Not on a Budget? Here’s How.

Paying the bills on a monthly basis is honestly a very draining process. While I know it’s almost impossible to do, it would be so much better if you could pay all of your bills at the end of the year. Think about how much less stressed you’d be throughout the other 11 months? The only downside? If you’re not great at budgeting, you could have a large and looming bill to pay at the end of the year.

So let’s go ahead and break down some of those bills you probably have and talk about the ones you really should have.

Food.

This is one of the hardest things to pin down when you’re trying to budget, but it’s almost always higher than you think simply because we all love to go to restaurants and eat other people’s food rather than make our own. Is it because we’re lazy? Maybe. Is it annoying and time consuming to make our own? Yes.

Entertainment.

This is what my brother likes to call “walkin’ around money.” This category is reserved for all of your alcohol, music, live events, tech, and any travel and trips you may take. Whatever isn’t essential (the activities mentioned above) falls into entertainment. This should be the last thing you throw your money at but will almost undoubtedly be one of the first you do anyways.

Rent.

Whether you’re actually renting or are paying for a mortgage, this is going to be one of the biggest things you throw your paycheck at from one month to the next. And not only will it be the biggest source of your bills, it will also be the most important.

Utilities.

Ahhh, how we love utilities. It would be nice if these were just bundled into the cost of rent or a mortgage so that another two to three hundred dollars weren’t constantly being siphoned from your bank account. (And so that you wouldn’t have to keep track of another bill or two.)

Insurance.

Here’s what you should really be focused on out of these items. This is a thing that should be at the top of your budgeting list, right alongside rent and utility. And yet it probably isn’t. You even likely forget to pay for your insurance, which is sad because you’re part of the norm.

Insurance can be further divided into renter’s/home insurance, auto insurance, health insurance, and life insurance. These are the top four types of insurance you should be holding at all times without question. While I know you likely have the first three, do you have a life insurance policy for yourself yet? If not, get around to doing just that while you can. The longer you wait, the more expensive it will be.

4 Essential Types of Insurance When Adulting

When you hit your adult years, whether that’s straight out of high school for you or even upon graduating from grad school, life can hit you in the mouth pretty hard if you’re not prepared. Bills begin showing up so quickly that you wonder where the rest of your paycheck even went. Thus is life, though.

But budgeting solves a lot of your problems. Or at least it solves the problem of where your money is going. At the very least, you’ll have control over where it all goes (though you won’t always have control of how much of it goes away).

No matter the case, insurance is a part of life that you’ll never be able to rid yourself from. Rather than fight it, you’d probably better hop on the insurance train and at least figure out where to get started and what is needed and not needed. Below we’ve provided 4 essential types of insurance that all responsible adults already have.

Car insurance.

This tops the list simply because it’s pretty much legally required to own. If you’re in a car accident and you’re at fault, the bare minimum insurance you must have will at least cover the other person’s damages. So, paying for monthly auto insurance is pretty much something you’ll have to get used to for life. As an alternative, you can pay biannually, but I wouldn’t suggest doing that as the bill every 6 months can sneak up on you.

Health insurance.

This is the number one insurance we think of when we hear the word insurance. That’s because of a few things, really. First, we all value our health. If you are unhealthy and it becomes worse, things aren’t looking good and that’s all there is to it. So, it’s no wonder health insurance is the number one type of insurance sold and owned around the country.

Home/Renter’s insurance.

Do you feel like buying all brand new things if someone breaks into your home and steals things or damages your property?

No, no you don’t. Get home or renter’s insurance immediately after you start living in a place. If you wait even a day too long, you’ll have absolutely nothing to buy back all that you lost and it’ll be no one else’s fault but your own (and I suppose the burglar’s, too).

Disability insurance.

Most people think that this is exclusively for people who work in jobs like construction or factories where heavy machinery can maim you. While that’s a type of disability insurance, the general use of the term is actually for people who become ill or injured in any way off the job. If it’s off the job, your employer has no responsibility to still pay you in case you miss work. However, this type of insurance can be your saving grace if you got it before disaster struck.

4 Things to Do Now That You’ve Landed Your Post-College Job

Job searching while you’re still in your senior year of college (or last year of grad school) can be pretty stressful. That’s mainly because you’re still focused on actually finishing college, so searching for a career to start making money in directly after graduating is quite tough to balance.

It’s honestly a pretty unfair setup if you think about it. You should be focused on graduating, right? Not getting a job! Or wait, is it the other way around? Getting a job is the priority, so your last year of college should be a breeze, right?

No matter how you think of it, there’s no changing the formula to how it works.

But once you do land the job you’ve been searching for (or something less than stellar that will do for now . . .), you’re set to start making money and making a life for yourself. It can be an exciting time, but it can equally be stressful and even scary to begin everything anew all at once. Perhaps you never had a full time job before this. Perhaps you did, but it’s been years.

Whatever the case is, you’ve got to start adulting, as they say nowadays.

But let me tell you: adulting isn’t nearly as hard as people make it out to be. You’ve just gotta know where to begin.

Get a cheap apartment at first.

Alright, so this is dependent on your expected income for the new job, but there’s no reason you need to be searching out a house right now. I will say that some college grads will opt to stay with their parents longer if the job is relatively close, but I’m not an advocate of this method simply because you don’t truly know what it means to be an adult until you’re on your own and paying your own bills. So pick a place you like alright and sign a lease. It’s the best thing you can do for your own growth.

Get disability insurance.

It’d be a shame if you got hurt or incredibly ill early on in your career. You don’t want to have a loss of income right away, especially since you’ve likely got student debt to pay off and more. Disability insurance is cheap but extremely handy.

Begin budgeting.

If you like to eat out more often and have the income for that, make it larger on your budget. If you want to travel some throughout the life and that’s your way of “buying nice things” for yourself, put it on your budget. No matter the case, draft a budget for yourself and stick to it. You want to start tracking where your money goes so that it’s more easily managed. You’ll save more this way, too.

Make friends.

Whether or not you live close to home or other friends from college, you want to have a social life and surround yourself with people who make you happy. It’s not fun entering the adult world without support, so go out and meet others at bars, restaurants, dog parks, gyms, or wherever you can.