Do you live on your own or with your family?

[dixincide]

TL;DR:

1. At what age did you/do you plan to move out from your families home?
2. Was it hard to get settled into independent life?
3. Were you earning minimum wage or more when you moved out?
4. How many roommates did you/do you plan to have?
5. How did you find these roommates?
6. If none of these apply to you, what are your reasons for living with your family still?

I'm at a point in my life where moving out is becoming my greatest desire, unfortunately I can't argue with the money I am saving while returning to school to do this. So I'll have to put this goal of mine on the back burner for now. As it stands today this house is more of a place to rest my head. I am still curious of a few things though (because I love planning ridiculously far ahead.) I've added my questions in the TL;DR along the top!

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences and stories

[Tziva]

1. I think I was 22. I don't entirely remember. It was basically as soon as I could afford it; right after university I was working minimal wage and where I live that isn't enough, even with roommates. So it was a couple years after that.
2. No, but I was an adult, out of school, with a fulltime job who was fairly independent except for the part where I paid my parents' a reduced rent to keep living at home. I imagine it's a little harder of an adjustment for someone who is freshly 18.
3. No, I had just gotten a job that was double minimum wage (at the time), which still wasn't enough to live alone but was enough for splitting the rent.
4. Just one.
5. Was dating them :P But you can try friends, and friends-of-friends. I know people use shit like craigslist for that but that seems sketchy as fuck to me.

[Independent voter]

I live on my own and am currently lobbying my gf to join me. I think if I lived a more normal life it would be easier.

[Annoying]

1. I planned to move out just after 18. I knew I was going to college in a different place, so this worked pretty well.
2. Not really, no. I mean, dorm life was a bit strange, and I've still never lived on my own. I've got 2 housemates still.
3. No money, just student loans. I had income via research grants and teaching/TA positions in grad school.
4. I always figured that I'd have room/housemates until I found a single that wasn't heinous. 3 people in a 3bdr/2bth house is cheaper than any place I can rent by myself.
5. Well, the dorms was just "here's your roommate". When I moved out of the dorms, it was into a house of friends that I hung out with anyway. After that, just talking with people about houses and such. I've been with the same 2 housemates at 2 different locations now.

[Adam Jensen]

1. 25? It was after college once I found a job that paid well enough.
2. It was a bit of an adjustment, but college kind of prepped me for being away.
3. Two dollars above the federal minimum wage. Rent is a bit less than half my total monthly income.
4. I lived at an apartment where you shared with three other roommates. It was hell so I found a studio apartment and I live by myself
5. I had no say in my roommates. If you ever live in Portland Maine, avoid Bayside Village. F**k that place.

[breadisfunny]

i live with my family. wish i didn't have to.

[Kuntantee]

I am a bit different. I live in my own house since 23 and my own since 18 but sometimes, I live with my family. I also have another which my brother lives. It was initially planned for both of us. If you do not have an abusive family, staying with your family superior in terms of your own finance. However, living on your own has its own merits..like teaching you how to take care of yourself. I tried "roommate" stuff twice in my first year of college. It wasn't for me so never again. They were not particularly bad people but sometimes the behaviour is incompatible, if you know what I mean.

[Brogrom]

1. I guess I moved out when I went off to college. But then came back home and lived with parents for about a year. I then bought a house when I was 20. I wanted to get out on my own as soon as I could.
2. It was a little different at first being a long way from home right out of high school but it made me grow up quick and learn to live independently.
3. In college I was not working. When moving back home I was earning more when I bought my house.
4. When I was buying my house I knew I would need some roommates to make things not so hard to pay for. I had 2 roommates.
5. Roommate in college was a guy I went to high school with. We went to the same college to play baseball. At my house my roommates were 2 of my friends that needed a place to live other than at home.

[Vea Lea]

TL;DR:

1. At what age did you/do you plan to move out from your families home?
2. Was it hard to get settled into independent life?
3. Were you earning minimum wage or more when you moved out?
4. How many roommates did you/do you plan to have?
5. How did you find these roommates?
6. If none of these apply to you, what are your reasons for living with your family still?

I'm at a point in my life where moving out is becoming my greatest desire, unfortunately I can't argue with the money I am saving while returning to school to do this. So I'll have to put this goal of mine on the back burner for now. As it stands today this house is more of a place to rest my head. I am still curious of a few things though (because I love planning ridiculously far ahead.) I've added my questions in the TL;DR along the top!

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences and stories

i live with my family still i dont have money to move out and i am still in school

[Deleted]

i live with my family still i dont have money to move out and i am still in school

I hope you learn allot.

[Xilurm]

Still with my family. I plan to live alone when I finish Uni which will be in 2 years.

[ComputerNerd]

Still with parents, and have no job.
Went to university but didn't work out largely due to me not working hard enough.
Due to poor distance eyesight/epilepsy then driving is impossible, and my parents have back problems meaning that they could do with the support.
No immediate plans to move out.

