I'm 25 years old and I'm tired of living paycheck to paycheck with very little going into savings. Fortunately I'm paid hourly instead of flat rate but I'm only making $11/hr for 40hr work weeks. After taxes I usually bring home about $750 every two weeks. I live in a two bedroom apartment with a roommate and we both split the rent, water, electricity, and internet/cable. My share of those bills usually totals out to around $500 every month. I also pay $240 for my car, $104 for car insurance, $36 for my share of the phone bill (still on my parents plan), $30 for my phone (separate from phone bill), and $10/month for Spotify. I also try to out at least $50 into savings every month. That totals out to about $970/month. When you add in gas ($120/month) and groceries ($150/month) I'm left with about $250 every month that usually gets spent on eating out, tools for work, etc.
I think my biggest problem is that I'm very underpaid for somebody working in a skilled labor position and for the amount of responsibilities I have. More often than not, it's only me and the service writer at work and I have to run the whole garage by myself. I have friends that work in fast food restaurants and call centers (arguably less responsibilities and unskilled positions) that are making more than I am. It also doesn't help that tools are extremely expensive. I got into the automotive field because I enjoyed working on my own cars so I thought it would be a good fit. While I do enjoy my job most days, I'm now a few years into this career path and I'm constantly wondering if I would be better off to just go find a call center job or something. I've also considered getting a second job for weekends or late evenings but I really don't want to be one of those people that works their life away just to keep their head above water.
I guess my main goal is to be able to live comfortably. I'd like to be able to put back more money every month as an emergency fund. I do have a credit card with a $1,500 limit but I would really like to stay away from using it unless absolutely necessary. I currently only use it to pay for Spotify every month just to have some activity on it. I'd also like to create different sources of income through investments.
Does anybody have any advice? What changes should I make? Should I change career paths or stick with where I am? What app would you recommend I use to help me budget my money better? Any help is much appreciated.
Submitted November 22, 2019 at 03:22PM by AltUnderscoreAccount https://ift.tt/2KLfINw
