hanzbrady

I know that Zilvia is an older community so I'm not sure how useful this thread will be to those reading it, however; after reading through some of the threads like "How the hell do people afford houses?!" and various others I realize that some of the people know a lot more than me, especially about being an adult.

Basically I'm making this thread so any of the elder Zilvians could chime in on what they went through when transitioning from their teenage years to adult hood. I know I, and any other 20-something reading through this post could certainly benefit from the information that could be shared here.

Now since there's no distinct topic to start, let's start with credit. How in the hell does it work and how did you start building yours?

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lunchmeat

I learned credit the hard way, as no one really explained how fucked you could get if you weren't careful. Took me years to undo the damage of my stupidity and pay off all my debt(multiple maxed out cards with +25% apr). Now my credit score is well into the 700s, and the only debt I have is a mortgage.
I'd recommend getting a low limit card(and hopefully low apr), don't max it out, and pay it off as soon as possible. I think utility and cell phone bills paid on time help as well, but I could be mistaken. Basically show creditors that you're good for the money and pay on time. But stay within your budget.

Goofs

Easy, don't spend what you don't have. I'm 21 and have had a credit card for 2 years, my limit per month is $3K. Can I afford to spend $3K per month? Absolutely not.

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hanzbrady

Now if given the chance to do it over again, would you guys still go the credit card route, or would you buy something cheap and finance it to build the credit? I know that some of my friends have done this with cars, but I'm not sure what's a better approach?

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KAT-PWR

There are a lot of good books on investing and planning for the future. I'd take a look at some of them. Planning for the future and building credit go hand in hand.

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Goofs

You could do both as long as you're smart with your money.

I definitely think you should get a credit card, but just use it to buy essentials like gas and groceries. Don't run it up and you won't have a problem paying it off.

As far as car payments, finance something that's in your budget. Debt starts to incur when you start making minimum payments, and interest starts to rack up. Again, it all goes back to what you can afford.

Also don't live paycheck to paycheck. So many people my age set no money aside, kind of scary.

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STR8 H8N

its scary how many people in this country live paycheck to paycheck

not bc of what they do for a living

but bc they buy new clothes, new phones, new car parts on the weekly

crzsteveo

Work through college, tell your parents to piss off, pay for everything yourself. Surround yourself with other people who work for the things they have. Don't hang out with bums. Don't hang out with other car people that have there parents pay for their living expenses. Eat pop tarts for breakfast and Tyron's spicy chicken patties for lunch and cheeseburgers cooked on a Forman grill for dinner.

exitspeed

Just be prepared and live within your means. It's not easy I this "me-too" society but resist the temptation and put money away. Best advise for that is have it taken right out of your check and into some sort of investment or savings that isn't easily acceptable.

You never know what life has in store for you. 10 years ago my wife and I were in our 20's, had a six figure household income, a beautiful house and we were living within our means and saving money. Then the recession hit. My wife was a top real estate agent in WI, she weathered the storm for two years and then it was like a switch just shut off on her income. I worked for the real estate company's corporate office and I got laid off. We got put in check real quick. Sold the house ( we were one of the luckily few who didn't lose their ass selling at the time. Broke even) and moved on with our lives. Shortly after we sold and we had our second child, they were both diagnosed with a very rare life threatening illness. Our lives were turned upside down and we had no idea what the future had in store. We moved to a really small rental in a crappier area, reset our careers, worked our asses off, and made lots of sacrifices.

Our careers got back on track (I shifted mine entirely to what I actually went to school for), and we started saving and saving. We were able to buy a house again and our incomes are significantly better than they were before the crash.

That was the short version, sans the tragic death of my mom and best friend.

Moral of the story is, you never know what life has in store. Everyone has challenges in life, challenge builds character and character is far more valuable than money.

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Dutchmalmiss

Ah, life. Adulting. Comes in all shapes and sizes.

I JUST turned 30, and I guess by default I sort of just recapped everything that I've gone through up to today. Learned a lot:
- Credit's definitely a bitch. Keep the balance as close to 0 as much as possible. Revolving balance shouldn't hover at more than 30% your limit.
- Once you surpass $45k/year salary, maintain your lifestyle as if you make less. Rewarding yourself is good, but don't do so habitually.
- Stop piling on new hobbies. Simplify, focus, and feel the rewards at excelling at fewer hobbies.
- Death sucks. Don't let it consume you. Let it shape your strength.
- Even if you can only think of a cliche at the time, always give advice when needed. You never know who'll think you're a hero.
- Don't ever compare your progress in life to anyone else's.
- Happiness is really a great balance of giving a fuck and not giving a fuck. Once you find that, there's no life better than yours.

