While national unemployment hovers around 10%, unemployment for 16-24 year olds in America is twice that. We’re feeling the pinch as employers have their pick of the litter and can turn us down for more seasoned, experienced workers. But not all is lost – there are some things our generation brings to the table that employers would be remiss to exclude from their office. Kojo, the panel, and the callers discuss all this and more.

The experts on this show are: 

• Howard Ross – Diversity consultant; Principal, Cook Ross
• Julianne Malveaux – Economist; President, Bennett College
• Katherine Stahl – Executive Director, American University Career Center

They touch on many aspects of our job search struggles right now, and also a few of the advantages we actually have. Give it a listen, and let’s discuss it in the comments.

Listen now to “A Slow Start for Young Workers” from The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU.

Have you experienced difficulties, unemployment, or underemployment in the current job market? (I know I have!)

Related posts:

1. Graduating College During a Recession Round-Up
2. Graduating? Start the Job Hunt!
3. Graduating? Evaluate Benefits for Job Offers

8:00am

I wake up on my parents’ pull-out couch. My bed has been stripped of its sheets and covered with things that still need to be packed, so I slept downstairs. Infomercials and reruns of The Nanny put me to sleep last night. There’s an expected knot in my stomach. I manage to eat some cereal all the same. Still, I drag my feet on getting in the shower and take care of some things online instead.

10:15am

Out of the shower, dressed, and ready to tackle the piles that are still not packed. I know that I don’t want to leave before my mom stops home from work around noon. Still, there’s a lot left to pack. I occasionally become overwhelmed and return to the internet. Or the fridge. I eat the last of the string cheese.

12:20pm

My mom comes home to take her wife to a doctor’s appointment. I’m much closer to packed, but nothing has made its way into my car yet. We do goodbyes in the living room – there’s unplanned crying. My mom and stepmom leave for the doctor’s, and I’m left alone with the dog and cats. They’ll be no help at all in packing my car.

2:30pm

Following my own guidelines for packing a car full of stuff, I’ve mostly filled the Oldsmobile when my parents return from the doctor’s. They didn’t expect me to still be there, and neither had I. I load the last few bags of clothes into the car and make a last-minute decision to throw all of my hangers up on top. I’m pleasantly surprised at the fact that I can still see through my back window. I pack the front seat with snacks, my old and decrepit iPod Shuffle, my laptops, a lamp, and a garbage can full of toiletries. My mother shoos me out the door before anyone starts crying again. I test the tire pressure in all four tires before driving off.

3:18pm

I’m surprised when the route my GPS has me on takes me directly past my sister’s house. I call to find out if she’s home for a goodbye, but no answer. I stop by to double-check. The dog barks at me, but no other signs of the family.

3:52pm

My sister calls me back as I drive through an area with beautiful windmills. We talk for a little while, but I have to get back on the road since I’m so far behind schedule. I don’t want to do much of my driving after dark, if I can help it. I spend the next stretch of road trying to watch the windmills and keep my eyes on the road at the same time. Later on, I’ll be disappointed at windmill-less hilltops.

5:20pm

My car stalls in the middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania. Luckily, it’s while going downhill, and I coast for about two miles of highway going 55 miles per hour with my flashers on. When I get to the bottom of the hill, I pull over and try to restart my car. Success! I drive with flashers on to the next exit and call my boyfriend. He glances at a map and lets me know that I’m 20 miles away from anywhere useful. Since my car seems to at least start, it seems my only option is to try and make it the 20 miles to Williamsport.

5:40pm

I spend 20 miles on a construction laden highway cursing my car. I had it checked out just last week, and it got a clean bill of health for this road trip! I also curse Pennsylvania for putting this construction right where I’m driving. The last thing I want to do is drive down a one-lane highway at 55mph, waiting to see if my car will stall, with a long line of cars forming behind me. Thankfully, the truck behind me seems intent on going even slower than I am.

6:05pm

I make it to the next city incident free, but I’m still freaked out. Now begins the long process of searching for a mechanic that’s actually open. I’m suddenly even more thankful for my GPS device (a Garmin Nuvi 350), which has a long list of mechanics in it, with phone numbers, sorted by distance from my current location. Parked in a Subway parking lot, I start calling the numbers one-by-one.

6:11pm

Surprisingly, I get an answer on my 10th phone call. It’s a guy who stayed late at the shop to work on his own car. He must feel really bad for me, because he agrees to take a look at my car anyway. I drive over to him, and he kindly tinkers with my car as I pace the parking lot, sipping my water bottle and texting updates to my mother and boyfriend. I think about what I’ll have to do if he can’t fix it: get a hotel room, stay the night, try to get it fixed in the morning. I mentally calculate how much is left in my Emergency Fund and Getting Established Fund. But moreso, I hate the idea of staying overnight somewhere when nearly every earthly possession of mine is packed in my car.

7:10pm

The kindly mechanic has found a few things that might have been the problem. First, a bad connection to the battery, which was an easy fix. Second, my fuel filter badly needed to be replaced. The total comes to only $50.35 with labor. But he gives me my keys back with the caveat that he can’t know for sure if either of those things are what caused my car to stall. Thankfully, the rest of the trip is through more populated areas. As long as I don’t stall and get rear-ended, my AAA membership should save me if anything more happens. I send out the message that I’m getting back on the road, and I tell my Oldsmobile to behave before I replace it with a Prius.

If you’re ever in Williamsport in need of car repair, try Hooker’s Garage! I can’t thank them enough for taking care of me that night.

9:14pm

I make it to Harrisburg without incident, but I’ve been much more careful than before. I throw on my flashers whenever someone decides to tailgate me, and I avoid driving in front of large trucks that would have trouble stopping. I stick to the speed limit most of the way. I also avoid using cruise control, because I want to feel everything that’s happening under my foot. This is very tiring, and my leg is already starting to cramp up. I stop at a Wendy’s, make a few phone calls, and get back on the road. It’s dark out, which makes me unhappy.

