Hello there!
So, here's my story: After graduating from high school I wanted to get a job and go to community college part time. My middle class parents said absolutely not, so I ended up going to state university for two and a half years (I earned about 80 credits/half a bachelors degree), after which point I moved back home due to massive depression and feelings of purposelessness. At first I was still depressed, but I started recovering quickly and picking up hours at my summer job. They were really glad to have someone with the most flexible schedule ever, and the pay was good, but the hours were crazy unpredictable and the environment was stressful ($12/hour, 8.5-9.5 hour days, sometimes just one or none a week, but often 2-3 days and I got 2-4 weeks of full time work a couple times). About 5 months ago I found another job, that pays a little less but has steady, reliable hours and is a 1 hour walk/10 min bus ride from my mom's house ($11/hour, 25-30 hours/week split over 5-6 days, mostly half day shifts). The new job is retail/printing work, the summer job was legal copy/print work.
Since then I've been putting about $1000/month into savings, with an initial goal of $10,000 for an emergency fund, plus $3,000 to cover my move out expenses. Currently, I have $5000 in savings, about $200 in checking, $2500 in a Roth IRA (this was a Christmas present from my grandmother), and about $3500 in "oh shit" money. I know it's a bit old fashioned/paranoid, but I don't count the "oh shit" money as savings or even as part of my emergency fund, because its purpose is to be a second safety net in case the emergency fund fails. Feel free to explain why this is a terrible idea, but know that it probably won't change my behaviour, as it's something I've been doing my whole life.
I have tentatively secured a roommate, and will be moving out in either August or September, at which point my expenses will jump from ~$100/month to at least $600, probably more like $700. (I don't have the option to live rent free any longer than that, as my parent's rent is being raised and they will also be moving around that time.) I'm not happy about this, but it's the reality of the housing situation in my city, and being close to my family and having a supportive work environment is important enough to my mental health that I don't want to move elsewhere. I'm hopeful that I'll still be able to put away $3-500 a month, but I'm not sure how realistic that is.
My expenses will be something like:
Rent: hopefully $400?
Utilities: $100?
Phone: paid by parents
Bus pass: $100/month, paid by parents
Food: $100
Misc: $100
TL;DR: For the first time in my life I have a reliable paycheck, which is approximately 13K/year. I have some college credits, but no degree and no desire to go back to traditional classes. I have no debt. IRS filing status: single, no dependents. As far as I know I get almost all of my taxes money back because I make so little. I live in Oregon. Savings are currently at $10,500 all told, with $2500 of that in a Roth IRA. None of it is invested, I don't even know where to start on that. I'll reach my emergency fund goal after another 5 months/$5,000. No real idea of where to go after that financially.
I would appreciate feedback on what I've done so far, plus advice on: How to invest IRA money? How to invest/what to do with other long term savings- I am literally a baby when it comes to this, I've tried to figure it out with google and FI blogs, but I need someone to put it into small words, or point me to articles that do so. Also: creative advice on how to save money in a city where rent is sky-rocketing, recipes for eating healthy on a budget, possible ways to turn 80 university credits into a degree with minimal additional cost/class time. Also, anything else you would do if you had no debt and your whole working life ahead of you.
Thanks sincerely and please let me know if I left anything out!
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Edited to add (sorry this post is now so long):
Thank you, I'm very happy to be here! I left out a lot of the emotional/personal stuff because I didn't want to have a monster-length post and wasn't sure how relevant it was.
Depression
I get pretty strong situational depression. The jury seems to be out on whether this qualifies as a mood disorder or not, but it's very real to me. Basically, it means that there is a hard limit as to how long I can tolerate certain conditions, and experience the normal symptoms of depression like apathy and despair with increasing severity while the conditions are in place, but that fixing my enviorment produces a semi-immediate improvement. The purposelessness I mentioned was my way of describing what it's like after I hit my limit and before I can fix my circumstances.
So far the two main causes of this have been exposure to the American educational system, and living alone and far away from my support group. The latter is pretty easy to fix, and was really only a problem because it caught me off guard the first time.The former has been a significant barrier in my life. I *think* I'm a pretty intelligent person, and I have a strong drive to learn new things, a good work ethic, and a desire to contribute to society. However, I absolutely cannot stand the kind of manufactured, highly formalized, and isolating sort of academic work this is absolutely required in universities. This is partially due to some unfortunate experiences in my formative years, (I was an anxious, quiet, child who learned quickly and tested well, but got horrible grades. My schools handled this very poorly.) but mostly due to my learning style. I need a lot of interaction with my teachers or at least with other students who understand the material, and I am very oriented towards practical applications, the history and origins of said applications, and the practical reasons and realities that drive decisions. I like talking, reading, watching and then imitating patterns, and doing things with my hands. I pretty much can't write essays unless they're done in class, my anxiety just won't let me, however I can explain/debate/converse on the essay topic well enough to prove I know the material (this is how I convinced many of my teachers to let me pass their classes in high school). As far as I know I don't qualify for any sort of accommodations at the college level because my issues aren't the kind that I can get diagnosed for. And I'm not sure I want to waste any more of my life in classes that are either too easy or too abstract and don't teach any practical skills. I especially don't want to go into debt to do so.
