Let's talk about two things that have to do with money. 1) How to get it, and 2) What to do with it once you've got it. Today let's just cover the getting it part.
JOBS:
You might have noticed this before, so I hope I'm not spoiling anything, but money does not, in fact, grow on trees. Oh how lovely the world would be if dollar bills sprouted from your back-yard maple (actually it wouldn't but I won't go into economics, history, and trading methods with you guys) but alas, it does not. So how does more than 99% of the worlds population get their money? (I made that statistic up; please don't come after me.) They work for it. (Technically, yes, robbing a bank is still work. I mean come on. Someone has to be in the get-away car, someone has to crack that big-'ol safe, and there's usually hostage situations involved so don't tell me that's not work.)
So work. Your work. What are you going to do? What kind of job do you want? Do you want to do physical labor? Do you want to work with children? Do you have good people-skills? Find out what skills you have (and by skills I mean something tangible that you can write on an application unlike "Has philosophy degree."), what you can do, and where you can apply it. Because 9 times out of 10, even without a college degree, you can still do something in the field that you want.
But here's the thing: Sometimes, you just have to do some work that you don't want to do. Especially at the beginning. Everyone goes through it. You might have to work for a fast-food chain. You might have to do custodial work. You might put in 10 applications to 10 different general stores and the only one that will hire you is the Christian book store that wants you to sit alone at a kiosk in the mall selling bibles. And sometimes, you really do have to do it. But here's the kicker, the light at the end of the tunnel, the save-all, the happy-place. You may hate your job to hell and back again but I promise you two things. 1) You will have literal money to use however you need and want, and 2) You will not be with that job forever. Okay. Read it again. Know that what I say is true. You will have to work jobs you hate but you will not have to stay there forever.
Then again, it is very possible to find a job in a career field that you want to work in. Start at the bottom and work your way up. Think Monsters University. It's kind of silly but it's accurate. You very well can start in the mail room of a company that you're interested in. You can be a personal assistant to someone with the job that you want. So yes, you may have to take an irrelevant job to help pay the bills, but yes you can also find a job somewhere that will help you on the way to the job you really want if you can't get it right away.
You also very well may have to work more than one job. I certainly did and most people do. You may have 2 to 3 or more part time jobs, or you may have 1 full-time job and 1 part-time job. If you can swing the latter, I suggest that course. Applying for and obtaining any full-time job is a good thing. (Yes, a full time job in your career field is better than not, but given the choice between any full-time job or none, take the full-time one.) Looking for and getting a full-time 35 to 40 hour a week job shows that you're dedicated, willing to work hard, have some plans for what you're doing, and want to be doing what you're doing (Even if you're not, that's what your employers are looking for.).
Also, here's one more tip before we finish up. Working for free at a place that you absolutely love is, oddly enough, still working for free. If you're struggling to make ends meet or are just starting out, working for free should not be an option for you. You are wasting your time and also, you can't afford to not make money. Someone else will hire you with a paycheck included at a place that you are interested in. Unless you have written documentation that after a set amount of work salary-free to "learn the system", look elsewhere. I can not stress enough that you are wasting your time when you could be down the road at a similar place for $7.25 an hour. You don't have the luxury to give away your time at the moment. You may be young and new, but your time is still valuable. This is not to say that your deep connection with this one job isn't important, but unless there is an actual foreseeable future with this company, you can do what you're already doing elsewhere for minimum wage.
But you can't just sit around and hope a job comes to you. You have to be determined and persistent. Make call-backs to the job(s) you applied for (key being that you actually applied for something) a few days after an interview to show continued interest, and be patient! Something will come your way. Look for jobs near you if you don't have a fast way of getting there. If you have to walk to work you won't want to work more than a half hour away by foot. Know what hours you're going to be working and what your salary will look like. Make sure you ask about benefits too and try to get them! In all reality, finding a job sounds like a daunting and scary thing but once you have one, you'll be happy you do. I'll tell you my story now about what happened to me when I left school. Your story will be different but that's the whole point - to make your life yours!
