So, I’m moving out on Saturday due to a toxic home situation, and I’m just looking for some advice and validation that I’m financially secure enough to do this. I hope this is the right place to ask this.
For context. I’m an 18f Canadian working through nursing school (just finished year 1, turning nineteen at the end of summer). I don’t have any experience with financial independence, I just got my own bank account last month (which my parents were adamantly opposed to).
I’m working 80 hours every two weeks, making 21.33$ an hour with bonuses (1.50$/hour extra) for weekends or nights. This means my current monthly income is just shy of 3500$ before taxes. This is something I know I can afford, but going back to school in the fall will mean I have to reduce my hours to half of what they are currently.
I’ve got about 13k in the bank.
The lease I signed is for a room in a shared house with three other students, 375$ a month plus shared utilities and 20$ for wifi access. I can get a phone plan for 30$. I don’t have much experience budgeting for food but I’m allowing myself 300$ monthly to eat, just in case. I’m not sure if I should purchase a used vehicle using my summer savings (I’m comfortable dropping 8k for something decent-ish) and pay the monthly insurance, or just grit my teeth and use the bus for a half hour commute each way (as opposed to a seven minute drive). The monthly insurance payment would run me about 300$…
I need the car for work more than school, considering my new home is right on the edge of campus and a ten minute walk from my faculty building.
Tuition here is ridiculously cheap, I got scholarships last year and I’m hoping to get another full-coverage one this year. Even if I don’t, I can dip into my savings to pay for tuition if need be.
I’m just really really anxious about my becoming financially independent, but staying at home with my parents is seriously detrimental to my mental health (they’re manipulative, toxic regarding my LGBT identity and partner, have been gaslighting me and instilling fear of independence since I was a child. They’ve taught us to trust nobody at all except family, they’re extremely cynical).
Any advice or kind words would be greatly appreciated because I’m constantly switching between sheer confidence and joy at the prospect of escaping and absolute terror at the idea of failure. You can guess which I’m experiencing right now.
Huge thanks to anyone who takes time to read this.
Submitted June 27, 2021 at 05:15AM by Creative_Lemon_9534 https://ift.tt/3didMdW
