Hi,
I have several questions on my mind related to housing, savings (401k), etc that I'm going to ask. I've done some online research but I would appreciate if anyone could provide any insight into my particular situation.
I'm going to be starting my first job in February in a small company located in downtown Seattle.
My biggest concern right now is finding housing, so I was hoping for advice on how much I'm able to spend and also on methods of finding one.
My salary will be 110k a year. I will be given a 20k sign on bonus but I'm going to do my calculations without the bonus in mind as I would like directly save/invest that.
Using a take-home-pay calculator online, it says an income of 110k correlates to 81k after tax. Is this correct?
In regards to housing, I was wondering if I'm able to afford living in a studio downtown for 2k a month. In a year that would be 24k, which is 30% of my take-home salary. I've heard from some people that the most you want to be paying is around 25%, so I'm not sure. I would like a shorter commute so I would really like to live downtown, but the only other way to lower my housing expense seems to either live farther away, or live with roommates. I'm actually very willing to live with a roommate or two if it would lower my rent, but it also seems quite difficult to find an appropriate arrangement.
This sort of leads to my next problem which is actually finding an apartment. I can either try finding a place before February on Craigslist or something, but I've heard another method may be better. The company is providing 5k for relocation, so I was wondering if I should spend a month in an airbnb or something, and then look for an apartment while I'm there? The downside of this seems to be that the airbnb will likely be quite expensive and I also will kind of be in a scramble to find an apartment because I'll be doing all the searching once I'm already there.
In regards to budgeting for IRA/savings, I had a question because my employer does not match any 401k. Since this is the case, should I still try to max out both my Roth IRA and 401k? To be honest, I'm not sure if I can afford to with my current income and after deducting my housing expenses. But if I do have some income left over, is the best place to spend it on just towards maxing my 401k despite no matching? Or should I save it and invest in the S&P 500 or something. I'm very new both to budgeting and investing if you may have noticed.
Overall, since I've never actually lived alone, I'm not sure how far 81k will take me. I will look into creating a monthly budget but I guess a lot of factors, such as housing, aren't currently determined.
Thanks for reading, I would appreciate any and all advice.
Submitted December 02, 2018 at 11:46AM by temp1590 https://ift.tt/2rfKdkG
