Matters pertaining to money(or lack thereof)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This is my first time posting and I am glad to be here. This is a question of sorts, but not necessarily factual in nature.

I am 18, just graduated and I am in the process of becoming a personal trainer. This coupled with a job in greeting card merchandising will earn me anywhere from 250-350 dollars a week.(Probably closer to 250 at first.) Eclectic I know, but both these jobs allow me to have an extremely flexible schedule as well as do something I love (personal training). In addition, I volunteer 15-20 hours per week and this would allow me to do that.

Now the question is, can I live off of 1000 dollars a month minimum? 1200 maximum? This amount will rise after a year or two, so I will not be doing this forever. I would move in with a roommate, I have no debt, no children and a used paid off car. I live in Milwaukee Wisconsin, so their tends to be a decent amount of work available, and it is quite cheap to live in for a city it’s size. I am willing to bypass many luxuries to reach this goal. So what do you guys think, could I live on this?

2

Your largest expense will be housing. What is the average rent on a crummy apartment in Milwaukee? If it’s more than 30% of your income ($300 in your case) you will most definitely need a roommate (or five.)

3

I’ve seen some for 600 that aren’t even that crummy, I’m sure I could find cheaper if I did an upstairs of a house or something, that seems to be really common in the area. Houses that used to be 3 stories for rich people become two families and end up being pretty cheap. Also, I have one for sure roommate, two possibly.

4

With that income, you’re just a gnat’s ass hair above the poverty line. Stuff happens: your car breaks down and need repair, you break your ankle playing basketball, you lose your cell phone and have to buy another. At that income level, you’re not going to have a lot of options for dealing with that sort of stuff. And that’s not even bringing up things like taking a girl out for a nice date or wanting to go on a weekend trip with friends where you’ll have to chip in for transportation and a hotel, or heaven forbid starting to save a little money for retirement or a rainy day.

I’m not sure what question you’re really asking: can you live on it? Sure, you’ll survive. But life is way better with a few extra bucks in your wallet.

5

What do you mean you are in the process of becoming a personal trainer? Do you mean you’re in school? If not, I can tell you right now that I (and probably most people) would not work with a personal trainer without credentials.

Take a look at this article:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/364961-fitness-trainer-degrees/

6

Yeah I understand the sacrifices, like I said this won’t be a permanent situation. I’m just more curious I guess, seems like many people overestimate the amount of money people need to live.

7

Thank you, but I am actually in the midst of studying for the NASM exam!

8

I should have asked: but what’s the alternative? Are you trying to choose between what you explained in the OP and some other course of action that would be more profitable?

9

That’s a good question. Honestly the options for a recently graduated person who isn’t going straight to college are limited. College is out of the question anyway for a variety of reasons. This is better then minimum wage Mc Donalds I guess. Also I’ll be able to do something I really enjoy. Plus, after a few years in the business I should be able to start as an independent PT, which you can make quite a comfortable living with. As far as alternatives… I’m open to suggestions.

10

I lived on that much when I was a graduate student. That was almost 15 years ago, so things are a bit more expensive now. I was paying about 35-45% of my income in rent, but it was inclusive, so I didn’t have utilities on top of that. The parental unit covered car insurance, and the school covered health insurance, so I was pretty much set with $500-600/month to cover all of my additional expenses. I even managed to save some money most months, but probably because I’m not terribly impulsive with money, and am pretty boring. The biggest single luxury expense after eating out was probably skiing.

You can do it, but as others have said, it is the unexpected expenses which will kill you. For that some savings is indispensable. A $500 car repair sucks, but having some savings means you can cover the repair and still pay the rent. The real secret is to be good with money. By that I mean, know how much you have for different categories, and don’t spend more than that.

Set out the fixed expenses you know such as phone and car insurance. Add to that the fixed expenses you can estimate such as gas and groceries. Make sure to use realistic estimates. For example, overestimate the price of gas and underestimate your cars mileage. The price of food adds up very quickly if your buying prepackaged and prepared food. Can you cook? Starting from basic ingredients can save you huge amounts of money. The raw ingredients for a lasagna (6 meals perhaps?) are going to be less than the cost of a frozen lasagna, and probably taste much better. The $5 difference in price of the lasagnas might not seem like much, but multiply that by 20 meals a week.

Once you have all your expenses set out, then you can figure out how much you can afford for rent + utilities (electricity, internet, gas, etc.). Is that a reasonable amount? Can you live someplace with roommates for that much?

This also means giving up lots of little expenses. A Starbucks a day can add up to $100/month. Is that a habit you have? Can you realistically give it up? A movie out a week might be $50 a month.

Like I said, I’ve always been well disciplined with money, so it was easy for me to use a credit card and pay it off every month, and that gave me a great snapshot of where I was spending money, and when things got too tight an excellent idea of where I needed to cut down. Do you have old credit card statements so you can see how much you spend in a month?

I think you can do it if you can find the right living situation, and you can be disciplined enough to genuinely live within your means.

11

My advice for what it’s worth.
Don’t depend on roommates for the rent. If you are going to, try to have at least 3 full months rent set aside. Roommates can move out leaving you stuck, sometimes they are irresponsible and paying rent is a low priority.
At minimum you should have 3 months living expenses set aside, 6 months is better, a year is best.

12

It will take some advance planning but yes, you can do it. I lived on that for a few years about a decade ago. It helped that gas was cheaper then and I was able to do laundry for free at the houses I cleaned and get the occasional meal there as well.

But you’ll still need a savings account or a backup only credit card for emergencies. I was also w/o health insurance; medical bills are one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in the US. Your health right now is almost immaterial; your age/gender group has car accidents, sporting accidents and the like.

Little ways I saved money - if I had to pay for laundry I hung my clothes to dry. I bought unprepared foods for cheaper than prepared ones, like dry beans, rice and pasta. Will you be able to keep gas costs down by using public transit or walking when your drive’s less than 2 miles?

Even though you’ll be splitting them don’t overlook the cost of your utilities. Cable, internet, gas, electric - they add up. I don’t want to see you on Judge Judy getting your spleen handed back to you by Her Geriatric Judgeness in 2 years’ time for saying something like, “I was never home, how can they expect me to pay for something I didn’t use?”

13

Thanks, that’s a very good reply. I guess it’s just kind of frustrating, the job market kinda sucks for people starting out in the workplace, anything above minimum wage is hard to find…