Can I afford to live alone

[patch45]

I currently live in Denver with 3 roomates. Rent + utilities is $600, which is incredibly cheap for the area. I'm very close to work and to a grocery store, so I do all intra-city travel on bike.

I'm getting a little sick of the people I live with though, I just found them on Craigslist and am about ready to move out. I want to not worry about having people over, about my girlfriend or I taking too much time in the shower, about playing guitar loudly at night.

I would be interested in living with friends, but all of the friends I've made out here seem pretty happy with their living situations. I've put out feelers but not counting on anything on that front.

It seems like a studio in a neighborhood I would want to live in runs anywhere from $750-1000/mo. For what it's worth, I'm 25, this is my first time living on my own outside of college, my SR has been around 78%-80% on a 90k salary, and I'll be getting a raise to 96k this month. Is it silly to give up this great deal on rent, or have you all had good experiences moving out on your own?

[joonifloofeefloo]

With those numbers, it sounds a-okay for you to get your own place.

I've loved living with some past roommates, and also love living alone. I lean toward the latter, though sometimes think I'd enjoy a bit of chitchat with a roomie again. So, sometimes a bit is lost with solo living, but for some of us, much more is gained :)

Sounds like there's nothing particularly valuable about the current relationships, so you could live solo for a while and join some other roommates in future, too.

[jeroly]

If you like living with other people you could also consider renting (or buying) a two (or more) bedroom place and then being able to pick your own roommates instead of being at the mercy of whoever else controls the lease or deed.

[marty998]

Move out. You earn plenty. Shit, there's people here on $30k who live on their own. Of course you can afford it.

FIRE shouldn't come at the expense of the basic quality of life you believe you need. It would be different if you were a broke 20 year old student with limited other options.

Your own shower, your own toilet, your own fridge and you and you girlfriend can dance naked if you want to as well.

Can't see a lot of downsides there.

[MrThatsDifferent]

Move out. You earn plenty. Shit, there's people here on $30k who live on their own. Of course you can afford it.

FIRE shouldn't come at the expense of the basic quality of life you believe you need. It would be different if you were a broke 20 year old student with limited other options.

Your own shower, your own toilet, your own fridge and you and you girlfriend can dance naked if you want to as well.

Can't see a lot of downsides there.

+1 agreed. Just, don’t go crazy. Find the cheapest, best place you can. No need to live in a crack den or go to the other extreme. Aim for $800 and less, will be worth it.

[patch45]

Thanks all, I kinda figured I could "afford" it, I'm just so used to optimizing for cost that my instinct was telling me not to at first. Part of it too is that I don't really care too much about how modern/nice the physical building I live in is, so I never really thought I'd be looking to increase the amount I spend on rent

[joonifloofeefloo]

Understood. Some people on the forum need support to spend less, some of us need support to spend more! lol

[civil4life]

You definitely can afford living on your own.  It is more if you want too. 

I bought my own home 5.5 years ago.  It is way to big for me.  I have rented rooms out on occasion, but I do not need to if I do not want too.

Another option would be having the second room as an AirBnB if you want the occasional company.

[Holyoak]

My God, I'd be out of there so fast, I'd form a time warp vacuum.  The upside is SO HUGE, and the downside, NONE...  I'd burn the $4800 max extra for rent, to have privacy (esp w/ a girlfriend), not having to share a kitchen/bathroom/anything, and not have to put up with any BS in my home; plenty of opportunity outside of your place for that.  If you want company, seek it out - so much better than not wanting company, and nothing you can do about it. 

I pay $700/mo for rent for an old tiny 2 BR home with basement, and a single stall garage, and live on less than $25k a year...  I would not know what in the hell to do with $96K, event though my stache hovers right around $2MM.  So put me in the 100000000% get out of where you are camp, and congratulations on your very good SR.  Good luck.

[Lady SA]

Mustachianism isn't about minimizing spending, it is about optimizing happiness.

Hell yes I would move out. I am so happy living in my own apartment with just my DH--the freedom! And I even really liked being around the majority of my roommates (we are still friends today). I am just a private person and vastly prefer having my own quiet space where DH and I can have sex without being paranoid about being heard (lol) or take showers whenever we want or sit on the couch in our underwear or be lazy and let the house get a little messy once in a while. I freaking love it.

If you find after a couple months of solo living that you miss the cheap rent or miss having people around all the time, you could run some numbers and see if it would be optimal to move somewhere else with bedrooms and sublease to roommates that you vet and find yourself.