There's probably more I can come up with, this is just a tip of the iceberg, but then again I'm probably going deeper/beyond the OP's initial inquiry. Not necessarily the most direct advice for saving for a house or so, but sometimes the fundamentals are what people forget about the most.

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ryandriftingfat

My advice.

#1 Do not get anyone pregnant. Fuck your family and friends who pressure you to have a kid until you can support a family.
#2 The only thing you should go into debt for is school or a house.
#3 Always earn more than you spend.

18-25 go to school and get whatever job you can to pay for necessities, then start trying to work on the side doing what you want to be doing so you can gain some experience, extra cash and industry contacts. 40 hour work weeks are a suggestion, you have like 120 waking hours available.

Once you're making a steady income you can afford to start putting away money for investment. Pay off your student loans. Then once you can max out a Roth and contribute a chunk of you income to other retirement sources AND still have money leftover, then you can start to have fun. Buy a house, build a pro am car or start a family.

I took 5 years off from the hobby I love dearly to get all my shit in order. It sucked, but it was worth it.

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ZenkiKid

#4 Get a credit card ASAP. Of course dont be stupid with it. I made this mistake of not getting one until finishing college and with my student loan needing to be paid back my debt-to-income ratio was fucked. I had to roll with a secured CC with a low limit for almost a whole year before I got my credit score/history good enough to get a decent card.
#5 set up a retirement plan as young as possible. The earlier you start accruing the sweeter your retirement will be at the end of the road. Who knows, maybe youll be able to even retire young.
#6 in terms of employers, get EVERYTHING in writing. They could sweet talk you into hopping on board but once you get in they deny all that is said.

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rawgarage

Be a Man. work for yourself. Make money with your friends, not off them. pay what you owe

Goofs

This .

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Bluejayde

There are two kinds of credit, secured and unsecured. Secured is when you have something to borrow against, like a car or a house. If you don't pay the lender takes your stuff. Unsecured is a credit card- there's nothing backing the loan. You will need both as an adult.

How to build credit(secured)- save up enough to buy a cheap car in cash, then put the cash into a savings account. Get a loan for the car and have payments pull automatically from the savings for at least six months. Then pay the loan off. You'll lose a little money in interest but gain credit.

How to build credit(unsecured)- Get a credit card with a low limit, and low interest if you can. Make a budget and figure out how much your monthly expenses are. Set that amount aside in a checking account. Pay your monthly expenses with the credit card, then IMMEDIATELY pay off the credit card. This looks extremely good to creditors.

PROTIP: Get a credit card that pays you a percentage back for certain purchases, or give you airline miles for money spent, or whatever serves you best. Pay for everything on the credit card, but always have the money set aside to pay it off. Instead of you paying the credit card company to use their credit, THEY'RE PAYING YOU to use the card.

simmode1

If you're going to get a credit card, get one that works in your favor - like something that gives you airline miles or cash back as you use it. But yes, use it on essentials like gas, groceries, monthly bills and pay that ish off with the money you were already setting aside for those bills anyway. Do NOT use your credit card for frivolous random crap, IMO.

If you're going to enslave yourself working for a corporation - get into their 401k like yesterday, especially if they match. The earlier you start, the better.

And this is just me projecting but - Stop eating out so much! Sit down and add up how much you spend on eating out versus making your own meals. In my case, it was easily enough to finance whatever car I wanted or pay for any build project. Money literally shit away down the toilet.

Just for starters.

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Bluejayde

Regarding retirement- If your employer has benefits, check to see if they have a percentage that they match in your 401K. For me it's 3%. I put 3% in my 401K every paycheck BEFORE taxes, and they pay 3% in too. That's free money!!! Everytime you get a raise, increase your contribution by 1%. You won't even notice the money gone.

Several people mentioned living below your means- YES! When I get my paycheck I "pay myself" the amount I made when I was still in college; I lived off it then, I can live off it now. Everything else goes to savings, investments, or paying off loans.

Is this fun? No, it sucks. It's hard to learn this stuff and it's hard to have self-control. But when you watch your loans going down and your savings and retirement going up, and you know you're gonna be ok even if something bad happens... it's worth it.

Also I don't have kids so I do whatever I want and it's awesome.

Edit: Simmode beat me to it... Yeah, eating out killed my budget in college. I was spending half my check on eating lunches out. If I'd have packed a lunch every day I would've had $0.0 student loans.