11:19pm

I stop for gas in Maryland. It’s my first gas stop of the whole trip, and I don’t even really need it yet, but I don’t want to push my car much further without a break. As I fill up, I try to calculate the mileage I’ve been getting in my head, but I only come up with “much better than usual.” Later on, when I enter the receipt into my account on GasBuddy.com, I’ll find out that I got 33 miles per gallon during the trip. My car averages at about 22 miles per gallon. I wonder if coasting down a highway with the engine off for two miles helped my mileage at all!

11:30pm

It starts raining in Maryland. I’m really grateful for the extra coat of Rain-X that I put on my windshield the night before.

11:45pm

It’s raining in sheets in Maryland. Thanks! Last time, it was bumper-to-bumper traffic. This time, it’s pouring rain. I can barely see, and most cars are going even slower than I am. Still, some cars pass me at lightning speed. My GPS seems annoyed that I haven’t arrived at her expected arrival time. It keeps telling me I’m only one minute away!

11:59pm

The rain slows down quite a bit once I’m in Virginia, so now I know it really was Maryland’s fault. I make a few wrong turns once I get off the highway, which annoys the GPS even more. “Recalculating!” she calls out, in a sarcastic voice. The rain has stopped when I pull into the parking lot of the apartment.

12:05am

Boyfriend seems happy to see me, but unhappy to see my car full of stuff that needs to be unpacked. We ignore the stuff in the trunk and begin lugging everything else up the two flights of stairs. We playfully argue about who’s “more tired-er” and I tell him about how Maryland has it out for me.

So, my car survived the remainder of the trip without incident and I made it to my destination in Northern Virginia. When you move, may your trip be less eventful than mine and may there be pretty windmills for you to look at!

This article is a part of a series of posts on moving out on your own.

Related posts:

1. Moving Out on Your Own
2. Moving: Maximizing Space When Packing Your Car

I’m a girl, so there is a significant amount of clothes and shoes to be considered in this move.

Luckily, I’ve helped quite a few friends “Tetris” their things into cars to move. So I do have a bit of experience with this. Here you will find my philosophy on packing everything you can into a car:

Before the Move

Yes, packing a car starts long before you actually start packing. As soon as you know you’ll have to move, and that you’ll be relying on your car to do it, preparations must be made.

Stop acquiring stuff – this is the big one! My friends and family are very sick of me saying “I want this, but I just can’t get any more stuff before the move!” But it’s true – everything I buy before the move is something that has to be moved!

This includes not buying a lot of bulk food or toiletries in the months leading up to the move, either. Sure, a giant thing of cereal or shampoo may save some money, but if you don’t use it all, you’ll have to either leave it behind (canceling out your savings) or find room for it in the car. Yikes. Speaking of food…

Eat all of your food – especially perishables. It’s one thing to bring along a few cans of tuna and some pasta, but milk probably won’t survive the trip! Especially if you’ve moving out of state, like I am. You might have to get creative with recipes toward the end, but eating “mystery meat weird-noodle with frozen vegetables casserole” isn’t so bad, and it will make packing easier.

Coordinate with roommates so you don’t end up with doubles of things. Remember this from dorm living? It still applies! How many copies of the LoTR trilogy extended edition DVDs do you need? How many mini-fridges? Sell off or give away extra stuff. Or leave it with your parents, if they’ll let you.

Clean out your car about a week before you think you need to. Clean it inside and out, and especially vacuum it. The cleaner your car is, the more comfortable you will be with shoving your precious belongings into weird configurations in your trunk. And do it early, because something will come up if you put it off until the day before the move, and you might end up moving in a dirty car.

Oh, and that junk in your trunk? It’s gotta go! Make lots and lots of room for the important stuff.

Preparing Your Stuff

Resign yourself to the fact that you will not be able to take much furniture, if any. Maybe you can fit like, a small chair in there, or some IKEA-style furniture that disassembles. But like me, you’ll probably have to leave the antique bookcase and dresser behind. If your parents are cool with it, you can probably leave some stuff at their place. (In my parents’ case, they’re more than happy to hang onto the bookshelf, considering they’ve already filled it with their books!)

Avoid boxes whenever possible, which is counterintuitive to how we normally pack. But think about it: boxes take up space, and they aren’t flexible. Boxes don’t fit in and around other things, like the contents of a box might. The more stuff you can keep free of a container, the better.

You will use boxes for some things. It’s just impractical to carry books individually out to your car, and then from your car into your new place. For the boxes you do use, use small ones. I’ve found that copy paper boxes are about the biggest I want to go, at about 17”x12”x12”. I’m also using some crates that I’ve had since the beginning of college.

Get rid of the original packaging, which fits in with the “avoid boxes” thing. For some things, the original packing might be a benefit, like a flat-screen monitor. It makes it easier to carry and provides a good amount of protection. So sure, the original box might be best for a few things, but not most things.

Use garbage bags for clothes, or cloth laundry bags. Yep, throw your clothes right in a garbage bag. Why? Garbage bags are big and flexible. ‘nough said.

Wrap breakables in clothes and towels, instead of using packing material. Forget bubble wrap and newspaper – use something you have to transport anyway! I also have a lot of yarn, because I’m a knitter. So I’m planning to shove balls of yarn in between breakables, as packing material. Get creative with the stuff you have to move!

Put liquid in something waterproof, or you’ll be sorry when they leak. My current plan? Put my toiletries, etc. in my plastic garbage can. I definitely won’t care if they leak into that!

Packing the Car

Honestly, there isn’t a whole lot I can tell you here. It’s going to depend on your car and your stuff! You’re just going to have to play your own game of Car Tetris. But I do have a few ideas that might help:

Pack the essentials first, in case you don’t have enough room. This is another counterintuitive thing. I mean, if you pack your essential stuff first, won’t it be on the bottom of everything? Won’t that be a pain when you’re unloading? Yes. But there’s a few reasons to do it anyway. First of all, it gives you incentive to unpack the entire car, instead of just getting the good stuff out and leaving the rest for a few days.

