Hi everyone, I about to see a pay increase from 29k to 47k in an area with a slightly higher, but comparable, COL.
When I was making 29k i saved very aggressively, mostly by finding the cheapest rent situation possible and not budging for my 5 years of grad school despite the volatile cast of characters I encountered. I started with no student debt and a healthy Hyundai Elantra thanks to my parents, and was able to feed about 11k into an emergency fund and 12k into my IRA during this time which I haven't touched. I have another 10k for longer term investments tied up in a mixed porfolio of stocks managed by Betterment. I just leave these accounts alone except when I feed them.
At the moment I am purposefully unemployed and living my dream of hiking a long distance trail for 5 months off the savings I also accumulated during graduate school. I have about 4k on hand to handle moving expenses and live on before my pay starts up, probably some time in December or early Jan, and will spend a lot of tha time bumming at my parents house. I will be starting my next job soon and am starting to look at housing options.
I want to live alone but I have such a huge mental block about spending that much money (1k a month for a very humble studio apartment) on rent. It makes me feel sick to pay that much when I could save $400 EVERY MONTH with a roomate. But on the other hand, I think I can still save 15-20% for long term savings (retirement and a future house down payment, maybe 5 years and another pay increase from now) a year even with the much higher rent price.
I guess my question is... when is it time to back off on savings goals to allow for lifestyle inflation? Am I in a secure enough position to live alone, or is my money better spent building more savings for 5-40 years in the future? It feels like a punch in the gut to pay that much for rent, but I feel a pull to have my own place...
Submitted October 20, 2017 at 01:20PM by jigglywigglywoobly http://ift.tt/2znODrX