My story:
When I left college in the Spring of 2013, the day after I came home for the last time, I had an interview with a day-care down the road from my mother's house. My passion is to work with children and I was lucky enough to have a mother that asked around about day-care positions back home while I figured out that a Child Life Specialist degree wasn't for me. I had decided that what I really wanted to do was to be a nanny but working in a day-care would suffice for the time being. I had known about this job interview for about a month and it was for a part-time position over the summer that I was interested in when I was still planning on continuing school. It wasn't even really a day-care position, but for a camp that the day-care ran every summer. But it was a job. It offered minimum wage in Pennsylvania at $7.25 an hour minus taxes. It had no paid sick days, no vacation days, no health benefits, and wasn't long term but again, it was a job.
When I showed up for the interview the next day I was wet and tired because I was still without transportation at the time and had to walk 30 minutes up hills in the rain with a broken umbrella. Otherwise, it was an interview like any other and my passion to work with kids quickly won me the position (although they're not supposed to tell you that when you apply but when you're good, you're good). Afterwards my interviewer and new summer boss asked me a bit about myself and what I was doing and naturally it came up that I had decided to leave college and had actually just moved home permanently the day before. I told her that I was actually looking for a full-time position somewhere soon and something sparked with my interviewer because I was quickly asked how soon was soon (ASAP of course) and in no time flat I was whisked away to see the director of the day-care herself.
Upon meeting the director I was asked what age group I most liked to work with (infants), if I had any experience with that age group (yes), and exactly when I could start (Monday). I was then asked if I had all of my certifications to work with kids (no, mine were expired, but they were easy enough to get) and then promptly was told that there was an opening in the infant room that they were desperately trying to fill and offered me the job there. I took the job in a heart beat and in 15 minutes my salary had increased from $7.25 an hour to $8.00 an hour with paid training starting on Monday (just two days away!) as long as I agreed to file for my certifications immediately. I did and that Monday I showed up ready and rearing to go.
That's how I got my first full-time job after moving home. It still didn't have sick days, vacation days, or any health benefits, but I was working 40 hours a week just above minimum wage in a field that I loved. I still had to work weekends and some nights babysitting for extra money and took every gig in my path but I was off to the races and with my new paychecks coming in I could finally start budgeting what I could do with it. It wasn't until a few months later that I was offered a position as a full-time nanny (my dream job!) and took that and moved my daycare job to part-time with added babysitting on the side. I was working over 60 hours a week at that point but making what I appreciated as well above minimum wage and was eventually even able to cut out the daycare all together. It just goes to show that with a little luck, a little determination, and a whole heck-of-a-lot-of time put in, you can do what you want to do and support yourself doing it.
JOBS:
You might have noticed this before, so I hope I'm not spoiling anything, but money does not, in fact, grow on trees. Oh how lovely the world would be if dollar bills sprouted from your back-yard maple (actually it wouldn't but I won't go into economics, history, and trading methods with you guys) but alas, it does not. So how does more than 99% of the worlds population get their money? (I made that statistic up; please don't come after me.) They work for it. (Technically, yes, robbing a bank is still work. I mean come on. Someone has to be in the get-away car, someone has to crack that big-'ol safe, and there's usually hostage situations involved so don't tell me that's not work.)
So work. Your work. What are you going to do? What kind of job do you want? Do you want to do physical labor? Do you want to work with children? Do you have good people-skills? Find out what skills you have (and by skills I mean something tangible that you can write on an application unlike "Has philosophy degree."), what you can do, and where you can apply it. Because 9 times out of 10, even without a college degree, you can still do something in the field that you want.
But here's the thing: Sometimes, you just have to do some work that you don't want to do. Especially at the beginning. Everyone goes through it. You might have to work for a fast-food chain. You might have to do custodial work. You might put in 10 applications to 10 different general stores and the only one that will hire you is the Christian book store that wants you to sit alone at a kiosk in the mall selling bibles. And sometimes, you really do have to do it. But here's the kicker, the light at the end of the tunnel, the save-all, the happy-place. You may hate your job to hell and back again but I promise you two things. 1) You will have literal money to use however you need and want, and 2) You will not be with that job forever. Okay. Read it again. Know that what I say is true. You will have to work jobs you hate but you will not have to stay there forever.