Secondly, there’s the chance that everything you’ve pack might not fit. And if that happens, and you’ve put non-essential stuff on the bottom… you’ll have to unpack everything to get it out to make room. So pack in order of importance. That way, once your car fills up, you’re done. You just need to figure out what to do with what’s left, and then you can drive away!

Put stuff you’ll need in the car in the front seat, like snack food, your wallet, MP3 player, car chargers… whatever you’ll need during the drive. This might also include a laptop, if you’re planning on staying overnight or just stopping at places with free Wi-Fi. It should also include a backpack with basic toiletries and a few days worth of clothes – just like a carry-on bag on an airplane. Because hey, you never know… so it’s just good practice.

Try to balance the car, so that you don’t have too much heavy stuff on the left or right, or in the cab or the trunk. This might be hard to pull off, but it’s worth a shot!

Things I Have No Clue About

I may seem wise in the ways of car packing, but there are still a few things that elude my great genius. I certainly hope you guys have these things figured out, so that you can educate me in the comments:

Hangers! They are the enemy of packing! They won’t fit in any box! They catch on everything! My current plan is just to shove them where ever they may fit, even if that means I have two hanger here, ten hangers there, a few in the front seat, some in the trunk…

Pillows are big space-takers. Are they even worth bringing? Or should I bite the bullet and get new ones when I get there? Or maybe I can try to squish them under a bunch of other stuff?

Musical instruments are hell to pack. I’m suddenly glad that I’m not musically talented, and I don’t have to deal with them. Hurray!

Happy packing, everyone!

This article is a part of a series of posts on moving out on your own.

Related posts:

1. Moving: Titling, Registering, and Insuring Your Car
2. Moving Out on Your Own
3. Moving: Tales from the Trip

The hours of planning, budgeting, e-mailing and digital networking have led up to this point but all of a sudden the comforts, friends and family you’ve left behind starts to sink in and you find yourself, alone.

That may be just one of the fears running through your head. I’m here to help dissipate the fear and confusion and I’m raising my hand now, only 8 months ago I was in your position.

You’re not alone in your plight: The average American moves 11.7 times in their lifetime. Forty million people relocate each year while 15 million make significant moves of more than 50 or 100 miles, Richard Florida states in Who’s Your City?

Moving and relocating can be scary, but you’re halfway through the battle because you gathered up your wits, took a risk and did it. These are steps that I took to help further acclimate to my new city that I now call, home.

Social Integration

Integrating and folding yourself into the everyday life of your new city is important.

Create a one month event calendar: This isn’t as Type A as it sounds (and if you really are Type A you will love this even more). I created a calendar and wrote down events, concerts and speaking engagements for my first month of arriving. I tried to combine cultural, local, artistic and professional related events so I could get into the mix. After my first month, I started to figure out my niche and which events I would be returning to and which I wouldn’t. Mistakes are to be made, don’t worry about the outcome, just go and explore.

Sign up for a library card: Besides being part of a local “staple” resource, libraries often have interesting public speakers and events.

Join a Gym: Great way to meet like-minded healthy people in your area. Try to check out the classes offered, it’s more intimate and easy to talk with people.

Join A Club or Volunteer: Look for a club or organization that focuses on something you’re interested in. I started working with Ladies Who Launch and volunteering at Colorado Horse Rescue because I have been riding and competing with horses my whole life. I’ve met great people and friends at both.

I believe the best way to understand a new culture or city is to dive in. Visit coffee shops, go to local diners, read the daily newspaper for events, then attend them and take long walks to soak it all in.

Erica Prather, who picked up and moved from New York City to Boulder to escape the daily grind says, “When you move someplace new, it’s important to start doing what you love right away, even if it costs you a little bit of money. You will not only meet friends who share what you enjoy, you will also set yourself up for networking.”

Research

It’s interesting to understand statistics, which also might help you understand rent or housing standards and average annual income.

Helpful Statistical Resources: City-Data.com, Zip Skinny (both data and stats for your new location), Chamber of Commerce (website or visit their building directly) then pick up a relocation package, Search.Twitter (type in your city name to hear the live buzz) and finally, buy or subscribe to your local newspaper.

Finances and Personal Paperwork

Within the first three days of my arrival, I knew that one of the most important things besides moving into my new place and unpacking was to settle up my finances and open new accounts.

Banking: I did personal research for the best banks in the area and picked up pamphlets from each of them. I found some online resources that also outlined how to choose the right bank. Banks are always willing to set you up with a representative and tell you what they’re offering in terms of a checking and savings account. Accessing yourself is important. For Gen Y I think it’s very important to have a checking and savings account. Plan for your future.

Health Care: Depending on your situation, you may have leeway and time before switching over your insurance and license, or you may not. Either way, you should know your options.

Inform your health care company as applicable (start asking around, researching or look for a referral) to select new doctors (this depends on your work situation and health care plan).

License: Check out statewide laws and compliances for registering your car in the new state (i.e. do you need an emission check?) by visiting your local DMV or the nation-wide resource: (http://www.dmv.org/). They will also help you get your new license.

Auto insurance: I asked my prior auto insurance provider to connect with the local branch in Boulder, then I received quotes from multiple providers. Compared the prices and packages and then made my decision. They get these situations daily, be sure you’re informed and do your research.

Prioritize and Find Your Own Pace

This may sound a bit overwhelming. That’s why I broke it up into social, research, and finance paperwork. Take your time. You know yourself best, so access what is most important and then prioritize.

The past two times I relocated have been the best decisions of my life. It was hard, but I was humbled and learned so much. Use the fear you may be feeling as a catalyst to drive you forward and overcome it. We’re creatures of habit, but you should still step outside your comfort zone, so you can break free.

Photo Credit: Photo Mojo

This article is a part of a series of posts on moving out on your own.

