Hi,
I'm the "poor school teacher" who attempted to post a case study here a little while back. I was making only about $800-$1200 dollars per month at my job and spending about $1000 per month on certain expenses, like:
Car insurance: $70
Cell Phone: $35
Internet: $35
Rent: $500
Groceries: $100
Gas: $100
Total: $840 per month out of $800-$1200 per month...
The suggestions I was given for fixes for this included finding another cell phone and / or internet carrier, selling the car and getting bicycle, and finding a roommate.
Well, I got another job on top of the substitue teaching assignments. I now make $300 more per month to go with that $800-$1200 per month. Plus, I have a master's degree, and I might get a "raise" from $11.25 an hour to about $14 per hour. (Really, I'm planning on working for another school that pays everyone better.)
Best case scenario:
I will now be looking at about:
$1800-$2300 per month. This averages out to about $16,200-$20,700 per year (Okay, that's still kind of low, but it's much better than I was doing.)
Plus, I've managed to pick up at least one tutoring job at $30 per week. I suspect my tutoring assignments will pick up as school progresses. If I could pick up three such jobs, I would be making an extra $90 per week, or about $360 extra per month.
Also, I'm thinking about maybe becoming an Uber driver after I trade in my car and save enough for a decent newer model, at least a 2006. My current car is a 2006, but I don't think I would trust it to drive people around; it has some body issues, as it's a rebuilt salvage vehicle. It was cheap, under $3000, but now I know why. In the meantime, though, I think I'm just going to repair my car for $250 and the cost of whatever lurking minor repairs that have yet to be discovered and continue to drive it until I can either convince someone to buy it or trade it in to a dealer as part of my downpayment. I need a vehicle of some kind, though, because I work at night, and the buses do not run past 7PM in my neighborhood. Plus, sub calls do happen at the last minute, and a bus that takes 45 minutes to get me where a car could in 10-15 isn't necessarily reliable transportation. I am planning, though, to take the bus a few days out of the week so that I can save on gas. Either that, or I'm planning to let my car work for me by signing up to be part of the citizen taxi service via Uber. I'm imagining the salary I would be able to make with Uber would at least offset the cost of upkeep and fuel for a newer vehicle.
The question I have, though, is saving up for a newer vehicle really worth it?
I would be looking at paying around $4000-$6000 for a semi-decent somewhat high mileage newer model car (bought through an owner). I'm not guaranteed I would not need to make repairs on it, and full-coverage insurance would be a bit more expensive than the liability I carry now. (I imagine I would need full-coverage insurance so that I could legally carry passengers. I also think Uber requires a special kind of insurance.)
Also, since I MAY have a better income this year, what should I start doing if I want to start investing? What's the smartest way to do this? I've thought about maybe saving up to purchase what I would need to start a small franchise, maybe a learning center of some sort, but I'm not really sure about the details.