EDIT: I am 24, turning 25 mid next year. My financial goals... are vague, but I’d like to eventually buy a house, be relatively secure, and give some level of support to my elderly parents.
I’ve been struggling with this decision for months and am hoping to bite the bullet before rent prices shoot up again, if I choose to do so. I’ve never had much financial guidance from anyone in my life and would really appreciate any advice or a nudge in the right direction.
Finances: I make $90k annually plus a ~10k performance-based bonus, in a very HCOL area. I take home approximately $4500/mo after a 10% 401k contribution and health insurance, etc.
Assets: In total, I have about 80k saved up. This includes 45k in savings and 12k in a Roth IRA. This is my first job with 401k match, so I only have about 4k in there so far. The remaining ~20k is in a different currency in my home country.
Current Situation: I currently rent a small room for $1000/mo, utilities and parking included, which is an excellent deal for the area. I mostly cook at home. My phone bill, internet, and car are paid for by my company. My usual monthly expenses are as follows, with the remainder going into savings:
- Rent/parking/utilities = $1000/mo
- Renter’s Insurance = $30/mo
- Gas = $50-100/mo
- Subscriptions = $60/mo
- Groceries = $200-300/mo
- Eating out/takeout = $50/mo
- Misc spending = $300-400/mo
My Dilemma: I need to move out soon. My new job requires me to WFH about 80-90% of the time by nature (not only due to COVID), and also requires storing equipment taking up a small closet’s worth of space. This is just impossible in my current ~90sqft room in an apartment, and it’s affecting my productivity greatly. My roommate is also just unable to keep the place clean or respect noise levels when I’m working. So I’m hoping to move to a 1 bedroom apartment while rent prices are low. Where I live, the cheapest ones are going for approximately $2100-2300/mo including utilities and parking. A few extra notes:
- This kills me because that’s an extra $12,000-15,000 a year on rent compared to what I’m spending now. If I stayed put, I could max out my 401k instead.
- My SO is trying to find a job in my city in several months’ time, and if it works out, we would split the rent at that point. So if I moved, the high rent expense could be temporary (~1 year).
- I need to move either way, but my current situation is a very good deal. If I were to have roommates again, I could expect to pay $1400-$1500 for a decent sized room in an apartment.
- I paid off all my student loans this summer, and generally spend $1000-$1500 on credit cards per billing cycle. These are paid off immediately. I think I would consider that debt free overall...?
- Moving further away from the city doesn’t seem worth it. I’d need to move ~2 hours’ drive out to decrease rent by a few hundred monthly.
If you’ve read this far, thank you so much. Would really appreciate any input.
Submitted December 31, 2020 at 12:50AM by pandemicrenter https://ift.tt/2MmaCex