Related posts:

1. Moving: Making the Decision, Part 2

• Appointments to visit apartments from Part 1
• A camera (a good one trumps a camera phone)
• Index cards
• GPS navigator (oh-so-amazing if you don’t know the area!) or printed directions from Google maps

Viewing Apartments

It’s my firm belief that apartment hunting should always occur in pairs. If you’re going to have a roommate, that person is your ideal appointment buddy. But even if you’re not going to have a roommate (or they’re not available), you should take someone along. First of all, for safety. You don’t know the person who’s going to be showing you the apartment, and you probably don’t know the neighborhood. Secondly, you’ll need one person to ask questions and take notes (you), and one person to take pictures.

When you get to the apartment you’re checking out, first, take a picture of the outside. After three appointments, everything all starts to blur togother, so you’ll want a lot of pictures to jog your memory later. Chances are, your camera has some sort of numerical identifier it attaches to the pictures you take. So grab one of your index cards, write the address of the place, and the number corresponding to the picture. When you’re done with the appointment and get back in your car, you should write the number of the last picture on there, too.

Basically, the idea here is to make an “apartment score card” – one for each apartment you see. At the end of your appointment, your score card should look something like this:

Be nice to the person showing you the apartment – especially if it’s the landlord or a current tenant. A current tenant might report back to the landlord if you’re really rude or anything, so be on your best behavior! Ask if you can take pictures, especially if there’s still someone occupying the apartment. And take pictures of everything, especially anything you think might be a potential problem.

Ask questions and write down the answers on your score card. What you ask will depend on you and your situation, but here’s a list of suggestions:

• How much is the rent? (Even if it was in the listing, ask again)
• Does the rent include any utilities? What’s the average cost of the utilities that aren’t included?
• Does it come furnished or unfurnished? (We actually saw one apartment that cost more if we wanted it unfurnished, because the owner would have to pay to store the furniture!)
• If it’s a condo that the owner is renting out, who pays the condo fees – you, or them?
• What’s the parking situation? How many spaces? (If there’s only one and you need two, can you pay for an extra space?)
• What lease terms are they looking for? 6-month, 1 year, 2 years?
• Is the place hooked up for cable and internet? If so, through what company?
• Are pets allowed? Is there a pet fee and/or weight limit?
• Is there air conditioning?
• If there isn’t in-unit laundry, where are the facilities, and how much does it cost per load?
• What amenities are there in the community? (Gym, pool, etc.) Go see them if you can.
• What are the terms for breaking the lease? (This can be important if your job isn’t stable, or you think you might be transferred.)
• Is there an application fee? What must be paid up front? (Security deposit, first month’s rent, etc)

Once you’ve given that person the third degree, try to talk to a tenant of the apartment or the building. Ask them how they like it, what they don’t like, how long they’ve lived there, etc. Try not to get too invasive, but try to get a sense of how they like the apartment and the area.

Make note of things you see in the apartment on your score card, as well. How new are the appliances? What’s the state of the bathrooms? Will it be hard to get furniture in and out? If you have a bike, is there someplace to store it? How old are the heater/air conditioner? Are there ceiling fans? How’s the lighting? Flick every switch and test every faucet for water pressure. Open kitchen drawers and peek in cabinets. Get right in there, and take a lot of notes. Fill up the front and the back of the score card!

And thank the person showing you the place before you leave!

Making a Decision

So you’ve got all your score cards and your corresponding pictures – how do you make a decision? Honestly, with all of that information in front of you, it’s best to just go with your gut. Reread all of your score cards, talk it out with the person who went to the appointments with you, and then just make a decision. Your gut feeling, based on the information you took down, will most likely guide you.

But don’t forget to do a little extra investigation before you call to seal a deal. Check and make sure it’s an okay neighborhood – look online for crime rates, talk to people who know the area, etc.

Check to make sure that the person you’re dealing with really has the authority to lease the apartment. There’s a popular scam that involves gaining access to an empty apartment, showing the place to people who want to lease it, getting a deposit check from them and running off with the money. Know who you’re dealing with!

Applying For and Signing a Lease

You may have to pay an application fee. You may have to authorize that your credit be checked. You may even have to get a cosigner on your apartment if your credit is bad or you have no rental history. You may have to list references for places you’ve lived before (hint: if you have old landlords from college, warn them that they’ll be getting a phone call beforehand!).

When you do get your hands on a lease to sign, read it. Really, really read it. Ask questions about things you don’t understand, or that seem fishy. Make sure the rent and other payments match what you talked about before. And have someone who’s rented a lot before read it, as well. Make sure you absolutely understand it before you sign and send in money!

Before move-in, you’ll likely have to do a walkthrough of the apartment with the landlord. If the landlord doesn’t request this, you should. Make a note of anything wrong with the apartment, sign it, and have the landlord sign it. Otherwise, you could get stuck with a bill when you move out, for things that were already broken when you moved in!

Inspiration and further reading:

How to find your first apartment
My First Apartment
How To Rent Your First Apartment

Phew! What a tiring process! I swear, I slept for two days straight after my apartment hunt last month. I hope I didn’t miss anything in this article, but I’m sure my amazing readers who’ve been through this before can leave a few more suggestions in the comments!

This article is a part of a series of posts on moving out on your own.

Related posts:

1. Moving: Finding an Apartment (Part 1)
2. Moving: Making the Decision, Part 2
3. Moving: Making the Decision, Part 3

Prelude: Before you start digging deep into apartment listings, work your network first. Tell everyone you know that you’re looking for an apartment, and where. This is especially true if you’re going to be in the market for a roommate, as well! They say the best deals never even get listed, so see what you can find through the grapevine, first. But be sure to practice due diligence and evaluate any apartment you find through a friend thoroughly, using some of the steps below. You should research an apartment you hear about from a friend or family member just as much as you would research an apartment you found in an ad!

You’ll need:

• Firefox (or other tabbed internet browser)
• Google Earth
• Phone

This is a many step process, but it’s not terribly difficult. Staying organized is very important, which is why these instructions are extremely detailed. Feel free to do things your own way if you like, of course. You ready?

