In a little over 12 weeks, I'll be living on my own with the Navy. I'm 20 years old, I don't have a penny saved, and my parents have made such bad choices that I know I can't ask them for advice on how to live and make correct financial choices, or how to avoid blowing all the money I'll be making.
I've been dating my SO for 4 years, and we'll be getting married sometime in August, just a courthouse wedding, we don't want a formal event. Though we won't actually be living together until December due to her classes.
I'll be bringing in under $1,500 after taxes, I'll have my meals covered for the 5 months I'll be in training after July, and I would only have an internet bill that I could split with my roommate, and a phone bill which is only going to cost $35 because I found a great service company I like.
We're going to try and live on base so we don't have to worry about rent and utilities. We won't get cable, neither of us watch cable TV, but I'll get a Roku and have a Netflix account because it's cheap and has everything we watch.
But, my SO has extremely severe food allergies, and has Multiple Sclerosis so her diet has changed drastically in the past year. We'll have her college loan to pay, which is under $5,000 because thank god for scholarships, and previous medical bills that she's currently paying on as well.
She can't do much work due to her MS, and with her diet changes her grocery bill has gone up, I'm willing to make it work because I should be eating better too. Based on her current bill, I think we could budget the $300 I'll get once we move in together as our grocery money and be perfectly fine.
I just don't know if I'm doing this right. I've lived with my parents for a few years, but I grew up in Japan and things are done a lot different in the States than what I know. My parents are not helpful in terms of how to save properly, or how to handle building credit.
Since I'll be on my own, and making more money than I've ever had in my bank account, I want to ensure I don't blow it for myself or my SO. We want to save money, but with her being unable to work, it'll be difficult with the amount we'll be paying for her bills.
I'll be in the Navy for minimum 8 years due to my contract, and we wanted to get as close to $100,000 as possible in those 8 years. I'm planning on using my G.I. bill to go to school at an American University in Tokyo, and we both want to take formal Japanese classes for a few years since I'm so damn white looking I can't pass for my Japanese hertiage. As my personal goal is to work in Japan with my family, and her's is to live in a foreign country period.
So we know we need to be frugal to achieve this goal, and we want to live comfortably later on, but it seems impossible to two brand new adults whose parents think they're still 4. We don't have anyone who can help us, both of our families are in bankrupty due to trying to live above their means, and we're always being told that we'll end up like them, and there's no way in hell we want that to happen.
We appreciate any advice, truly. I'm scared about moving on, but I know it has to happen as this family isn't mine and I need to get away. I need to learn a lot that wasn't taught to me, and I didn't understand in classes in high school as my English was still horrid when I moved here.
Thanks in advanced for any advice or tips you may have. If it helps, I know I'll be in San Antonio for school in the early to late fall months, and I speak Japanese so my friends have said I could shop at the Asian markets there and haggle with them, so that may be something at least.
April 19, 2017 at 08:04PM
