Question to those out of college.

[Raeph]

So I've been out of college for almost 2 years now, I work full time doing IT work even though it deviated from my actual degree (nuclear) but regardless. Now I've been taking on all the responsibilities that comes with being older. So I'm making about 40k per year and well I had to now swap to my own healthcare plan which comes out to about $250 a month, my boss when I started said he'd cover half when I start my own plan. Well now he's giving me the money is tight bullshit when we're up 30% from last year. So I'm going to look for another place to work...

My main question is how do you deal with all your bills like car payments/car insurance/health insurance/rent/food etc.? I mean I take home about $2500 per month but i can put away roughly $1200 per month, it doesn't feel like enough to me and well I'm thinking about looking for a new position with better benefits. I should add in that I'm almost 23 in case someone asks.

So fellow MMO-Champs what do you do in order to save more for later in life while still enjoying your youth?

Well there seems to be three issues here:

1) Irritation at your current job for changing your benefits package
2) You want to save "enough" for retirement
3) You want to still "enjoy your youth".

1. If your agreement with your current employer is in writing that he will always pay 1/2 of your healthcare plan premiums, and he is no longer, or doesn't want to start since it looks like you are just now going onto the "company" plan, sounds like breach of contract and you might have a case against him. Might not be worth much other than chest-thumping rights and legal fees. From a cost point, on top of payroll taxes and compliance related stuff, national average, your employer is playing about 30% additional for you, on top of your salary. So say that the company is "up 30% from last year" but what does the company expenses look like? Guy might have promised you something he can't deliver now because a change in business environment, or because he is trying to stiff you. You can either trust him (which your OP suggests you don't) and keep working in a fairly good starting position, or try to find something else.

2. "enough" for retirement is entirely subjective. You'll need to answer for yourself several things, including how long do you expect to live, how long you want to work, what kind of income to you expect to need in retirement and what extras you want in retirement. These does not even count family needs between now and then either. Your choice on married or kids but those will need to be factored in, at the very least a firm negative or open to the possibility. Once those questions are answered then you should go to a financial advisor. My bank has one on staff, open to free consultations, so who ever you bank with should as well. At age 23 though you have tons of time to plan for retirement. If you work to full retirement age according to social security(68 and a few months I think for you) that gives you a good 45 years to prepare, potentially, if not longer if you choose to continue to work.

3. Enjoying your youth depends on what you enjoy. Do you want to buy a book a month or do you want to drop a grand a month at a club (extremes I know). This just takes budgeting though. There are a bunch of different monthly budget plans put out by multiple groups. I suggest you find one and adjust it to your needs. I prefer a "Needs, Wants, Desires" plan. Fund all the needs, As many wants as possible, and if anything is left over prioritize your Desires and get those also, without sacrificing your Needs and Wants.

Needs: Food, Housing, Communications, Transportation. Wants: Better communications, community contributions, better/more food, house hold conveniences, pets. Desires: Entertainment, eating out, planned moderate expense family get-togethers, vacations and savings for high dollar non-mandatory household expenses.

Example of high dollar non-mandatory expense. Planning on upgrading our water heater to an inline tank-less variety, electrician, unit and installation should be around $1800 and change for the one I want.

You seem like you're on a good path though.

[Iamanerd]

Hey thanks for the time to write that out and you make some good points as well. I like the "Needs, Wants, Desire's" idea you have going there. I think I'm just going to chill out for a bit as I do have quite a bit of time a head of me and think some things out. Like this summer I'm re-doing my basement, going to rip up the carpet flooring and install a wood floor and I need to fix the foundation a bit as there's a small leak. I'm going to rip out the sheet-rock and re-wire the whole thing and put some recessed lighting in as well. Figured I could hire someone to do it but I did electrical for 4 years in High school so I'll just cut costs down a bit and do the labor myself on the weekends etc.

[Raeph]

Hey thanks for the time to write that out and you make some good points as well. I like the "Needs, Wants, Desire's" idea you have going there. I think I'm just going to chill out for a bit as I do have quite a bit of time a head of me and think some things out. Like this summer I'm re-doing my basement, going to rip up the carpet flooring and install a wood floor and I need to fix the foundation a bit as there's a small leak. I'm going to rip out the sheet-rock and re-wire the whole thing and put some recessed lighting in as well. Figured I could hire someone to do it but I did electrical for 4 years in High school so I'll just cut costs down a bit and do the labor myself on the weekends etc.

