Living Alone

I ran across this blog post about budgeting when you move out and start living alone.

Given that I have lived alone for many years, I believe that I can offer some advice.

So how do we live well alone?

1. Start cooking. You now have to feed yourself. You can’t always eat out. I have seen people do it and they were not so healthy both physically and financially. Learn to cook. You will be thankful to your parents for feeding you for many years. Plus, if you know how to cook you can bring joy to others with good food.
2. Clean the house. Learn how to clean the house. Make sure you vacuum, do the laundry, and take care of the house. If not the house will become a biohazard. I have seen students living in such horrid conditions that we considered may be containing the place. Don’t do that.
3. Start scheduling your day. Without anyone supervising you, you may easily waste a lot of time and be wayyyyy behind on things. And life will teach you a severe lesson. So start taking charge of your time. Use Google calendar or any app to help you to be organized.
4. Be conservative. What ever estimated time you have for a task or an issue multiply it by 2. That is reality. Everything will take more time and effort. You will realize all the inefficiencies of the world. You will be amazed how your parents did it.
5. Save, save, and save. You don’t have to be a miser. But save, save, and save. Because you can use that money to invest and have compound interest work for you. So decide to save as much as you can. You can use apps like digit.
6. Get a mentor. If you have not gotten a mentor, go get one. You may not be able to consult your parents some times. Your mentor will help you in those occasions. Some times you can talk straight to your parents about career choices and relationship issues. Have a good mentor who cares about you and who will help you. For mentors, start looking around from your family friends to alumni.
7. Pray. Pray for safety and protection. Pray for wisdom and discernment. Pray for peace and joy. Our good good Father who loves us will always be with us and watch over us.

Psalms 121: 5-9

The Lord watches over you—
    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
    nor the moon by night.