Setting Up Google Earth

First, plot important points in Google Earth. The big one that comes to mind is the place you’ll be working, if you have that lined up already. Just type the street address into the “Fly to” search bar and hit enter. Under the search bar, there will be a listing for the address you just searched, with a checkbox next to it. Right click (command click? on a Mac) and select Add>Placemark. This will put a little thumbtack into the spot for you. Give it a name, like “Work,” and then in the “Style, Color” tab, select a color for the “icon.” It’s important that you select a color and not just leave it as default yellow, because you want this tacks to stand out as different when you look at the map.

Also, make sure you have the transportation icons turned on in Google Earth. This is very important if proximity to the subway, metro, or bus stops will be important to you. You can turn this on by looking in the Layers window for “Places of Interest,” and making sure that under that, “Transportation” is checked.

Last, make a new folder in your “Places” window. Right-click “My Places,” choose Add>Folder. Name it Apartment Search or whatever you want, to keep the new points you’ll make separate from other stuff you might have in Google Earth.

Search Listings

Now it’s time to go to town on the classifieds! Try to use a variety of sources, if you can. Craigslist is a good place to look, but keep an eye out for scammers on Craigslist. Apartments.com and Rent.com may be useful in your area. It’s hard to know until you look – some sites are much more useful in some areas than others. We found that for northern Virginia, Craigslist had nearly 1800 listings per day! So we had more than enough to sink our teeth into with just that one site, although we looked on others as well. You may even find that traditional print newspaper classifieds are the best for the area you’re searching in.

This is the part where you’ll have to start making some decisions. If you’re moving to a new area that you’re not totally familiar with, take a good look at Google Earth and write down the names of townships to focus on. You’ll also have to decide, based on your projected one-year budget, how many bedrooms you want (and can afford). You may find from glancing at the listings that you really need a roommate. And you may find that different suburbs or townships have vastly different rent prices. Whenever you come across a promising listing, right-click on the link and select “open in new tab.” It’s much nicer to open a bunch in tabs and look at them all at once, instead of looking at one, plotting it, and then going back and looking at another…

Once you have more tabs open than you think you can handle, start reading the listings. Some will jump out at you as WRONG as soon as you look at them. Don’t forget to rule some out as possible scams (if it’s a definite scam, report it to the website)! When you’ve whittled your tabs down to some real candidates, it’s time to start plotting. You might want to do this in sets – in other words, find five candidates, plot them, find five more…

Plot the Apartments

Go back into Google Earth and search for the address of an apartment you’re interested in. Mark it as a Placemark. When marking it as a placemark, name it with the name of the listing from the ad. Then copy and paste the web address of the listing into the “description” field. If you put this first in the description, the link will be clickable in the “Places” window, which is really convenient! Then paste in as much info as you can from the ad in the description box. Click “OK” and move onto the next one!

Using Google Earth has a lot of advantages, but the biggest one is that you can really visualize where each apartment is located. And, since you plotted important points like “work,” you can see the distance of the apartments from those points. And if you have “Transportation” turned on, you can see if the apartment is near a bus stop, subway station, or metro station. Awesome!

Find Apartment Reviews

Once you’ve exhausted yourself finding possible places and plotting them, it’s time to start ruling out some more places. The idea is to do this when you have a list of apartments longer than what you could possibly manage to look at.

Use websites like ApartmentRatings.com and ApartmentReviews.net to look up reviews of the apartments in question. You’ll quickly start to find out why the rent is so cheap in some places: for us, the answer was roaches! GROSS! We ruled roach-infested places out right away. You’ll also find other details that may interest you, or may be deal-breakers. But do keep in mind that these reviews are not always 100% accurate. A glowing review might be secretly written by a property manager, and a terrible review might be written by someone with a vendetta. Look for patterns in the reviews.

If an certain apartment doesn’t interest you after you’ve plotted it, you can do one of two things: delete the placemark, or change it to a different color. I prefer changing the color, in case I run across another listing for the same apartment, or a different apartment in the same complex. That way, I can see that the placemark is red (bad!) and I can put a note in the description about why I think that place is a no-go. For added organization, I put these in a subfolder of my “Apartment Search” folder: “Do Not Call.” (As in, “do not call and schedule an appointment.”)

Start Calling/Emailing

Once I’ve made some placemarks red, I like to start making some green as well! The ones that are in good areas, have good reviews, or the price just seems right. Another tool you can use to evaluate an apartment is Walk Score, which can tell you how much stuff is located within walking distance of an address. A high Walk Score might also warrant a green push-pin on my map! And you can use Rentometer to determine if the listed rent is high, low, or average. Once I have a green push-pin, I move it into the subfolder “Do Call.”

What about the plain yellow push-pins? Well, those are your maybes. They’re not so bad that you’ve ruled them out, but they don’t jump out at you and scream “I’m awesome!” either. Leave them be for now, and come back to them if you don’t line up enough other places to look at from your “Do Call” list.

Now, the part most people dread: setting up a time to see the place. If you don’t already live in the area you’re moving to, this can be a real pain. Zack and I had to drive from Rochester to Virginia, stay at a hotel for two nights, and spend three days looking at apartments down there. It was grueling, but it worked – we found a great place at the right price. You’ll need to bite this bullet as well – taking an apartment sight-unseen is completely not recommended. Find the time to get to where you’re going, and spend a few days looking.

Most listings will include a phone number. Always call if you have the option. I know, email is so much nicer to deal with (and you get a written record!), but you’ll simply have better luck with phone calls. For some Craiglist listings, email may be your only option. This could be the sign of a scam, but some legitimate listings are email-only. In your email, give your phone number and urge them to call you to set up an appointment. You can also ask for more pictures or more information by email, as well.

What’s Next?

When we come back to my (somewhat insane) apartment search process, I’ll take you through touring apartments, making a decision, and finally signing the lease! Continue to Part 2…

This article is a part of a series of posts on moving out on your own.

