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I am a college student at present with very little income. I work an on-campus job and make enough to pay for gas, food, and other "essentials." This is fine with me while I am in school because room/board, the majority of my food, and the like is all taken care of.

However, this summer I will be working full-time and maybe even working part time at another job. I will have to pay for food, car insurance, gas, and other things I might need (clothes, detergent, etc).

What I am wondering about is: How should I handle my money?

I figured something like:
10% -- general savings
10% -- investments (don't have any but I would like to start investing now)
10% -- saving toward a new car

that leaves me with 70% of what I earn to go toward:
food
car insurance
gas
other things

Do you think this is a good plan? How much do you think food, car insurance, gas, ect is going to cost? (BTW im 19 and I would be driving maybe 30-40 miles a day.) I guess I am just wondering if you guys think this is a good budget (although not detailed as of yet), or do you think I will be "investment poor" ? I don't want to be strapped for money because I am investing/saving too much, but at the same time, I don't want to have too much disposable income that I will waste it on something stupid.

A related topic: Should I get a credit card with a $500 limit or something low from the bank I use? I want to establish and build credit for later on in life. I would use it to pay for gas mainly and I would pay it off in-full at the end of each month. Good Idea/Bad Idea?
 
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i would ignore investing at this point unless your offered some sort of 401k plan by your job in which that would be the only investing i would do.
 
Save more than that.

Get the CC but be goddamned sure you can pay it ALL off every month or you'll fuck yourself.
 
Maven said:
i would ignore investing at this point unless your offered some sort of 401k plan by your job in which that would be the only investing i would do.
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Not even a CD?
 
i dont know much about CD it just sounds to me like your budget is sooo tight that it seems you could put that money to better use. comapny 401k types are good cause they are pretax. I dont know about CD's.
 
Reno said:
Save more than that.

Get the CC but be goddamned sure you can pay it ALL off every month or you'll fuck yourself.
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I want to save more than 20% but I'm not sure how much food, gas, car insurance, ect is going to be, and I am not completely sure how much money i will be making this summer.

I want to save as much as I can, but I don't want to SAVE so much that I feel like im broke at the end of week.
 
You have to be mighty disciplined to save 30% of your income... especially when you look at what a few nights out on the weekend cost you, what that new game means to your bottom line, etc.

It's never too early to start saving, but be realistic about it or you won't put anything away. I have 2 savings accounts... one for a Hawaii trip my wife and I want to take, and one for a new car I want to get next year. I put $250 into each account every pay period and then forget about it... I never look at those accounts and try to not think about the money I have in them, because it's tough not to spend it if you think of it as money you can access.

Also, start building up your credit, but get something with a low, low, low limit on it. I know people who started off with cards with $2K limits on them and had 'em maxed in a month... then you have to get another card, and then another... before you know it, you owe mucho dinero to credit card companies and you can barely afford to pay the minimum.
 
link any savings/investment you can do is a great idea.... get started early and the power of compounding interest will work in your favor...
take the credit card but realize that they are bad news... perhaps a small loan from the bank with regular payment amounts would be a better idea to build credit.
you can set goals like you have, and adjust them as needed once you get set in your routines... good jobs taking action on this.. most people simply live paycheck to paycheck.. congrats!
 
JackBlack said:
You have to be mighty disciplined to save 30% of your income... especially when you look at what a few nights out on the weekend cost you, what that new game means to your bottom line, etc.

It's never too early to start saving, but be realistic about it or you won't put anything away. I have 2 savings accounts... one for a Hawaii trip my wife and I want to take, and one for a new car I want to get next year. I put $250 into each account every pay period and then forget about it... I never look at those accounts and try to not think about the money I have in them, because it's tough not to spend it if you think of it as money you can access.

Also, start building up your credit, but get something with a low, low, low limit on it. I know people who started off with cards with $2K limits on them and had 'em maxed in a month... then you have to get another card, and then another... before you know it, you owe mucho dinero to credit card companies and you can barely afford to pay the minimum.
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I know saving 30% of my income will be hard, but I am not having to pay for much--all things considered. I won't be paying any bills besides car insurance. I am opening both savings accounts when I get my next paycheck from my job here at school. I planned on having direct deposit automatically put 10% into one of my savings accounts.

I know about the dangers of credit, and if I didn't NEED credit in order to buy a house or a car, then I wouldn't use it, but the reality of life is that everything important(house/cars) requires credit. So, I want to build up some credit now so that I can afford to get the house or car I want in the future. I want a card with a low limit.The lower the better. Whats the lowest limit I could get?

I think $200 would be perfect for what I need it for.
 
I just got my first credit card (1500 limit, 8.5% interest) and am about to buy a $2,400 46" Samsung DLP HDTV, but I will have that shit paid off in 2 months and basically not use it anymore. Been managing my money well up to this point, paying bills on time.

My advice is to give yourself a spending allowance out of your paychecks, then put the rest into bills and whatever's left over goes into savings. Unless you're making some wicked cash right now, investing is anything other than a 401k just doesn't sound too cool.
 
GhostHorse said:
link any savings/investment you can do is a great idea.... get started early and the power of compounding interest will work in your favor...
take the credit card but realize that they are bad news... perhaps a small loan from the bank with regular payment amounts would be a better idea to build credit.
you can set goals like you have, and adjust them as needed once you get set in your routines... good jobs taking action on this.. most people simply live paycheck to paycheck.. congrats!
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I would do the small loan thing from the bank, BUT I really don't have anything I need a loan for atm :shrug: I would only use the credit card to buy gas and I would definitely pay it off at the end of each month.
 
I manage to save like 80% of my paychecks, but I don't have any bills except for Serverseed and my cellphone at the moment.
 
Dogmeat said:
Unless you're making some wicked cash right now, investing is anything other than a 401k just doesn't sound too cool.
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I doubt i would be making wicked cash, BUT I also don't have alot of bills to pay either. This is probably the last summer of my life that I won't be paying for rent, electricity, water, phone, cable, car payment, etc. :)

I figure, if i am not puting the money into savings or investing it, then I will probably end up blowing it on a bunch of little things that I really don't need. I would just save it all, but investing it yeilds greater returns in the long run. I would like to have a nice portfolio and/or some decent investments by the time I have to support a family.


BUT, so far...I have had 2 people that said ex nay on the investing idea unless I have a 401k. Anyone think differently?
 
Dogmeat said:
Well good luck with that ;o
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Thank you :)

I really wanted to travel around Europe too. Within the next 5 years. I think having a nice savings account would be beneficial.
 
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