Working full time

[vagrant]

Forget what kind of job you have. I just what to know, do you all have a full time job?

School starts this January for me and I'm thinking do I really want a full time job and get my own brand new car or would that just make my life miserable.

I know it sounds like a stupid question but I guess I need someone to tell me that working a full time job will be a part of my life till my very last day on earth so I can just suck it up and roll with the punches, get back up whenever I fall.

Anyone please share your wisdom on the harsh reality of life

 

[Skel]

Either you get rich somehow like some rich uncle leaves you money or you work for your money. It doesen't have to suck. If you study in a subject that interests you, you may actually get luck and somewhat enjoy your job. You only get what you put into your life. If you work hard now, it will pay off later.

 

[WaterTiger]

You don't want to get a brand new car! It looses $3,000 grand when you drive it off the lot. (It becomes a USED car at that second) And as a young male, your car insurance will be through the roof!

Get a second hand Toyota about 5-7 years old. Toyotas are tough little cars, treat them right and they'll last forever.

As for a job, I always recommend the Hotel business. It teaches you patience, stress-management, and how to have confidence in speaking people from all over the world. There are NO shy Front Desk Clerks.

 

[Teflon_Mcgee]

Do you still live at home?
If yeah then don't get a full time job while you go to school.
Also don't spend more than a few grand on a car.

Trust me, any car that will get you from a to b shoud make you happy for now. Even if you bought a new car you'll be tired and ready for a change in a year.

Stay at home, work part time, and you'll have plenty of time to study, go out, and you'll have money to go out and have fun with (instead of paying your car payment.)

 

[Skel]

Yep. It can be a big mistake to buy a brand new car for someone who isnt already financially stable

 

[vagrant]

I do live with my parents and I don't pay anything at all. If I get a full time job I don't think I'll have a hard time paying the car if all the money is just for me and I don't have to pay anything else.

I'm not buying a brand new car, just a used one but it's still expensive about 19 grand.

I guess I just need to hear someone tell me that from age 20 and on I should always have a full time job.

I've been that spoiled brat who gets everything I wanted and having a full time job is new to me. I know it's funny but I'm trying hard to change all the bad habits of mine. I even started the DJ Bible last Monday and I'm happy with it. I'm out of the house the whole day doing things I love and I love it

 

[Skel]

Just because you live at home is no reason to buy a car that expensive. You asked us to share wisdom but you don't like the answer.

 

[Centaurion]

How about you go to school and have a part-time job?

I study full-time and 2 part-time jobs. One thing is sure, it builds character.

 

[Teflon_Mcgee]

Here is the reality of your new car purchase.

At twenty years old and having had the life of a "spoiled brat" you probably aren't very marketable to any employee besides fastfood and labor.

This means that working full time you'd be lucky to clear $1200 a month.
A car payment on a $19,000 5 year loan with 12% (I assume you don't have established credit, this may be high or low) will be about $430 a month.

Add another $200-300 for insurance. Now you are sitting at $630 a month just to go from place to place.

Add $40-$60 a week in gas and your left with about $400 dollars a month for spending money.

Now your working full time, going to school, and stressing out because you don't ever have time and very little money. You have a car that is losing value to you every day (as it wears, and you grow acustomed and eventually tired of it) that you are stuck with for 5 years.

Are you going to be 25 and living at home?
What about next year when you want to get a place with a bud or out on your own. And let me tell you, it ain't gonna happen on $400 a month.


Save the car for when you become successful.
Swallow your ego, put some time and effort into building your adulthood, and reap the benefits of your hardwork. Trust me, it will taste that much better.

 

[Skel]

Excellent post Teflon

 

[vagrant]

Here is the reality of your new car purchase.

At twenty years old and having had the life of a "spoiled brat" you probably aren't very marketable to any employee besides fastfood and labor.

This means that working full time you'd be lucky to clear $1200 a month.
A car payment on a $19,000 5 year loan with 12% (I assume you don't have established credit, this may be high or low) will be about $430 a month.

