I'm not at all financially fluent. I just took my first step to financial independence in February this year, with my first job.
Growing up we were always paycheck to paycheck; I was so tired of being told "We can't afford that," that I once resorted to trying to steal some swag from a museum on a school trip. Of course I failed spectacularly and had to miss out on the end-of-the-year trip to a local water park. In California, that's a big deal.
Needless to say, my parents don't have a lot of financial advice to offer me. So I'm hoping that the internet can help me figure out how not to get stuck in that same rut. I want to be comfortable enough to buy my future kid a $4.99 glow-in-the-dark silly putty when I chaperone for their school trip. I mean, I want to be much more comfortable than that, but right now I feel that silly putty is a nice starter goal, right?
All I know is to not spend more than I earn. Seems simple enough, and I've been mostly succeeding. Only overdrawn once, slowly growing a savings account though I've had to dip deeply into that recently as I settle into starting to pay back school debt and curbing my retail therapy habits.
I don't think my Savings account is earning good interest. It's a regular BofA Savings account. I just throw 10% of my take-home income in there and try to consider that "lost money". I don't touch it except when I have $15 in my Checking account and 3 days before I'm paid.
68% of my take-home income goes to other bills. School loans, credit maintenance, pet care, transportation. Still living with my parents, so no housing expenses, though I'd like to start paying rent to them because I know they're struggling.
I call it credit maintenance because I don't use my credit card except for a recurring bill which I can comfortably cover with my normal income. I'm not in the hole on my credit, but I'm not credit-free. I'm purposefully maintaining a constant cycle of using it and paying it off. I had heard that this is a good way to build a good credit score. Is that true? I don't immediately pay it as soon as the bill comes through, I let it stew for a week or two.
Mostly, I just want to make my money work for me. I have no idea how. My only income is my job. My only safety net is whatever I put away before spending my "unallocated" money on frivolous things. I have no idea if I'm managing my credit well. I have no idea about taxes - my first tax season is coming up. I have no idea about retirement funding. I have no idea how to create and stick to a budget. I have no idea what else I might want to know about involving financial planning.
Hell, I have no idea how to buy cheap healthy food; I settled on a Nutrisystem subscription that doesn't fill me up because I can't supplement it with veggies like I'm supposed to but it ensures I'm not spending $20 a day on fast food. (Lost 30 pounds so far though so I guess slowly starving to death on diet food isn't all bad.) I also make my own coffee, so no "Stop buying $5 coffees every day".
I'm not even sure if this is the right sub to post on for this advice.
I know this post is long, and I appreciate anyone who took even a moment to glance at it. Thanks guys, gals, and everyone in between.
Submitted November 15, 2018 at 11:20AM by LillaeDurannae https://ift.tt/2FpNc3R