Then again, it is very possible to find a job in a career field that you want to work in. Start at the bottom and work your way up. Think Monsters University. It's kind of silly but it's accurate. You very well can start in the mail room of a company that you're interested in. You can be a personal assistant to someone with the job that you want. So yes, you may have to take an irrelevant job to help pay the bills, but yes you can also find a job somewhere that will help you on the way to the job you really want if you can't get it right away.
You also very well may have to work more than one job. I certainly did and most people do. You may have 2 to 3 or more part time jobs, or you may have 1 full-time job and 1 part-time job. If you can swing the latter, I suggest that course. Applying for and obtaining any full-time job is a good thing. (Yes, a full time job in your career field is better than not, but given the choice between any full-time job or none, take the full-time one.) Looking for and getting a full-time 35 to 40 hour a week job shows that you're dedicated, willing to work hard, have some plans for what you're doing, and want to be doing what you're doing (Even if you're not, that's what your employers are looking for.).
Also, here's one more tip before we finish up. Working for free at a place that you absolutely love is, oddly enough, still working for free. If you're struggling to make ends meet or are just starting out, working for free should not be an option for you. You are wasting your time and also, you can't afford to not make money. Someone else will hire you with a paycheck included at a place that you are interested in. Unless you have written documentation that after a set amount of work salary-free to "learn the system", look elsewhere. I can not stress enough that you are wasting your time when you could be down the road at a similar place for $7.25 an hour. You don't have the luxury to give away your time at the moment. You may be young and new, but your time is still valuable. This is not to say that your deep connection with this one job isn't important, but unless there is an actual foreseeable future with this company, you can do what you're already doing elsewhere for minimum wage.
But you can't just sit around and hope a job comes to you. You have to be determined and persistent. Make call-backs to the job(s) you applied for (key being that you actually applied for something) a few days after an interview to show continued interest, and be patient! Something will come your way. Look for jobs near you if you don't have a fast way of getting there. If you have to walk to work you won't want to work more than a half hour away by foot. Know what hours you're going to be working and what your salary will look like. Make sure you ask about benefits too and try to get them! In all reality, finding a job sounds like a daunting and scary thing but once you have one, you'll be happy you do. I'll tell you my story now about what happened to me when I left school. Your story will be different but that's the whole point - to make your life yours!
My story:
When I left college in the Spring of 2013, the day after I came home for the last time, I had an interview with a day-care down the road from my mother's house. My passion is to work with children and I was lucky enough to have a mother that asked around about day-care positions back home while I figured out that a Child Life Specialist degree wasn't for me. I had decided that what I really wanted to do was to be a nanny but working in a day-care would suffice for the time being. I had known about this job interview for about a month and it was for a part-time position over the summer that I was interested in when I was still planning on continuing school. It wasn't even really a day-care position, but for a camp that the day-care ran every summer. But it was a job. It offered minimum wage in Pennsylvania at $7.25 an hour minus taxes. It had no paid sick days, no vacation days, no health benefits, and wasn't long term but again, it was a job.
When I showed up for the interview the next day I was wet and tired because I was still without transportation at the time and had to walk 30 minutes up hills in the rain with a broken umbrella. Otherwise, it was an interview like any other and my passion to work with kids quickly won me the position (although they're not supposed to tell you that when you apply but when you're good, you're good). Afterwards my interviewer and new summer boss asked me a bit about myself and what I was doing and naturally it came up that I had decided to leave college and had actually just moved home permanently the day before. I told her that I was actually looking for a full-time position somewhere soon and something sparked with my interviewer because I was quickly asked how soon was soon (ASAP of course) and in no time flat I was whisked away to see the director of the day-care herself.
