I've been working part time jobs for the past 5 years of my life. If I had to estimate I've probably earned close to $12,000 from part time work in that time and yet I have nothing saved up. Money comes in and money comes out. I never had a concept of saving let alone a savings account of any sort. I think I need to change soon and I need some advice. Here's a rundown of my financial situation:
I've worked a part time job this summer and I'm going to enter the school year with around $900 in my checking account.
I've secured part time work at my university for when the semester starts. 10 hours a week @ $10/hr for $100 a week gross income
My education is fully funded by scholarships/loans. By the looks of it I will graduate with around 20k in student loans, mostly subsidized and all federal. I'm majoring in CS and don't plan on going to grad school.
My wonderful and supportive parents to whom I owe the world are paying for my meal plan which will feed me for the whole semester minus around 10 days worth of food and coffee/snacks/eating off campus.
So yeah the embarrassing part is that I really don't have that many expenses. The one regular expense that I have is that I have to pay my brother back for a plane ticket that he bought me: $430 which I'm planning on paying back @ $100/mo
So what do I spend my money on? Looking at my account I can just sum it up as stuff and food. I eat out quite a bit and $10 a meal adds up quickly. I also buy coffee some of the times when I don't feel like making it at home. I also find myself buying clothes. Nothing particularly expensive. I look around thrift stores, marshall's, ross, ebay, and I buy name brand pants and shoes. If I need a new pair of headphones, I buy cheapo $10 ones on amazon and get a new pair when I inevitably lose them. If I wanna watch a movie I'll rent it for $4 on youtube. If I need some school supplies/small appliances for my dorm I'll order decently inexpensive stuff from amazon.
The nice thing is I'm going into my semester soon so my food costs will be covered but I feel like I'm just going to slip into the same habits when I'm home for winter/summer breaks.
The point is, money just slowly leaks out of my account from paycheck to paycheck. I try and buy inexpensive stuff and do stuff like only drink water when eating out but everything still adds up so quickly that I end up just anxiously waiting for the next payday. The obvious suggestion would be to open a savings account but I feel like I sacrifice a lot of liquidity doing that. I can open one with my wells fargo account. I'd have to have a minimum balance of $300 and my monthly take home income is only going to be roughly $300. Should I just open a savings and try and save a little bit every week while maintaining a comfortable amount in my checking, transferring between the two when needed? Should I look into bonds/long term investing? Kinda unrelated but I don't have a credit card atm and would like to start building credit. According to WF my fico score is 673. Should I apply for a card and try and slowly build credit?
Sorry if this is a bit of a mess. I'm just kinda sick of my spending habits and really want to change. I would greatly appreciate advice on any of what I talked about above.
Submitted August 17, 2018 at 02:20AM by kreempuffpt https://ift.tt/2Bpzw6S