Related posts:

1. Moving: Finding an Apartment (Part 2)
2. Moving: Making the Decision, Part 2
3. Moving: Making the Decision, Part 3

Not everyone on Craigslist is a scammer – in fact, most people aren’t. You can continue to use the ‘list for all of your classified needs, safely, if you just pay attention to these simple tips:

1. An offer that’s too good to be true… is. Look, if someone had the awesomest job ever that you can do from home and earn $75,000 per year… why would they be posting it on Craigslist? That’s not to say legitimate jobs aren’t posted on Craigslist, but awesome, well-paying, AND totally easy jobs aren’t. If a job is really that good and pays that well, they wouldn’t need to put up 10 ads a day about it.
2. Don’t pay up front for anything. Yes, you’re searching Craigslist to do some sort of legitimate transaction, but don’t fork over money up front. There are several scams that rely on you giving over your money and then getting nothing for it. For example, you shouldn’t have to pay for a credit check before you even see an apartment. And for a job listing, you shouldn’t have to pay anything at all.
3. Beware strange forms of payment. Can you mail this package to my son in Argentina and I’ll wire you the money? No. Can I pay you via Western Union more than I owe you, and you give me half of the extra money back? What?!? No! Can I pay you buy Canadian check (er, cheque)? Only if we’re in Canada! (Actually, you probably shouldn’t take a check at all, or pay with one, unless you’re dealing with an apartment security deposit. For everything else deal in cash, if at all possible.)
4. Meet in a neutral place for small transactions. Don’t invite someone over to your house to buy an iPod from them. If they’re picking up a couch, that’s one thing, but for stuff you can carry easily, meet someplace neutral, in public, and bonus points if you can find somewhere with security cameras. Take a friend with you, especially if you have someone who is kinda tall and menacing. When I sold my iPod, I took a male friend and met the buyer in a mall food court. Oh… and meet during daylight, please!
5. Keep an eye out for pictures that don’t make any sense. Fellow personal finance blogger MapGirl recently got scammed on Craigslist, and she noticed this dead giveaway for a scam: “There was one ad that shot a kitchen view in two directions, but the cabinets weren’t the same color in both pictures. (Laminate white vs wood)”
6. Avoid super-vague listings. Job listings that tell you absolutely nothing about the job? No thanks. I think it’s great that you’re looking for “energetic self-starters!” and all, but I need to actually know something about the job/apartment/item before I’m going to contact you.
7. Make sure there’s some form of contact information. Yes, a legitimate listing might use just the anonymized email address that Craigslist offers, but most will give some other form of contact information. Look for a phone number, real email address, or link to a (legitimate) website.
8. Familiarize yourself with Craigslist’s Scam Tips and Personal Safety Tips. And report any scams you come across, before anyone else gets scammed. The details of suspected scams should be emailed to abuse@craigslist.org and if you’re sure a listing is a scam, the Craigslist Scam Tips page has information you need to contact the Federal Trade Commission (or the Canadian PhoneBusters hotline).

Remember: the majority of people on Craigslist are normal people just trying to complete a transaction. But there are a few scammers and they can be, at times, unfortunately clever. Keep a weather eye on the listings and you’ll be fine!

This article is a part of a series of posts on moving out on your own.

Related posts:

1. Moving Out on Your Own
2. Avoid Late Fees and Stay on Top of it All
3. Jury Duty and Other Identity Theft Scams

So what’s left, after subtracting all of those expenses from the money you’ll be bringing home? FUN! Yes, the money that’s left is yours to do with in whatever way will make you happy. And that, my friends, includes shopping, going out… and savings and retirement contributions. Wait… say what?!?

Retirement and Fun

Fun stands for “Future Ultimate eNjoyment,” or at least it does when I bend the rules of acronyms to my will! But seriously, think about it: when you go into a movie, why do you pay before you go in? Well, mostly because you can’t get in if you don’t, but also because you’re paying for future fun. You give them money, and after a short wait, you get roughly two hours of entertainment.

So… what does that have to do with retirement savings again? Well, the wait time between now and retirement and the wait time while watching trailers at the theater might be vastly different, but the concept is the same. You hand over money in the “now” so that your future self can enjoy themselves. Sadly, I hear the excuse “I probably won’t live long enough to retire!” far too often. Yeah, and you might trip over a discarded popcorn bucket and never get into the theater to see your movie, either. But if you want to have fun when you get old, your best bet is to buy your figurative “movie tickets” now.

But I do see the other side of the argument – not everyone plans to retire and live out their elderly lives with the Bridge Club. Baker summed up the arguments against obsessing over retirement nicely in his recent post over at Viralogy, Should Retirement Really Be The “End Goal” For Gen-Y? I can certainly see the benefit of spending your money as you go, and enjoying life in the here-and-now. But the simple fact is that you don’t know what the future will bring, but you can pretty much guarantee that if you’re alive in the future, you’ll want (and need) to do things that cost money.

Don’t go crazy-overboard about retirement investing right off the bat. Yes, compound interest works better the sooner you start, and you should save something while you’re young, if you have the means to do it. A good place to start? Maxing out a Roth IRA. You can currently contribute $5,000 per year to a Roth, and it’s an extremely flexible retirement vehicle. Your contributions can be taken out tax-and-penalty-free to be used for whatever you like, at any age. So if you decide to take mini-retirements as you go, the money you contributed to your Roth is fair game. In certain circumstances (such as paying for education expenses or your first home), you can even get your earnings out without penalty, as well. And, of course, once you hit age 59.5, you can take all the money out tax-and-penalty free. Oo la la!

One more thing about retirement savings – if the job you get offers a 401(k) (or a similar retirement account) with matching contributions, make sure you contribute to that as well, even if it means you don’t have enough left over to max out your Roth IRA. Those matching contributions are free money from your employer, and you should take them!