ManoNegra

In my 20s and early 30s I'd spend a good chunk of my income on cars
I'd max out my credit, spend a year or so paying off credit cards and repeat the cycle
I'd pay bills past their due date out of pure laziness
I thought I had good credit since I my bills but didn't have an idea what my score was

It took my mom passing away in 2006 to make me reassess my life
I focused on paying off all my debt: credit cards, school loan, etc.
Stopped using credit cards altogether and started saving my money
I eventually bought a house and got out of cars
I can't justify throwing away money on cars anymore specially after I realized I wasn't having fun anymore

My advice to you would be to:
- live within your means
- don't try to impress anyone: the people you think are balling are usually deep in debt and
extended beyond their means.
- modifying cars should be fun, not a chore: if you modify cars, have a place to store it and get
a daily you can rely on and not mess with.
- pay off all your debt and use cash to by whatever you need/want
- start saving for a house/retirement/etc. as soon as possible

Future240

I prioritize everything. My s14 currently sits with a low compression KA in my moms yard. It has been there for almost 6 months now. I have had the money to drop in an SR/RB25. However I chose to spend it on buying a house.


Afterwards I got some more money from taxes. Again I could have swapped the car, but the house needed things, kid needed things, I chose to wait longer. I had a WTB up for an S14 SR then some things happened I needed to address so I stopped bumping those too.


I will eventually get it back on the road. I cannot justify spending that much on a depreciating asset when I have other more important things to worry about.


That is how I "Adult".

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TheRealSy90

I'm 25 and roommate with two random 21/20 year olds to keep it cheap and spend all my money on my 240.
I still sleep (barely) on an air mattress cause I can't talk myself into buying a real bed since they're "expensive" in my eyes, but have no problem throwing down 2 grand on wheels for my car that isn't even drivable yet since it needs to be tuned...


I really suck at adulting.

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jamg

editediteidt

hanzbrady

I just want to take a moment and appreciate everyone for the responses here.

I also just wanted to say that any advice could be shared, just because I started the thread doesn't mean just my specific problems need to be addressed. I want this thread to be a basic outline on the coming of age process that everyone struggles with in various ways.

Again thank you to everyone for your contributions.

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simmode1

Not saying you should do this... But if I was your age, single with no kids, knowing what I know now... I'd buy a 2-3 bedroom condo and rent the other 2 rooms out at the market rate, which will likely be higher than your mortgage+PMI & might net you a profit if you play your cards right. Live rent free and travel often.

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lunchmeat

Depending on the local market, it might be a pain to sell a condo/townhouse. It took us 8 years to finally get rid of ours. And having two mortgages sucks, even after renting out the other place. And when we did sell it, we had to sell at what we owed on the place, so at least we broke even. And don't even get me started about renters who skip out on their rent. Had one guy just up and leave, owing 4 months rent and a shitload of repairs after his cat shat all over the place, ruined carpet and wood floors, a busted water heater that was never reported, drug paraphernalia and beer cans everywhere. Even after eviction and hiring a collections agency to find the guy, we still haven't seen that money. $3k in back rent just gone.

simmode1

^^^Yeah, it can be difficult to execute. Gotta find quality tenants for sure.

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lunchmeat

We had one renter who's mother kept complaining about things at the place. She didn't live there, nor was her name anywhere on the contract. He wasn't bad, but when his girlfriend moved in with him, that heifer wrecked the place. Seemed no one ever taught her how to properly use a toilet. Overflowing multiple times to the point of sheetrock replacement. Then there was the drifter who disappeared. Our last tenants were great and stayed there for years.

TheRealSy90

Unfortunately my income isn't dependable enough for me to comfortably commit to any sort of payments I make decent money when I'm working, but it's an "on call" position (army contractor) so sometimes I don't have work for a week to two months at a time. Which is havoc on my savings cause bills don't care. 2014 my first year I worked full time with tons of overtime, and it's been less each year since then. Just the nature of a job dependent on military spending I guess. The whole economy here is held up by military personnel, and unfortunately War = Money.


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hobbs

Protip - No one has a clue, we all figure it out as we go and try to make it seem like we know what we're doing. You can get all the advice in the world but you're going to see if the stove really is hot...at least once.

Take (calculated) risks, have fun.

rawgarage

Just don't get on the hamster wheel of relying on a job for your income....gotta figure out a way to make money outside of that 9-5 formula....you can do it...others have...so why not you

KiLLeR2001

I've thought about "adulting" recently, but I think I'll just buy another car instead.

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