College
As you surmised, my father paid for my tuition and living expenses while I was in college. This was contingent upon my doing things his way: going to a "good" school, getting the "right" type of degree, taking a full course load, not getting a job except during the summer, and letting him monitor all my activities. The problem was that all of these are things that either contributed to my depression or ran directly counter to my goals in life. I've never had a good relationship with him (my parents divorced when I was little, and for good reasons), and the strain of me trying to get him to help me in a way that wasn't terrible for me caused us to fall out completely. There is no chance that he will fund any future endeavours of mine. (And honestly I wouldn't want him to.) My mother is a wonderful supportive person who is the only reason I've managed to recover so well from dropping out, but she doesn't have the financial resources to do anything more for me, (my father controls all the savings accounts set up by my parents for me and my siblings) and I refuse to let her go into debt on my behalf (although she's offered).
In my two and a half years I studied chemistry (wanted to do material science but that wasn't available), and computer science, with a bit of art and history on the side.
If I were to go back to school I would want to learn something specialized and useful that I wouldn't be able to learn as well by just trying it on my own or finding a job where it was part of my training. Obviously it would also be good to get a piece of paper that says I'm smart and qualified to do things, so certificates in various things are also on my list of possibilities. My main passion is making useful things- think industrial design and building- and the list of things I've considered going back to get a degree in include: business, drafting, carpentry, metalworking, applied ceramics, and building maintenance/electricity/plumbing. I love the idea of an apprenticeship, which is basically a full ride scholarship with a large work-study component, but I'm concerned by the amount of driving that is involved in most (currently I have neither licence nor car). I'll admit I've had a bit of a defeatist attitude when it come to scholarships, in the past my thinking was that my GPA wasn't good enough for the academic ones, my situation not unusual enough for the non-traditional ones, and my family too wealthy for the need based ones. If I were to go back later, at least two of these would be solved, so that's good.
Future Goals and Work Ideas
I would love to get into making jewellery, pottery, or small scale objects in wood, paper, or leather as a side hustle, but I don't see those becoming my main gig. My eventual goal is to open a private library- patrons subscribe, pay dues, and in exchange get a set of services personally tailored to their needs and devoid of the battered, grimy feeling sometimes associated with public libraries. (Don't get me wrong, I love public libraries, but I'm NOT getting a master's degree in order to work in one, and I'd like to have the opportunity to so this thing in an unusual way.) I see this as a goal that's at least 10-15 years out, and something that I would continue to do after retirement.
My current plan is to keep the job I have for at least two years- the hours are super flexible, and I plan to take advantage of that in order to take on secondary jobs/internships that will teach me things I want to know. I think this might be a better fit than school, and is much less of a risk. Currently, I'm starting an internship at a tech recycling nonprofit where I will learn how to build computers, and get a free computer and recommendation letter out of it. After that the plan is to do a work trade for membership at a maker space, and hopefully pick up some skills or make friends that can teach me more about wood or ceramics, at worst pay reduced prices for classes on those things, and maybe be able to use the facilities to make something I can sell? If not, at least I'll have really cool christmas presents to give.
After that I'm not certain, I'd like to get another paying job, but don't know what exactly. Maybe something in the food industry that could lead to either free meals or learning to cook? I'm not opposed to a job that just pays the bills, but it seems suboptimal. I've also thought about being a receptionist, dishwasher, traffic flagger, legal assistant/filing clerk, or being an assistant to a real estate agent or business owner (I'm very helpful, and have some familiarity with law). The last three would probably require a car, and that would be a huge extra cost I don't have to deal with right now, so maybe not worth it.
TL;DR
Basically, I want my work to be either making things, fixing things, being outside, exercise that won't wreck my body in a few years, helping people, or a combination thereof. For well paid work or work that provided medical/retirement benefits, I would be willing to give up most of these, as long as there was still a positive work environment and I had the potential to keep learning new things and the potential for advancement.
I would LOVE feedback on whether these seem like good ideas, and especially on any way my plan for implementing them could be improved. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details and I'd love to hear from anyone who has tried something similar.