Major Goals and Fun

I’m going to go ahead and bet that you’ve got some goals you want to accomplish between now and retirement age. You might be able to get away with saving for some of these goals within your retirement accounts, but for most things you should have a separate account. A good savings account is one of the best vehicles for saving for short-to-medium range goals, such as a shiny new car, a wedding, a down payment for a house, a boat, big vacations (or small ones!)… I could go on and on, but you’re the one who has to figure out your goals and plan for them!

Goal planning is shockingly simple – how much will the goal cost you? How many months are there between now and when you want to achieve that goal? Divide cost by number of months… and you’ve got how much you need to save each month to get to that goal. The problem is that the amount we need to save each month is often more than we expect… and more than we think we can sacrifice.

During your first year out, you may not be able to save enough to put yourself on track for each and every goal you have (including retirement) and also keep some money to just have fun with, in the here-and-now. This is exactly where the hard decision lies. This is where you have to take all of the information from the three parts of this budget exercise, and decide… can you afford to do this?

Will you be able to pay all of your bills and make progress toward your goals, while still enjoying the present?

If “yes,” congratulations! Double-check everything, but if you’re sure, then get moving! Life is waiting!

If’ “no,” it’s time to make some hard choices. It might be best for you to live at home a while, and save up some money, if your family situation allows such a thing. Or you may have to make concessions that you’re less willing to make, such as living in a cheaper city, getting roommates, or postponing a certain goal or two.

Only you know how to tweak your situation to figure out how to make the best of the coming year. But here’s something that will help: because you’ve gone through all of the income, expenses, savings, and fun money… you now have all the information you need. You can play with the numbers, run through different scenarios, and figure it all out on your own. Ooo… I just got a tingly feeling… does this all mean we’re really adults now?

Related posts:

1. Moving: Making the Decision, Part 2
2. Moving: Making the Decision
3. Moving: Finding an Apartment (Part 1)

Housing

After taxes, it’s the most important thing you’ll have to pay for. Run the numbers for living at home, but remember to compare the numbers for living at home to jobs that you’re likely to get from home. You may be able to get a job in your field in the city your parents live in… or you may not. Keep that in mind. Also, talk to your parents when trying to figure out this number. They, like many parents who’ve had children who return to the nest, may want to charge you rent to live at home!

My parents are fairly lenient about this, charging me only utilities right now. But I know from an older sibling who stayed in the nest a little too long that, eventually, my mom will charge rent!

For rent prices in other cities, a good place to research is Craigslist. You can quickly see pictures of the places, read long descriptions, and it costs nothing to search. And best of all, the site is uncluttered and much easier to use than most apartment search sites.

Definitely keep in mind the idea of a roommate. You, like me, are probably 100% sick of living with roommates at this point, but the money that can be saved is way too big to be ignored. If you can make living with roommates work for a few more years, you will dramatically increase your chances of supporting yourself well.

How Much Should You Spend on Housing? Well, a beach house right on the water in Malibu might sound like a great idea now, but how much is too much to pay? I’m a big fan of the 27% Rule: your housing expenses (including utilities and everything) should not exceed 27% of your gross income. So if you’ve locked down a $50,000/year job, you can afford to spend up to $13,500 per year on housing, or $1125 per month.

One more thing to keep in mind: the incidental costs of renting an apartment. You’ll need to pay utilities, so factor those into your expected rent costs, even if you have to estimate. Also, renters insurance – which you might not think you need, but you probably do. A good estimate for renters insurance is about $20/month. It could be less than that if you bundle it with your car insurance (it could even be free!), but you should assume the higher number for this exercise.

Fixed Expenses

The only truly fixed expenses I have are my student loans. I could get by using payphones and the free internet in libraries, but I can never escape my monthly student loan payments. Student loans are nasty debt – they don’t go away, not even if you declare bankruptcy. So they’re the first expense on the list after housing. Joy. If you don’t know what your student loan payments will be, now is the time to look it up. Don’t know how to find your student loans? Look up what you’ve borrowed in the National Student Loan Data System.

Car insurance is another fixed expense that, although I could sell my car and get rid of it, I’m not likely to. Zack and I looked at one apartment that gave credence to the idea (the Metro station was literally across the street!) but ultimately, it was not to be. So I’m living with the idea that, for at least the next year, I’ll have my car and have to pay the insurance on it. If you’re like me, you’re still under your parents car insurance plan, and you have no idea what it would cost to get your own plan.

There are many, many sites you can use to get insurance quotes. Just beware that with some sites, giving over your phone number and email address will result in getting phone calls and emails from insurance companies that want your business. This is good if you’re looking to get the insurance real soon, but if moving out is actually a ways off, this can be a pain. Try using an email address other than your main one to cut down on unwanted emails. I haven’t received any emails or phone calls after using CarInsurance.com to get a quote, but it only allowed me to look at one quote. You can also try Esurance.

We’ll return to the topic of can insurance at a later time, as I walk through the process of getting my own and moving to another state. It could be an ordeal!

Car Fuel and Maintenance: not exactly fixed expenses, but not exactly not fixed expenses either. If you’ve got a car, chances are you’re driving it at least a little. Depending on what you know about your future situation, you may be able to accurately estimate how much fuel you’ll use. What you can’t predict will be the future price of fuel. (Come on, a year ago, you had no idea gas would be the price it is now. Same goes for next year!) Since I like to do a worst-case-scenario, I took the amount I spent when I was commuting 60 miles a day and gas was near $4/gallon, and projected that out over a year. For maintenance, I use the average spent on repairs, oil changes, etc. over the last two years.

Food is a fixed expense in that you’ve always got to eat, but it’s also pretty variable. There’s a big, big difference between eating ramen noodles and going out for steak and happy hours. The more you eat at home, the more you’ll save, if you shop well. Try to eat healthy, though, to keep health care costs down! (See below.) Estimating a food budget might be tough if you haven’t been buying your own food from a grocery store and keeping track of those numbers. I hear “$40/week per person” thrown around a lot, and that’s as good a number as any if you just want to estimate.