Sounds like a fun project. I think I have 6-7 home projects on the back burner atm, on top of the water heater. Build a green house, patio area, try to get some bushes going for a long term landscape project (house is on 2.25 acres of old horse pasture; lots of potential, too many weeds ), redo a spare bedroom and replace a number of fixtures in the house.

I wish my closest Lowes or Home Depot wasn't 70+ miles away.

[Deleted]

So I've been out of college for almost 2 years now, I work full time doing IT work even though it deviated from my actual degree (nuclear) but regardless. Now I've been taking on all the responsibilities that comes with being older. So I'm making about 40k per year and well I had to now swap to my own healthcare plan which comes out to about $250 a month, my boss when I started said he'd cover half when I start my own plan. Well now he's giving me the money is tight bullshit when we're up 30% from last year. So I'm going to look for another place to work...

My main question is how do you deal with all your bills like car payments/car insurance/health insurance/rent/food etc.? I mean I take home about $2500 per month but i can put away roughly $1200 per month, it doesn't feel like enough to me and well I'm thinking about looking for a new position with better benefits. I should add in that I'm almost 23 in case someone asks.

So fellow MMO-Champs what do you do in order to save more for later in life while still enjoying your youth?

Lol. You have 1200 in pocket money and i live off 800 a month while my expenses are more than yours.
Go tell ur boss to suck it, these are good times in the job market.

[Tziva]

If you're able to put half of your monthly income into savings and still have enough leftover for bills, you're living pretty comfortably and I wouldn't worry whether your savings is "enough." You're probably putting far more away than the average person.

[Rabian]

You are in a better position than most people your age if you can put away 1200 per month, here in Seattle my friends who make around the same as you can only set aside a few hundred each month. My advice- put about 500-600 a month away in savings (this is the amount that makes you a millionaire after 30 yrs of interest), and use the rest to have fun!

[Kraenen]

just curious, what exactly do you do in IT?

also, considered just putting it into stocks or fixed income/GIC? you could open a tax free savings account and at least that gets you some interest to fight against inflation over the decades

[Iamanerd]

just curious, what exactly do you do in IT?

also, considered just putting it into stocks or fixed income/GIC? you could open a tax free savings account and at least that gets you some interest to fight against inflation over the decades

Well it's a small business but it ranges from working on 6-10 computers at a time ranging from simple virus removals to software configurations to diagnosing issues with machines like bad HDD's/SSD's, Motherboard repairs/replacements. Mainly any desktop/laptop repair. Then I do on-site support ranging from basic router set-ups to small/medium sized business support with some server work here and there. I also do data recovery except for physical recovery as we don't have a clean room/tools, but I do recover data from corrupted file structures etc.

- - - Updated - - -

If you're able to put half of your monthly income into savings and still have enough leftover for bills, you're living pretty comfortably and I wouldn't worry whether your savings is "enough." You're probably putting far more away than the average person.

True, more or less I wasn't in a good mood earlier and kinda needed to vent but I am happy I can save money like I do but my main goal is to one day run my own business.

[Tradewind]

just curious, what exactly do you do in IT?

also, considered just putting it into stocks or fixed income/GIC? you could open a tax free savings account and at least that gets you some interest to fight against inflation over the decades

+1 for this

you're young enough to that you could even "gamble" a bit and move into a GIC focusing a bit more on equity markets versus bonds. Just as long as you don't get all scared when one year that GIC might tank 10%. It's a long term thing, you put it in there and don't touch it.

[Kraenen]

+1 for this

you're young enough to that you could even "gamble" a bit and move into a GIC focusing a bit more on equity markets versus bonds. Just as long as you don't get all scared when one year that GIC might tank 10%. It's a long term thing, you put it in there and don't touch it.

I didn't know GICs could tank, I thought that was the whole point of the "guarenteed interest" part. The GIC I had was with my bank and it was guarenteed to mature at a certain amount without any fluctuation at all.

[Itisamuh]

I don't save. I pay my bills/rent then spunk the rest of my paycheck on fun. Savings for dorks.

Those darn dorks and their smart decisions.

[Tradewind]

I didn't know GICs could tank, I thought that was the whole point of the "guarenteed interest" part. The GIC I had was with my bank and it was guarenteed to mature at a certain amount without any fluctuation at all.

