I have been very fortunate to receive a union construction job through a relative, and I am very excited about the position. I have no debt of any kind and currently live at home with my parents. The job is 7 days a week, with double shifts during the summer, which gives me a lot of overtime pay. I’m in shape, down 120 lbs, and muscular. I’m also stress-free because my diet is already planned out on a spreadsheet, and I have no college debt (didn’t go) and no credit card debt.
According to my calculations, the job should provide take-home pay of $3,778/week, or $16,400/month during the summer. During the winter, it goes down to $1,430/week, or $6,200/month. The year-round average take-home pay is $8,800/month, which works out to about $2,020/week.
I currently have no money saved except for investments in XMR, and I want to invest around $10k–$12k into it. I also plan to contribute as much as possible to a 401(k). I do not plan on buying anything unnecessary, such as a new car, RV, computer, guitars, or anything else I do not really need.
My expenses are:
- $370/month for car insurance
- $50/month for my phone bill
- $150/week for groceries
- $15/month for Planet Fitness
Total: $1,085/month
I do not pay rent. My parents would not ask me to pay rent and are okay with me staying until I am able to move out and buy a house.
My plan is to build an emergency fund first, then set up automatic transfers into separate accounts for index funds, a house fund, a personal fund, a buffer fund, and a crypto fund so I can invest passively. I do not really want a credit card, but I need to start using one because my credit score dropped to 550 after not making a payment for a while.
Any advice is appreciated. Currently looking into HYSA and IRA, and will adjust this post later to show the amounts I want to transfer over to each account.
Another investment area to consider is other Tax Advantaged savings accounts (e.g. IRA).
While they are a Faustian deal, you do want one. Much of our society is built around credit scores and the credit reporting companies. It sucks, but you have to deal with it. Find a credit card which doesn’t charge an annual fee, and which provides some sort of kick back you can make use of. Use this for everything, and pay it off completely every month. Use the points/miles/etc when possible.
There are two primary reasons for this. First off, it gets that credit score up. You want a high credit score as it’s often used for things like background checks. It’s annoying, but you’re not going to win the fight against it. Second, using a credit card comes with some protection for you money. If your card number gets compromised (and it will eventually, if you’re using it) credit card companies have some legal requirements to refund you for the fraud. When paying for things with debit cards and ACH transactions, those protections aren’t as strong and you may end up out some money.
The one thing I can’t emphasize enough is, pay the damned thing off every month! It’s easy for these to get out of hand. And with your current credit score, the interest rate is going to be in the range “fuck your wallet”. Letting any charges roll over is just pissing away money.
Lastly, once you have your credit accounts created freeze your credit. Don’t let them trick you into “monitoring” or other bullshit half-measure, do the freeze.