Feb 28, 2017
Today I answer this listener question:
Hi Joshua,
I am a 22 year old recent college graduate. I have since landed
a job and have been working for about 4 months now. Prior to
graduating college, I was much less educated on money matters and
hardly mindful about my personal finances. Upon graduating, I
realized that I knew next to nothing about budgeting, saving,
investing, and growing wealth. Additionally, many technical terms
and aspects of finance confused me. Since I was going to be getting
a “real job” soon and making more money than I ever have before, I
decided to self-educate and rid myself of financial ignorance. I
began reading books, blogs, watching YouTube videos, and listening
to podcasts. I now find myself in a much better position to make
sound monetary decisions.
Here is my current situation:
I live at home with my parents rent free.
I am extremely fortunate to have no debt from college.
I have no debt.
I work a full time job and save virtually all of that money. I
work a part time job and use that money as my “spending
money.”
Essentially, I am blessed to have a blank slate coming out of
college.
The downside of my equation is that my full time job does not
pay particularly well ~$31,000 a year and I live in an area with a
high cost of living (northern VA).
Do you have any advice for someone like me who is just getting
started in the real world and wants to begin a path to financial
independence?
I do realize that a huge step would be to find a better paying
job – I am working on that. However what would you suggest that I
do in the meantime to add additional income and begin my journey to
FI?
My goal is not to make this all about making more money, but
rather to position myself in such a way that I can live life the
way that I want. ALSO I want to be in a position where I can easily
provide advice and assistance to those who are less well off than I
am.
Thank you in advance for any advice that you can
provide!
Enjoy!
Joshua
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