Health Care costs are an expense that many people forget to factor into their calculations. I found out that I’m actually covered under my dad’s health insurance until I turn 26, so I only have to worry about little things, like copays and over-the-counter medication and band-aids. If health insurance is a benefit you’ll be receiving from work, find out if part of the cost will be deducted from your paycheck, and how much. If you won’t have any health insurance through work, you absolutely need to look into getting your own. You’re not Superman, and even if you were, he totally has at least Kryptonite coverage. If you need to get your own coverage, you can use eHealthInsurance to get some quotes for that.

Phone/Cell Phone: you’re on your own for this one. Some people only need a prepaid phone for emergencies, and some people need both a landline and an iPhone with unlimited everything. This is very much a “know thyself” category, so you’ll have to figure out how much you’re likely to spend. Just don’t forget things like “activation costs” if you’re moving off your parents’ plan, and if you’re getting a landline, you might need to factor in the cost of getting an actual phone! (I know I don’t have a landline phone sitting around anymore…)

Internet Access is like $40, unless you get something special (or the companies figure out how to do tiered pricing, in which case we’re all screwed), or it’s less if you’re splitting the cost with a roommate. It might be higher if you get cable internet and the company requires you to get a basic cable package. Ideally, this number should really be factored into “utilities” as a part of your housing costs.

Other Categories

I’ve covered all the expenses that I projected for my first year out of college, but it’s important to note that your life is totally different from mine. Some of my categories may not apply to you at all, and I’ve probably left out at least one category that’s vital for you to prepare for. This list is just meant to get you started and get you thinking about how much things will cost you every month.

Your homework: go through all of these categories and come up with your estimates. Figure out what else you need to include, and estimate that as well. Next time, we’ll start taking a look at the big picture: can you afford all of this, and will there be money left over to save for the goals in your life?

Continue on to Part 3…

Comments or suggestions? Please leave a message in the comments! If you have a questions that you don’t want to share with everyone, you can always email me, as well.

Related posts:

1. Moving: Making the Decision, Part 3
2. Moving: Making the Decision
3. Moving: Finding an Apartment (Part 1)

Basically, we new grads don’t have jobs, and trend of moving back home is growing. So should we? Or is it time to leave the nest, job or no job?

Personal Factors

Some people don’t have a great relationship with their parents, for whatever reason. Moving back in might not be smart, or safe. Or maybe you’ve just got crazy helicopter parents that will want you back home by 11pm each night. Maybe you’ve got a lot of younger siblings and your parents just don’t have the space for you to come back home. There could be a lot of reasons why moving home just isn’t right for your situation.

Or perhaps it has nothing to do with your parents at all – you might just have a gut feeling that it’s time to fly the coup for good. Go with your gut on this one. Sure, you could write out a long list of pros and cons, spend a lot of time researching areas you might want to move to, etc. etc., but I honestly don’t think it will help you in this decision. You will be swamped with more information than you can reasonably juggle, and your decision-making skill won’t improve any for your trouble (that is, if chapter four of Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink is to be believed).

Your life, so far, has been building up to this moment. You have in the back of your mind all of the information you need to decide what to do at this crossroads. Listen to your heart – it knows the way right now.

Financial Decisions

However, coming up with the money to support the decision to move out may be another matter entirely. It’s one thing to know if moving out on your own is the right thing to do on a personal level, but can you financially support yourself right now? How do you even figure that out?

During my last term of college, I took a personal finance course. I was pretty cocky about the course – taking it pretty much to get an easy A. I mean, I’m a personal finance blogger! Don’t I know everything there is to know already? (Alright, I didn’t really think that. But I did correctly anticipate that I would be bored during the first few weeks.) But some parts of the class really surprised me, including the final project. We were asked to write up a budget for our first year out of college, and to weigh choices we might have to make, and to run the numbers on different possible scenarios.

I, as you might imagine, went above and beyond on this particular assignment. Partially because I already had a lot of the information I needed on hand (like my exact spending patterns for the past two years, the cost of living in the areas I was considering moving to, etc.), but mostly because I just like this sort of stuff. (Obviously, or this site wouldn’t exist!) I was still genuinely surprised at how much I learned from the act of writing out that budget, and how much more secure I feel in the decisions I will make over the course of this year. So, while my advice is usually the opposite (I don’t budget!), I am actually going to suggest you write a budget for your first year on your own. Even if “on your own” means living at home with your parents!

How to Start a Speculative Budget

You’ll want to figure out what will likely happen in different scenarios. What will your income be if you live at home? If you move to one city, or another? What will you make if you get your dream job? What will you make if there are no jobs available in your field, and you have to take a 20 hour per week minimum wage job? What’s the minimum wage in the cities you’re looking at? This may not paint a pretty picture of the next year, but as I wrote in my budget report, “I use the worst case scenario throughout this report, because it is easier to adjust a budget if things go better than you think than if things go worse.”

My best-worst-case scenario (that is, if I manage to juggle a part-time job, a paid internship, and my freelance work) had me making only $16,542 during my first year out of college. Even this number feels a little ambitious considering the amount of time that’s passed since I wrote that report, four months, and the fact that I haven’t found a job during that time. But that, of course, it’s why it’s the best-worst-case scenario! My worst case had me earning $6,000 for the year, and I had a mid-level scenario where I would earn $9,292.

Taxes: These income numbers I came up with are gross income, so I still had to factor in taxes. In may case, freelance income (like the money I earn from Poorer Than You) is taxed as self employment income, so I have to pay double in social security and Medicare taxes. Just something to keep in mind if your income estimates include any freelancing or self employment. If not, you can just use something like PaycheckCity’s Paycheck Calculator.

Where to go from here? There’s a lot more ground to cover – including fixed expenses, variable expenses, savings, and planning for the unexpected. I don’t want to overwhelm you with a big project, so we’ll take it in chunks. Your homework is to estimate your income in three different scenarios of your choosing. You don’t have to share it in the comments, but please let me know that you did it!

Continue on to Part 2…

Related posts:

1. Moving: Making the Decision, Part 2
2. Moving: Making the Decision, Part 3