Upon meeting the director I was asked what age group I most liked to work with (infants), if I had any experience with that age group (yes), and exactly when I could start (Monday). I was then asked if I had all of my certifications to work with kids (no, mine were expired, but they were easy enough to get) and then promptly was told that there was an opening in the infant room that they were desperately trying to fill and offered me the job there. I took the job in a heart beat and in 15 minutes my salary had increased from $7.25 an hour to $8.00 an hour with paid training starting on Monday (just two days away!) as long as I agreed to file for my certifications immediately. I did and that Monday I showed up ready and rearing to go.
That's how I got my first full-time job after moving home. It still didn't have sick days, vacation days, or any health benefits, but I was working 40 hours a week just above minimum wage in a field that I loved. I still had to work weekends and some nights babysitting for extra money and took every gig in my path but I was off to the races and with my new paychecks coming in I could finally start budgeting what I could do with it. It wasn't until a few months later that I was offered a position as a full-time nanny (my dream job!) and took that and moved my daycare job to part-time with added babysitting on the side. I was working over 60 hours a week at that point but making what I appreciated as well above minimum wage and was eventually even able to cut out the daycare all together. It just goes to show that with a little luck, a little determination, and a whole heck-of-a-lot-of time put in, you can do what you want to do and support yourself doing it.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
the Planning Stage
Okay so the clock is ticking. You've been given some dead-line by your parents, school, or yourself to GET OUT THERE and start doing you. The first and foremost thing you have to do is… PLAN. I know, sounds boring right? WELL IT'S NOT. You, for probably the first time in your life, get to plan and figure out what YOUR LIFE is going to look like at least for the next year. If you're not excited about taking control of your own life then please leave. Feel free to stay with dear-old mum and dad for the rest of your life. For the rest of you, let's get started.
So you're out on your own, or are about to be. There are a few key questions you want to start asking yourself. Like, what do you want to do with yourself? What dreams and aspirations do you have? How do you plan on living the rest of your life, or at least the next 10 years of it? Really, where do you want to see yourself in those 10 years, and how are you going to get there? Well most of that I can't tell you. Your dreams and aspirations are just that - yours! But I can help you to get started on a general basis with a set of things that everyone needs.
You're going to need a list. A list of what? Well, get a pen and paper. You will need to list all of the basic necessities it will take to keep you alive and able-bodied. (Notice I didn't say "alive and HAPPY" because this part is just about surviving. Here's a very basic list I came up with when posed with this situation a year ago. (Just so you know, basic is okay to start with. We can always add details later - and we will!)
THINGS I NEED TO SURVIVE:
1) Money
2) Shelter
3) Food
4) Clothing
5) Transportation
6) Health-care
That's it. Just those six things. These are the things you need above anything else. Now let's talk about how you're going to get these things because, hey! YOU are responsible for these things now! I'll go into each of the things above briefly but will have separate posts later going into detail on each of these things.
Number 1. Money. No matter what anybody says, you do, in fact, need money to live. How are you going to get your money? I suggest a reputable and legal way of obtaining some cash. So a job. What kind of job do you want? What kind of job can you get? How much money do you need? How much money can you actually get? How do you budget? All are good questions to start asking yourself.
Number 2. Shelter. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, your physiological needs come first before you can even start to think about anything else. If you slept through psych, that just means that before you can even think about being the best you that you can be, you need to satisfy your needs for food, water, air, and protection from the elements. (Sex is in there too just so you know, but I'm pretty sure you don't need that one explained.) So back to shelter. Where are you going to lay your body down at night? An apartment? Someone's basement? A shelter? And where is it going to be? Close or far away from the nearest city? This neighborhood or that? It's a good idea to start looking around.
Number 3. Food. Just like above, you obviously need food to survive. But how will you get your food? Will you cook at home or dine out? Are you eligible for food-stamps? Are you willing to go to soup-kitchens if you get in a pinch? Food. For the time being, it's eat to live, not live to eat.