Errr yeah, sorry I was getting rushed and confused. The fluctuation is a Mutual Fund not GIC...was mixing up what I was talking to my adviser about not long ago. I have a GIC right now cuz I needed something for taxes but I'm moving it to a Mutual Fund.

Replace "GIC" with "Mutual fund" in everything I said before lol

I think I meant Mutual Funds but got thinking of GIC's and how GIC rates are utter fucking garbage.

[SirPiken]

Well it's a small business but it ranges from working on 6-10 computers at a time ranging from simple virus removals to software configurations to diagnosing issues with machines like bad HDD's/SSD's, Motherboard repairs/replacements. Mainly any desktop/laptop repair. Then I do on-site support ranging from basic router set-ups to small/medium sized business support with some server work here and there. I also do data recovery except for physical recovery as we don't have a clean room/tools, but I do recover data from corrupted file structures etc.

I did a lot more then this for about 6k less. The cost of living in ct is more expensive then where I live though. However, it doesn't sound to me like you are being underpaid. Unless you get a job in your degree field, I wouldn't count on making much more unless you move to more sophisticated or essentials systems or open your own business.

[Kraenen]

Those darn dorks and their smart decisions.

who are you to say what a smart way is to spend your money?

[Annoying]

I'd be putting half of that $1200 into retirement savings now too...I'd be a goddamn millionaire by 50.

Hell, if your company matches some amount, you could be well over $2m by 65 with that amount. That's more than I put into my 401k at the moment, and it's projected to be at $1.8m by 65.

[SirPiken]

who are you to say what a smart way is to spend your money?

Ironic coming from someone who prescribes to wealth redistribution.

[Iamanerd]

I did a lot more then this for about 6k less. The cost of living in ct is more expensive then where I live though. However, it doesn't sound to me like you are being underpaid. Unless you get a job in your degree field, I wouldn't count on making much more unless you move to more sophisticated or essentials systems or open your own business.

Oh I'm fine with the pay, just that my boss is kind of going back on helping with insurance i.e. no benefits. I could move down to Virginia and work at a nuclear plant either doing engineering or I&C. I would like to open my own business but I'm saving atm to hopefully do so. I mean we do a wide range of work, I also do websites for small businesses and when I said any kind of repair for laptop/desktops it covers all area's even soldering mostly simple shit like dc jacks. I mean it covers most of the easier IT stuff depending on how you view it. I can write code as I do it as a hobby but I'm unsure I want a career in it. What were you doing for less money?

[Jackmoves]

Share costs with someone? Do you got an extra room? Have a mate move in or a girlfriend?
I moved out right after high school and I didnt actually live on my own for the first 5 years or so(not much at least), I either was in relationships or had flat mates, I havnt actually lived on my own that much tbh. I met my girlfriend almost 4 years ago now(4 years come summer), and that was right around the same time as I sold my old flat, I had just gotten the contract on this one... so she moved in almost right away as well. I guess, in total Ive lived solo for around a 1,5 years the last 10 years or so(turning 30 in december). Not because I had to(I always could support myself), but because that was just the way things turned out... it does save you a lot of money though... unless you cover all expenses.

[Tradewind]

Hell, if your company matches some amount, you could be well over $2m by 65 with that amount. That's more than I put into my 401k at the moment, and it's projected to be at $1.8m by 65.

I wish my current company did that, but I get a nice bonus every year so far which just goes right into my retirement savings...which nets me a nice tax rebate, which in turn also goes right into my retirement savings.

It's so much free money...hard to put into perspective today, but 30 years from now all of those rebates and shit going into more rebates and more savings and my income tax rate eventually plummets. It's all just gravy.

[SirPiken]

What were you doing for less money?

I worked as basically the "technical guy" for a systems integration company. I didn't work on the Integration PLCs but I did have to do work on the SCADA computers that go with them. You'll have to wikipedia that if you don't know what i'm talking about but if you were dealing with nuclear you probably do. We mostly serviced water an wastewater plants. The sister company of the integration company was involved with remote motoring through the web. So I also had to maintain the servers for the sister company as well as work on prototype hardware. I had to learn about everything, from cellular communication to fiber optic termination.

I left that company like a year ago though, too much driving. I put 30k miles on my car in 1 year.