I am asking this question because the young adult in question, is me. I am to move out in a few years, and it feels impossible to move far away from my hometown (which I want). I have no idea how to juggle both finances, a job, and the move itself. With the global inflation going on, it feels impossible getting hold of a decent apartment to rent.
What advice would you give someone like me? What should I keep in mind and prepare* myself for? What are your experiences moving out, or moving away from your hometown? How long did the process take for you, and how did you manage keeping a job that paid all your taxes and rent? If you could look back and give younger you some advice, what would you tell them?
(If it provides any context, I am North European.)
Have some savings in case of emergency. A few thousand at least.
Work out a budget. What you earn, minus your bills + 10%, is the money you have for fun. The 10% helps prevent bill shock. Personally, I record the amount of the last four bills and average them then add the 10%. Seems to work.
Inherit or buy quality cookware and learn how to cook. Quality isn’t necessarily expensive. And good cooking is cheaper and healthier than anything else. At the start doing meal prep recipes to cover a week would be good.
Lots of advice here already, so I’ll mention one that is overlooked by a lot of people: learn to cook for yourself at home. You will save a lot of money and be more healthy in the process if you prepare your own meals.
When you’re making a budget don’t plan to spend everything you make. You will always be out of money if you do that.
And for heaven’s sake, start an investment retirement account now. Yeah, I know, “but I’m not making enough, but there’s that shiny thing in the (online) store window, but I’m never going to get old.” Just allot one take-out coffee’s worth of spare change per week. You can up the ante later. Let the miracle of compound interest do its thing.
Lots of good advice in this thread. My contributions are to say don’t move in with friends you aren’t willing to lose. I did it despite the warnings and it turned out terribly. I can’t say I regret it but depending on how the situation turns out for you it could range from losing someone youve been close to for most of your life to downright traumatic.
Don’t be afraid of renting rooms for a while (as a male, can’t say that’s a good idea for women or people in marginalized groups). It’s cheaper, less binding, and frees up some funds to develop other areas such as reliable transportation, good furniture, etc.
Take your time finding a place and be realistic with what you can afford. Being on your own is expensive and it’s important to make sure you’re moving somewhere you actually want to live and that will give you access to the things you need. Be it groceries, good job prospects, or education.
I’m from the US so I’m not sure how things are in your country but it’s rough out there. Take the time you have now to figure out a career field that you’d want to work in and that would provide the income for you to be financially independent. Immerse yourself in the culture and structure of that group. Find community pages, forums, websites and programs. Read it all and get an idea of what you’ll be getting yourself into. You may become aware of adjacent industries or specialties within that field that interest you more than the job you were originally thinking about.
Best of luck!
Make sure you have a towel. I say this as a guy who dried off after showers with an old tshirt the first week after I moved because I am a great planner.
Extend that to other less glamorous essentials. Think about the mundane things you use daily that blend into the background.