Number 4. Clothing. Just like shelter, you need to protect your body from the elements. (And also no, I don't want to see your dangly-bits and love-handles as you decide to join a nudist camp.) Obviously you have some already, (well you should) but eventually you'll need more. Warmer, cooler, less stained, hole-free clothes. Can you afford to shop at brand-name stores? Do you know someone who could get you a job there so you can get a discount? Can you make your own clothes? Should you rely on goodwill for some things? (The answer is yes, but the key here is just to keep all your bits and pieces covered.)
Number 5. Transportation. I can sense it already. Some of you have just gone "Transportation isn't a necessity! I don't need a car!" WELL GUESS WHAT. You actually DO need a way of getting around. How are you supposed to get to that job we talked about earlier?! Do you have a car already? Is there a bus system? Is there a train or subway system? Can you find a coworker to car-pool with? You have places to go and need to be able to get there.
Number 6. Health-care. Like transportation I'm sure I heard a few negative remarks from a few of you but I hold very firmly to the notion that you do need health-care of some sort. Accidents are going to happen, you will get sick, and you will be much happier when you only have to pay a $25 co-pay (If you even have to pay that!) to see the doctor about your cold-that-just-won't-go-away, as opposed to the $200 bill you'd get otherwise. And don't get me started about hospital bills.
So there they are. The six things you need to start thinking about and planning for to get you started. It's okay if you don't have anything finalized yet, I'll cover them all and more in greater detail in separate posts. And after you have those six things squared away, you can start planing the more enjoyable parts of life! (Like entertainment, vacation, and the rest of the things you want to do and have!)
So you're out on your own, or are about to be. There are a few key questions you want to start asking yourself. Like, what do you want to do with yourself? What dreams and aspirations do you have? How do you plan on living the rest of your life, or at least the next 10 years of it? Really, where do you want to see yourself in those 10 years, and how are you going to get there? Well most of that I can't tell you. Your dreams and aspirations are just that - yours! But I can help you to get started on a general basis with a set of things that everyone needs.
You're going to need a list. A list of what? Well, get a pen and paper. You will need to list all of the basic necessities it will take to keep you alive and able-bodied. (Notice I didn't say "alive and HAPPY" because this part is just about surviving. Here's a very basic list I came up with when posed with this situation a year ago. (Just so you know, basic is okay to start with. We can always add details later - and we will!)
THINGS I NEED TO SURVIVE:
1) Money
2) Shelter
3) Food
4) Clothing
5) Transportation
6) Health-care
That's it. Just those six things. These are the things you need above anything else. Now let's talk about how you're going to get these things because, hey! YOU are responsible for these things now! I'll go into each of the things above briefly but will have separate posts later going into detail on each of these things.
Number 1. Money. No matter what anybody says, you do, in fact, need money to live. How are you going to get your money? I suggest a reputable and legal way of obtaining some cash. So a job. What kind of job do you want? What kind of job can you get? How much money do you need? How much money can you actually get? How do you budget? All are good questions to start asking yourself.
Number 2. Shelter. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, your physiological needs come first before you can even start to think about anything else. If you slept through psych, that just means that before you can even think about being the best you that you can be, you need to satisfy your needs for food, water, air, and protection from the elements. (Sex is in there too just so you know, but I'm pretty sure you don't need that one explained.) So back to shelter. Where are you going to lay your body down at night? An apartment? Someone's basement? A shelter? And where is it going to be? Close or far away from the nearest city? This neighborhood or that? It's a good idea to start looking around.
Number 3. Food. Just like above, you obviously need food to survive. But how will you get your food? Will you cook at home or dine out? Are you eligible for food-stamps? Are you willing to go to soup-kitchens if you get in a pinch? Food. For the time being, it's eat to live, not live to eat.
Number 4. Clothing. Just like shelter, you need to protect your body from the elements. (And also no, I don't want to see your dangly-bits and love-handles as you decide to join a nudist camp.) Obviously you have some already, (well you should) but eventually you'll need more. Warmer, cooler, less stained, hole-free clothes. Can you afford to shop at brand-name stores? Do you know someone who could get you a job there so you can get a discount? Can you make your own clothes? Should you rely on goodwill for some things? (The answer is yes, but the key here is just to keep all your bits and pieces covered.)