Add another $200-300 for insurance. Now you are sitting at $630 a month just to go from place to place.

Add $40-$60 a week in gas and your left with about $400 dollars a month for spending money.

Now your working full time, going to school, and stressing out because you don't ever have time and very little money. You have a car that is losing value to you every day (as it wears, and you grow acustomed and eventually tired of it) that you are stuck with for 5 years.

Are you going to be 25 and living at home?
What about next year when you want to get a place with a bud or out on your own. And let me tell you, it ain't gonna happen on $400 a month.


Save the car for when you become successful.
Swallow your ego, put some time and effort into building your adulthood, and reap the benefits of your hardwork. Trust me, it will taste that much better.

You just gave me an idea on how I can make this work pretty well.

I get $1,200 a month.

I get the car for 19 grand which I'll be paying for 5 years.

I'll have it on my sister's name even the insurance so I'll have low monthly bills..like I said I'm lucky to have my family and of course I'm thankful very much.

I'll put a $1000 down payment.

So the car will be $350 a month , $100 on insurance and about $150 a month on the gas. That's $600 a month just for the car.

I'm left with $600.

I'll put $200 on the bank each month. That's $2,400 in one year.
With that said I'll have $400 each month for me to spend. $200 every two weeks.

In four years I can save up to $9,600 with the $200 I put in the bank each month. By then I'll only need to pay $4,200 on the car to pay it off completely.

I'll get that from the bank and cash it and I'll be left with $5,400 in the bank with the car completely paid off.

Once I'm done with that, I'll save the $350 that I used to pay for the car and put it in the bank. That'll be $4,200 in one year plus the $200 that I regularly put in the bank each month which would be $2,400 in one year. Add all that up and I can make $6,600 in one year. Add $6,600 with the $5,400 that I currently have in the bank and I'm left with $12,000 in the bank after 5 years of hard work. That could have been around $35,000 if I didn't buy a car.

Anyways, in 4 years I'm sure by then I'm done with whatever career I planned and I can live on my own. I can use that $12,000 in the bank as a down payment for a little condo.

About the car. I'd say I'd put about 1,500 miles each month. By the time I pay it off in four years the car would have 72k miles on it. 108k miles if I bought it used with 36k miles on it already.

I'm sure I can make the car last over 200k miles or more. That means I won't be paying a monthly car bill for another 5 or so years.

I was always told that counting money wasn't nice but now that I think about it, I believe it's necessary to know where your money is going and how your life will be in the long run financially.

I guess this is the direction I'm heading with. Hopefully I'll have time for boxing and skateboarding!~

 

[SmoothTalker]

That sounds great in theory. The thing about money though, is we always tend to overestimate how much we will make and underestimate how much we will spend.

Is that $1200 a month AFTER taxes? Are you sure you can keep that job for the whole time, or replace it immediately with one that pays a similar amount if you lose it?

Now for the car expenses. Okay, $350 a month for the car payments. How did you get that 1500 miles a month figure? If that's mostly your work commute, you'll probably find yourself driving a lot more for other reasons.

$150 a month for gas seems quite low frankly. Especially considering you're looking five years into the future, and I don't see gas prices going anywhere but up.

What happens if you get a speeding ticket and your insurance goes up?

And don't forget the many other costs of car ownership oil changes every 2 months if you're driving that much, you'll probably need new tires at least once, new brakes, windshield wipers, etc, etc. And that's just regular stuff, assuming you don't have any SERIOUS car problems.

Now that'll leave you with less than 600 dollars a month spending money, maybe 500. Let me tell you I'm currently budgeting myself $500 a month from savings while I'm in university.

I live at home, and it's still tough. After I pay little things like cellphone bills, personal care products, clothes, haircuts, entertainment, etc, it gets pretty tight. You might manage, but I seriously doubt you could put away 200 a month.

Basically what I am telling you is, you have no idea about the real costs of living, by your own admission. So before you commit to something that will be controlling your finances for the next 5 years, maybe you should find out how your money really works out.

