Can I afford to move out?

Question

I have a pretty good job making $8.78 an hour and itll go up sometime within the next month to 9 something

but do you think i can afford to move out with a room mate??

how much does rent usually cost if you have a roomie and will nearly 9 dollars an hour be enough to cover the cost??

and

im also a full time student who can only work around 24 hours a week during the year however i have about $3k saved up in my account and im working full time now until school starts

Answer 1

I would not suggest moving out yet. You have to remember everything you use at home you would have to pay for when you move out. Phone, cable, food, water, electricity...some may be included in rent, but I would not suggest moving out just yet. You don't want to live too tight!

Answer 2

The average person will want to rent a place that only costs about 1/3 of their income total income. Lets say that before taxes you make about $11,232 a year ($9 times 24 hours times 52 weeks - no vacation). After taxes, depending on your state you will have about $9,000. That means that unless you get aid from your school, you can only really afford to spend on average $250 a month (including utilities and furnature).

In Santa Cruz, CA (where I went to school) a dorm ran about $750 a month per person. A 2 bedroom house for three people was $550 a person (1650 total a month) and a one bedroom apartment in a close by city is going for about $1095 a month.

craigslist.com can help you on your house search. As long as you are outside of CA or NY you should be good with finding cheap housing that fits your budget. Your school should also have a housing service that you can use to look up ads from local home-owners.

There are also a variety of other options that give you cheap or even free room if you do house work for people.

Good luck gettin' out of the house.

Answer 3

of course you can...if you understand that living on your own means living within a budget...a tight one, probably, til you finish school. you must realize that you can't spend 5 dollars on every meal or even one meal a day at fast food joints, and if you drink, dollar draft will be your best buddy, haha. you need to realize that the best rule is 'pay cash or do without,'...in other words, don't do like so many people do and live on credit cards...you will ruin your credit faster than you can imagine, and spend a fortune in interest as well.make sure your roomates are trust worthy, make them put some of the bills in their name, so that if they do take off, you are not responsible for what they don't pay. check the local paper/apartment hunters guides, ad-paks, etcetra to get an idea of what rent is going to run you. when you find a place you like, get the address and call the power and utilities companies to find out about what the monthly bills run in that place, and how much the deposit will be...some addresses will cost you more than others, just based on what previous tenants did there. good luck and have fun...living on your own is worth the hassle! don't be afraid to shop thrift stores and GoodWill for things you need...sometimes stores donate brand new stuff, or people will donate great stuff that they sell really cheap! yardsales, too, for the same reason.

Answer 4

the fact that you are asking these things shows how responsible you are. it is smart of you to know that you could easliy get in over your head.

don't base your rent on what you are making now, base it on what you will make when you are in school.

you should be fine as long as you have a reliable roommate.

make sure whoever you choose is really going to pull their end of the deal. you would hate to put all your money in a place and them move out and you can't make it and lose your money.

when you find a place that you like, before you sign a lease do these things first.

#1 call the electric company and find out what the average bill for
that address.
#2 do the same thing for the water company and the trash pick
up.
#3 find out how much cable t.v. would be.

#4call the police dept. and find out if there is any crime in that
area that you should know about.

these things will help you know if you can afford to live there and if you want to live there.

my daughter and her boyfriend rent an apt. and they only make $7.50 & $9.00 per hour and they do fine.

i wish you the best of luck.

Answer 5

The best advice I could give is this r you going to attend college r you are ready attending college that is the question. If you r then do not move out yet save as much as you can. Then buy a house big enough for roommates as in a three to four bedroom house (remember tax deductable). You will find out that a mortgage is actually cheeper then rent in most states. You get roommates and chrge them 400.-700.00 each in rent for the month to cover electric, water, and homeowners insuranceand cable if you want to be nice.NEVER let them see your mortgage bill!!! Because if you mortgage is for 700.00 or even more see then your roommates will actually pay the mortgage for you. You then save the money that you would pay in a savings account for maintence or repair since you will be a landlord. Keep saving money untill you meet the special someone, get a better paying job, and when you are ready for eveyone to move out hopefully you would save enough to buy a bigger house.

Answer 6

Ok let's do the math:
Round to $9.00 x 24 = $216 gross
that's $864.00 a month gross. Probably $700.00 net.

Rent - not sure where you live - if you're in a big city rent is going to be high. You and a friend would have to probably get a one bedroom and each pay $250.00 that would leave you with $450.00 for the month. Is this enough for food, electric bill, misc.items? Probably not. What would be reasonable? About $1,000 - $1,200 a month NET.

I say continue to save your money...and re-think this in a year or so.

Answer 7

LOL so you think you can move out ? Well start by finding out how much rent is in your area ,then find out how much food you eat in a week (besides junk food) figure that out in the supermarket. A little bit a cloth and every now and then a show a beer , well I tell you there is no room for a girlfriend in your wallet then. Stay at home until you make over $ 10.-- and then figure it out again. Because the Landlords in our day and age are not forgiving. Good Luck

Answer 8

there're a lot of variables not included here...where you live (affects the prices of rent, food, gas, etc), how far you might live from school, how you plan to get there, how much you're paying in school supplies, etc.

Basically, get used to spaghetti and peanut butter, and don't plan on buying any new clothes for a while. Roommates DEFINITELY help (even though you do actually have to live with them.. ;^)...)

It sucks, but ya gotta do it. Nothing gives you more incentive to better yourself than living life from penny to penny. Living with your parents'll make you soft and dependent and never give you the desire to do better.

People do it every day, and become better people for it. I worked 2-3 jobs at any given time in college, but now I have a degree, and I'll tell ya what, I'm making a heckuva lot more than $9 an hour.

Just do it, dude.

Answer 9

You may be able to move out depending on living costs in your area. But considering your a full time student and you dont make that much money at your job, I advise you wait.

Or, try to rent an appartment w/other ppl., that way living costs are cheaper by spliting the rent.

Answer 10

If you want to move out with a roommate, then do so. Rent depends on where you're living and if you want a one, two or three bedroom apt. Also, you have to consider the utilities, water, maintenence, grocery shopping, etc. So think about all that. If your roommate is making money and can help you out financially with the expenses, then go for it. It might work, it might not. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Answer 11

Well you really didnt say if you live in a big city or if you are going to life in college apartments. one bedroom apartments usually run around $400-500 a month. Most college leases are for 10 or 12 months. So its probly will cost you around $4000.00 for the whole year. Then you have to think about utilities. If i was in your situation i would live with a room mate and wait to you graduate to live on your own and then you wont have to struggle with school and money.