[dacoolist]

TL;DR:
At what age did you/do you plan to move out from your families home?
Was it hard to get settled into independent life?
Were you earning minimum wage or more when you moved out?
How many roommates did you/do you plan to have?
How did you find these roommates?
If none of these apply to you, what are your reasons for living with your family still?

- 18 years old (it was 2004, United States)
- It was good, but it was rough at first (everything you have to buy starting out is so expensive haha)
- I was making 6.75$, I tried to work about 45 hours a week. Barely made enough money to survive
- No roommates
- N/A
- N/A

[Puupi]

1. 20, after I got out from the army.
2. No.
3. There is no minimum wage in Finland. If there was, I earned less than that. I had a part time shitty wage job, could pay my rent + 200e for living per month. I think I earned like 700-800e per month.
4. 0.

[Jotaux]

1. 23
2. Nope, both my parents worked a lot when I was younger so I was used to taking care of myself and my little brother. I think my parents had a harder time with it and even offered to pay me an allowance if I came back home to live.
3. I was making more than minimum wage while I was working at an accounting firm.
4. 0, I have no life which makes saving money a breeze. I was able to buy a house with 20% down easily.

[dacoolist]

I thought I was a badass for moving out at 18, and working hard.. Everyone here bought a house at 20.. holy shit!

[Darsithis]

TL;DR:

1. At what age did you/do you plan to move out from your families home?
2. Was it hard to get settled into independent life?
3. Were you earning minimum wage or more when you moved out?
4. How many roommates did you/do you plan to have?
5. How did you find these roommates?
6. If none of these apply to you, what are your reasons for living with your family still?

I'm at a point in my life where moving out is becoming my greatest desire, unfortunately I can't argue with the money I am saving while returning to school to do this. So I'll have to put this goal of mine on the back burner for now. As it stands today this house is more of a place to rest my head. I am still curious of a few things though (because I love planning ridiculously far ahead.) I've added my questions in the TL;DR along the top!

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences and stories

1 - I didn't. My childhood was spent on a farm/orchard in Michigan. Half of it was on a family friend's farm, the other half on my uncle's apple orchard, where my love for apples of all kinds came from. After that I returned to my parents only to have them leave me at a police station in Glenview at 12 years old. From there it was a series of foster and group homes until I left the system at 18 and struck out on my own.

2 - It was pretty hard at first. I didn't go to college, so I didn't have a strong education to back up my career prospects. I was very lucky to pick up work with CPS at 16 (Chicago Public Schools) designing reports in VBA. That job helped me get my first computer gig at 18 in Waukegan (where my boyfriend at the time worked) and from there my career grew.

3 - No, I've always earned above it, but I didn't really take off with a good salary until a contracting position with ABN AMRO back in 2005 @ $27/h.

4 - I did have a single roommate, once. I lived with one dude until he moved to California. After that I lived alone, always, unless I was in a relationship.

5 - I dated him

[Deleted]

1. I moved out at 17
2. No, not really. I already had a job at that stage that I'd been doing since I was 15, and at home I did my own cooking, cleaning, laundry, and I already spent very little time at home and most of it with my boyfriend, so it wasn't a big adjustment.
3. I was earning minimum wage for a teenager which at that time in the UK was £2.16 an hour. Big money! This was 2000. I worked 40-50 hours/week on the night shift and brought home around £340/month. Rent with bills was £200/month for both me and my boyfriend since we shared a room. I paid all of it, since he wasn't working and was in uni.
4. I shared a bedroom with my boyfriend and three other guys lived at the same house. All 4 of them were university students at the time.
5. I was already in a relationship with my boyfriend, one of the guys was a friend that he had known from high school, the other two guys were just randoms from an advert.

I moved out because I felt it was necessary for my mental well being at the time and because I was a stupid teenager who valued my boyfriend at the time over my family. I have since forged a good relationship with my family as an adult, but as a teenager, it was a big struggle and I was quite willing to sacrifice a lot of things for the personal freedom and independence. I sacrificed going to university at 18 despite having the grades, in order to work and pay rent for both myself and my boyfriend which was a stupid decision, but again, one I rectified later.

I consider it an awkward transition phase into adult hood. If people could stay with parents and skip forward to when they can afford their own place (or with a partner) then I would say do that, as living with room mates had a few benefits - but mostly a lot of downsides.

[Bodom]

1. I moved out when I was 17.
2. Not at all. I loved it.
3. Scholarship and working every other weekend for the first few years. Didn't rely in my parents for money.
4. None at first, but I got a girlfriend and we moved in together and went to the same school 1 year later. Bought an apartment last year before I turned 23.

[Shakadam]

1. Moved into my own apartment when I was 20 and started studying at university.

2. No not really, atleast nothing I can remember. It's been a while since though so maybe I've forgotten something.

3. No, I had money saved up from working full-time for atleast half a year. Factory job so it paid quite well. I also recieved state sponsored student benefits of about 500€ per month once I started studying.

4. None

5. N / A