Number 5. Transportation. I can sense it already. Some of you have just gone "Transportation isn't a necessity! I don't need a car!" WELL GUESS WHAT. You actually DO need a way of getting around. How are you supposed to get to that job we talked about earlier?! Do you have a car already? Is there a bus system? Is there a train or subway system? Can you find a coworker to car-pool with? You have places to go and need to be able to get there.
Number 6. Health-care. Like transportation I'm sure I heard a few negative remarks from a few of you but I hold very firmly to the notion that you do need health-care of some sort. Accidents are going to happen, you will get sick, and you will be much happier when you only have to pay a $25 co-pay (If you even have to pay that!) to see the doctor about your cold-that-just-won't-go-away, as opposed to the $200 bill you'd get otherwise. And don't get me started about hospital bills.
So there they are. The six things you need to start thinking about and planning for to get you started. It's okay if you don't have anything finalized yet, I'll cover them all and more in greater detail in separate posts. And after you have those six things squared away, you can start planing the more enjoyable parts of life! (Like entertainment, vacation, and the rest of the things you want to do and have!)
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Mission Statement
So you've gone through a year of college and found out it's not for you. Or maybe you just turned 18 and just HAVE to get out of your mothers house. Or maybe you actually made it through your four-to-eight-plus years of university. Now what? Where do you go? What do you do? How do you do it and how do you get there? Everyone hits this vastly important step in life and yet so few people are actually talking about it! That's what I'm here for. I suppose I'm geared more towards the college or high school dropouts looking to make their way in life but I think this advice could help someone out a little further along as well. Because guess what! YOU'RE NOT ALONE! That's right. Read it again. Let it sink in. YOU. ARE. NOT. ALONE. Lot's of people have done what you're thinking about or are literally just about to do. And lucky for you, I'm coming up on the 1-year marker for my move-out anniversary! Now for some introductions.
Hi! I'm Quinn. Some basic facts about me: I'm 20 years old, I live in the city of Pittsburgh, PA, am the oldest of two, and can cook a mean slow-cooked glazed salmon.
Some things that I have: A well-paying full-time job, an apartment, a car, a cat, my own furniture, an emergency savings fund, the start of a retirement fund, enough spending money to go on at least two or three vacations a year, enough to socialize with friends, and enough to go out to eat on occasion.
Some things I DONT have: A degree, a roommate, lingering parents, high-levels of stress, a requirement to wear pants around my own apartment, and excess student loans.
Not bad, huh? When you compare the have's to don't-have's, theres quite a bit more have's and most of the don't-have's seem like great things to not have! "So how do I do it?" I'm sure you're wondering. Well I'll tell you. There's some hard things and some easy things, some boring and some exciting, but if you stick around, I'll tell you everything you need to know about moving out, finding a job, and plain-old starting your life!
Hi! I'm Quinn. Some basic facts about me: I'm 20 years old, I live in the city of Pittsburgh, PA, am the oldest of two, and can cook a mean slow-cooked glazed salmon.
Some things that I have: A well-paying full-time job, an apartment, a car, a cat, my own furniture, an emergency savings fund, the start of a retirement fund, enough spending money to go on at least two or three vacations a year, enough to socialize with friends, and enough to go out to eat on occasion.
Some things I DONT have: A degree, a roommate, lingering parents, high-levels of stress, a requirement to wear pants around my own apartment, and excess student loans.
Not bad, huh? When you compare the have's to don't-have's, theres quite a bit more have's and most of the don't-have's seem like great things to not have! "So how do I do it?" I'm sure you're wondering. Well I'll tell you. There's some hard things and some easy things, some boring and some exciting, but if you stick around, I'll tell you everything you need to know about moving out, finding a job, and plain-old starting your life!
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