 

[vagrant]

That sounds great in theory. The thing about money though, is we always tend to overestimate how much we will make and underestimate how much we will spend.

Is that $1200 a month AFTER taxes? Are you sure you can keep that job for the whole time, or replace it immediately with one that pays a similar amount if you lose it?

Now for the car expenses. Okay, $350 a month for the car payments. How did you get that 1500 miles a month figure? If that's mostly your work commute, you'll probably find yourself driving a lot more for other reasons.

$150 a month for gas seems quite low frankly. Especially considering you're looking five years into the future, and I don't see gas prices going anywhere but up.

What happens if you get a speeding ticket and your insurance goes up?

And don't forget the many other costs of car ownership oil changes every 2 months if you're driving that much, you'll probably need new tires at least once, new brakes, windshield wipers, etc, etc. And that's just regular stuff, assuming you don't have any SERIOUS car problems.

Now that'll leave you with less than 600 dollars a month spending money, maybe 500. Let me tell you I'm currently budgeting myself $500 a month from savings while I'm in university.

I live at home, and it's still tough. After I pay little things like cellphone bills, personal care products, clothes, haircuts, entertainment, etc, it gets pretty tight. You might manage, but I seriously doubt you could put away 200 a month.

Basically what I am telling you is, you have no idea about the real costs of living, by your own admission. So before you commit to something that will be controlling your finances for the next 5 years, maybe you should find out how your money really works out.

I like all the important things you reminded me.
My job will be less than a mile away. I can get there skateboarding if I want to. It's really close. But I was thinking I'll be going out with my family to eat or do groceries, school so I estimated about 50 miles a day. That's 1500 a month. It should be much less than but it'll never go more that that.

I'm pretty sure I can make it work out it's just that I'm going to be working 8 hours a day plus school so hopefully my life won't be all full of stress.

During the summer when there's no school I'll get a part time job or do a lot of over time to save more money.

I guess I just need to remind myself that I need to work very hard to live the life that I want!~

 

[SmoothTalker]

Alright.. Is this going to be your first term in college? What's your major?
If it's something easy like humanities, sure, go for it. But if you're going for something difficult like engineering, math, etc, there is no way in hell you can do well in school, work full time, and have any sort of life at the same time.

Just to give you an idea of workload if you're heading into a technical field.. I have about 20 hours of class time per week, and there's easily as much homework outside of class on top of that. It really is a full time job on it's own if you want to do well.

It's your choice man, I'm just asking if 'the life you want' involves putting half your money a month (and that means half your work hours, so at a full time job we're talking like a WEEK of your time every month, just to drive a nicer car?

Yeah a good car is nice, but will it add that much to your life? I just think you could put that time, or that money to better use.

 

[vagrant]

Alright.. Is this going to be your first term in college? What's your major?
If it's something easy like humanities, sure, go for it. But if you're going for something difficult like engineering, math, etc, there is no way in hell you can do well in school, work full time, and have any sort of life at the same time.

Just to give you an idea of workload if you're heading into a technical field.. I have about 20 hours of class time per week, and there's easily as much homework outside of class on top of that. It really is a full time job on it's own if you want to do well.

It's your choice man, I'm just asking if 'the life you want' involves putting half your money a month (and that means half your work hours, so at a full time job we're talking like a WEEK of your time every month, just to drive a nicer car?

Yeah a good car is nice, but will it add that much to your life? I just think you could put that time, or that money to better use.

I'm taking nursing. In four years I should be done. I'll take it slow. I won't take too many classes. It's my second year of college anyways.

I think the key for me is to not take a lot of classes. Just enough so I don't get too stressed out and be able to enjoy life.

I'll be working night shifts so I'm sure I can do all my homeworks at work.

Of course at the same time I'll start dating around. Nothing serious. Try to complete the DJ Boot camp that I started last Monday and just start facing all my fears slowly. Go hit the boxing gym once in a while and keep skating or play basketball once and a while.

Thanks for giving me a little perspective on the path I'm trying to head at.