Tips For a 22 Year Old

[Eryk R Wnek]

I am currently stuck with what I should do I am 22 years old living with my parents in New Jersey I don’t pay rent and all I pay for is car insurance and gas. I drive a Honda Civic that is great on gas I recently started a new job making 21 an hour and about 600-1200$ a week after taxes depending on how many hours I want to work. I am able to save almost all of that and I’m about 3 months I saved up 7k. As I am a teenager and love cars I am very tempted to buy a new car just like my friends but know this will not get me anywhere in life. I came across house hacking and I am really interested in this but It just seems out of my reach and it scares me for a number of reasons. The main one is because of my parents and the horrible luck they had when they bought a house in 2007 that was way overpriced and now they work everyday trying to keep up with the mortgage and living no so happy lives and no it’s not a crazy expensive house it was about 300k and they will never pay it off in their lifetime. I have no problem with saving up 25k or even more to buy a duplex but the unknowns if it scare me one wrong move and I’m stuck what if I get tenants that don’t pay or what if the roof needs work within the next 5 years. I am really trying to find a way to live a happy life and be able to help my parents out and just be free what should I do is it worth it for me to save and absolutely spend my money on nothing and just grind to be able to save up to buy a duplex and house hack or would I end up like my parents trying to keep up with a mortgage that I will never payoff in my lifetime and I’ll only work to payoff a house 

[Tanner Sherman]

Those fears are very normal, I'm sure everyone on this site has felt that way at some point. You won't have all the answers and you won't be prepared for everything. But you won't know if you don't try. Don't buy a new car so that you can keep up with your friends' new Subarus. Invest and be smart because if you make the leap then 10 years from now you'll be driving a Ferrari while they're still paying off their "super cool" used WRX.