What’s up, guys? I don’t know if I’ve even mentioned my age in any of these posts or not. I’m 22 and I have one semester left before I graduate from college. So, that’s pretty exciting but also kind of terrifying. If you’re coming up on the end of your college career, I’m sure you get the feeling. The problem is we’ve been isolated in a school setting for the last 17+ years of our lives. From the time you were 4 or 5 until the end of high school, you spend 8 hours a day for most of the year in classrooms. In college, you get your first taste of freedom, and for me, it took a big adjustment period to not take that freedom for granted. A lot of students do. I’ve met plenty of people with who I thought I would be friends for years to come only to find out upon returning for my next semester that they failed all of their classes and dropped out for good. So if you’re almost done with school, congratulations. There are a lot of people who don’t make it that far. The only caveat is your reward for the last 17+ years is the stress of your new beginning in the real world.
The obstacle a lot of students fresh out of school face is finding a job so they don’t have to move back in with mom and dad. One of the things I hope you take away from this post is that moving back in temporarily isn’t the end of the world. Getting your footing under you financially and figuring out your cost of living is essential when going into the real world.
I know, the move back home might feel embarrassing for a college grad, but you have to remind yourself that it will only be a temporary situation. If the job you find is close to home, it would be irresponsible to take on rent immediately. I lied earlier, graduation doesn’t only bring the stress of the real world. For a lot of former students, it also means it’s time to start paying back student loans. If your post-grad job isn’t close to home, or you just want to be on your own, you need to figure out what your expenses will be with both rent and student loan payments. Also factor in all the standard costs of living, like gas and groceries. Establishing a budget based on what you earn and what you have to spend is essential to keeping your head above water in the real world.
You can ease your transition from college to the real world by working to set up a work and living situation before you graduate. Start your job search during your last semester of school. Once you have figured out where you are going to work, it will be easier to plan for the next step in your life. Knowing what you will be earning at your job also allows you to figure out what you can afford to pay for rent. Having a plan in place will allow graduation to be the Happy occasion that it should be, and relieve some of the stress and anxiety of the real world closing in.
Getting organized is going to become more and more essential as you get older. The more you start to earn, the more bills and fees you’ll have to pay. Having a solid financial game plan will set a strong foundation for your new life as a former student. What will you do to start better preparing for your future?
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