Basic Knowledge for Heading Off to College or Moving Out on Your Own – Continued

I know you have, most likely, lived with all the wonderful things such as a home, nice furniture, good clothes, computers, telephones, cars and whatever you want in the frig.  You have watched your parent (s) work hard, sacrifice, and dedicated to making life better for the family.  You’ve grown accustom to having those things, but now it’s going to change, you are grown up and it’s time to start your journey in life.  One of the major problems when getting out there on your own, is the fact you were not taught nor were your parents taught about Credit and how it works. Your parents have had to learn by mistakes and right now there is a lot of inaccurate information on our credit and we need to be responsible enough to achieve the credit the right way with clarity and education.  I am here to give you a few ideas, and maybe other ways of thinking that can help you on your journey and make your parents and family proud of you. 

You’re out looking for that apartment so you can either go to school or be close to that new job you just got.  Now you are use to having the best or at least that comfort of everything that you are in right now.  But it’s time to start thinking here! That apartment, is it an apartment you can afford? Did you think about the electricity, phone, heat, cable tv, internet service, renters insurance, and food, how about those basic things such as laundry money, clothing, personal supplies, and cleaning supplies for your place? So let’s start with the basic list of how much will it cost you for clothing, cleaning, and personal hygiene, and then let’s get to the rent.  You want to get a nice place but the rent is too high, so it’s time to sacrifice and start at the bottom kids, your parents did and their parents did! Go find that apartment that you can afford and make a list of how much the other stuff that was mentioned above.  See if you can afford it, then, if you can’t don’t get it! Find something YOU can afford.  Now sometime parents have put away a little money to help but it won’t last your life time and it’s only a step up so STEP UP and gets your life on track!  You might need a co-signer; as usual you go to your parents and maybe your grandparents for help.  You need to think about how responsible you are going to be, such as, can you afford that apartment, what if you lose your job? Can you still keep it and not hurt the person you have on as the co-signer?  Why do I ask this? If you fail to pay the co-signer has to pay! Are you putting unjust pressure on them for something you wanted? Think of this now, quit living in the moment. Stuff happens and it’s your journey, you will fail at sometime so don’t take everyone with you.  They can be there to help pick you up if you do it yourself, they will be there to share in their journey and what worked for them, so listen and learn!