No one ever seems to have money. Everyone is always broke. And everyone is always complaining about it. This is the vicious cycle of life as a post grad 20-something.
Post grads have loans. Post grads make shit money. Post grads are unemployed. Post grads have car payments. Rent. Bills. Gym memberships. Groceries. Gas expenses. The list goes on.
However, post grads also have an addiction to drinking. An addiction to going out. An addiction to wearing the latest trend’s while out. This addiction is costly… but to post grad 20-somethings, it’s necessary. It may even be second on the list of things to spend money on next to rent… if you even pay rent.
How this works makes no sense. Post grads will live off of bread and water for an entire week just so they have enough money to go out on Friday night. They will drive with their car on empty knowing it may run out of gas, just so they can afford a drink at dinner that night. They will sometimes even sacrifice an entire weekend of going out, just so they can day drink the next. And even worse, if you’ve got a 20-something who is addicted to retail, they may even stay in watching whatever shitty reality show is on TV just so they can afford that awesome dress for… umm, no reason.
There are definitely 20-somethings out there who hide their need to spend. They are the ones constantly complaining they ‘can’t go out this weekend because they have no money,’ but then you see them tagged on Facebook at an expensive restaurant… or they tell you they actually ended up going out (and to a bar that charges cover). They are the ones saying ‘they can’t afford to buy new furniture‘ or ‘go out to dinner‘ or ‘buy ANY groceries,’ but then you hear they just bought shoes, new sports bras, and/or an entire f-ing vacation.
Sure there are some people out there who really have no extra money. And these people usually keep their cash problems on the DL. They don’t want to say anything because as soon as ‘I can’t go to your party at the bar this weekend because I’m having money problems‘ comes up everyone who is around will chime in and start talking about how they have money problems too. Kind of like in Mean Girls when all the girls have to go around saying something they don’t like about themselves.
Basically, everyone has their own idea of what is a necessity. Perhaps going out to dinner once or twice a week is right up there with paying for gas or a train pass for you… or perhaps going out to dinner is something you do after you’ve saved up enough money for it. Perhaps shopping or going out twice a weekend is as important to you as paying rent… or perhaps each are things you ONLY do when you have extra cash lying around.
Whatever the case, it’s fine (as long as you’re being smart about it). Just don’t complain about your money problems when you’re still having a grand old time on the weekends or if you have any new clothes hanging in your closet. I’ll admit it – I’ve been verbal about ‘having money problems‘ before… I definitely used to before I had a job… and I kind of did again when I put the payments down to secure my apartment… but I have money in savings. No, I don’t have a lot. I can’t afford to pay for a vacation at an all inclusive resort right now… And with the money I do have/make, I don’t plan to spend it every weekend at the bars or restaurants. I choose the way I want to spend my money and that’s fine with me. I’m not rich… I’m probably not even average for my age group… but I’m certainly not having money problems. If I was really broke, I probably wouldn’t be able to afford paying for an apartment. I would be living at home. And you would too.
20-Somethings love to complain about money, but the next time you go to do it really think long and hard about the words coming out of your mouth. How do you have money problems if you’re going on vacation? How do you have money problems if you just bought new shoes? How do you have money problems if you can afford to pay rent and aren’t still living at home? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Maybe you are in a situation where you got a job (congratulations), but it doesn’t pay enough at all… and maybe all of your friends are making pretty good money (possibly with no loans, rent payments, or umm any payments at all). It may be hard for you to explain to one of those friends that you can’t get dinner with them because you are saving up for a shirt… or that you can’t go out with them because you would really like to eat this week… but don’t lie about it. Hopefully the ones who are making bank won’t start to complain about their ‘money problems’ too. This Gurl.com web series features a great episode, ‘How To Deal With Money Problems.’ As I said, every post grad thinks they have money problems… but really try to think before you say it out loud and take advice from the below video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ng6Qy8wCyRU]
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Part of being a post grad is growing up. You’ve just left the secure bubble of the world of college where things such as ‘credit card debit’ and ‘car payments’ were just as foreign to you as the ideas of having children or other old-people things. Now, we find ourselves in a world were all of a sudden, we’re pulled financially in so many directions- student loans, car payments, rent, bills, groceries, booze, clothes, etc… It’s new, it’s scary, and in some cases, it’s crippling!
Many post grads turn to the discomfort of living at home after graduation just because they can’t afford to live on their own. However, others make the choice to venture out into the world to rent or even buy their own places. Whether it is rent or a mortgage or a car payment or student loans, one of the hardest things we, as post grads have to do is grow up…
Sorry to say it but our days of simply swiping the good-old-credit-card are over… We can no longer live outside our means…
Now, we have these stupid things called responsibilities…
However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel… and it’s called BUDGETTING! Sounds lame right? Wrong. You can live extremely comfortable, still go buy those new boots you’ve been eying, still make all your payments and still go on all those dates to expensive restaurants while on a budget. All you have to do is breakdown how much money you have and how you want to spend it. Your salary (if you have a job) only gives you so much wiggle-room on how you can spend your money- but it’s up to you on how to distribute it. It’s your personal choice on how you spend your hard earned cash- will it be on rent or expensive dress? Lunch at a swanky restaurant down-town or your parking pass? It’s your decision, but you have to know that it has to be one or the other…
However, that’s exactly what it is- your decision. Don’t complain when you spend all your money on clothes or going out every night on the weekends- it was your choice to do that… A little bit of budgeting could go a long way…
Here’s the budgeting website my parents and I sat down with and worked out my budget on when I first got my job after graduation:
https://www.mint.com/
It’s free to join and has been a great tool to help with post grad success! I even got my boyfriend to use it!