Hello, I am 22 years old with a bachelors degree in Information Technology, graduated July 2017. I have been working full-time as a Network Technician for my local school Board of Education since the end of June. I make roughly $36k a year, so $2,182 is deposited into my bank account once per month. I have no debt of any kind and am living at home where my only expenses are gas for my truck and my credit card.
In January, I spoke with the VALIC representative at my school board's office and he helped me set up a 457(b) Deferred Compensation Plan. I decided to deposit $500 a month into the account(s?), starting February payday. No money has been deposited yet.
Honestly, I just want to know if that's a good move or if I should cancel those accounts and open something else somewhere else and how much I should invest.
I will be living at home until at least June. so I can probably save another $5-10k.
More Info:
I originally planned on staying at this job for a year and then moving on to something bigger and better. However, I may stay another year if that matters. Not sure yet. I'd like to find a better paying, more career advancing job somewhere that isn't my hometown.
Other random financial question:
I was considering buying a new (used) Honda Civic for around $10k because my current vehicle (early 2000's F-150) only gets roughly 11 MPG. I spend around $200 a month on gas and in the past few months there have been several issues, such a leak, new tires, etc. However, I did some rough calculations and it seems that continuing to drive my truck would be cheaper than having a car payment + insurance (which I would have to start paying for since it'd be in my name) even with the substantial gas savings. If anyone has thoughts on that, feel free to let me know.
Thank you to anyone who can help!
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EDIT: Wow, I did not expect such a large response to this post! Thank you to everyone who commented and helped me, I definitely appreciate it.
Based on what I've learned today, I will be closing my VALIC accounts (my employer does not offer matches btw) and opening a Roth IRA with Vanguard (current front runner though I will be doing some more research just to be sure). I will deposit several thousand into the 2017 Roth IRA before it closes in April. Then I will be slowly fill out the 2018 Roth IRA over the next year.
I will also be opening a new online savings account with Ally and depositing most of my remaining cash into that instead of my Credit Union checking account where it all sits at the moment. I will leave $1k or so in checking.
I will be keeping my truck for now. It's still pretty reliable and the gas costs aren't as bad as I thought. I will reassess the car situation later on when I am better financially situated or when my truck dies.
I've also gotten great career advice! /r/personalfinance has it all. Thank you all again for the help and all the advice.
Submitted February 19, 2018 at 07:08PM by Curiositys_Sake http://ift.tt/2EHCpBu
