I just made my last loan payment today (yay) and now have officially paid off about 60k of high interest student loans (6-13% federal and private). I graduated 2 months ago and started paying of my debt (and not accruing more) my sophomore year. I realized I only had classes twice a week and was able to hold 3 jobs and threw all of it into the loans. Debt scares me more than anything (because at least with low income you can move to a low COL area, but debt follows you everywhere D:).
Now I have negligible CC debt that’s paid off monthly and my living expenses.
Monthly income: about $2,500 net (main job) + 800 net (side job). Total of 3,200 net.
Total expenses (that no matter what I can’t change for now): 2,700 before food + household supplies. I can decrease my rent by $900 in June when lease is up (right now paying $2,400 in rent and the lowest available is $1,500 even with roommates). My rent is very high because initially I was splitting it with my s/o but we broke up and he is no longer paying. He was a legal roommate on the lease not tenant so I’m screwed on that front. I’m planning to take him to small claims but that’s a different story. For now I’m stuck with the rent.
Assuming 400/month on food & household needs, that leaves me with $100/month.
Savings: $9,500 (I would ideally want it to be 15).
I’m 22 and just began a job in my field (20/hour gross). It’s low but it leads to a far larger career. Currently, I cannot find a higher paying job without at least a year in this position. I also babysit for an additional 800/month. Ironically I used to make more money during college (serving, bar tending) than I am now. I’m trying to find a weekend / weekday evening serving job again and have gone on many interviews but scheduling is difficult since my availability is far more limited now than it was in college. Weekdays the earliest I could start is 6:30 (my job is 10-6) and weekends are generally for senior servers. I have a different interview tomorrow which will hopefully work out and bump up my income but for now, I am left with $100 at the end of the month until my lease ends is up in June.
Is there anything more I should doing that I’m unaware of? Right now I’m working on building my savings until 15k, should that be my only priority? If I’m able to get a job and add another 500-600 / month, where should that money go? I don’t currently have retirement (employer doesn’t offer it) or healthcare (won’t pay penalty, claiming it’s too expensive and will qualify with employer in a couple months) so should I start contributing to retirement or investing?
Any advice appreciated. Thank you. Location: NYC.
Submitted February 19, 2018 at 05:10PM by collegegradtrying7 http://ift.tt/2C85xzU
