zt: New Graduate: Suggestions for starting life!!

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/824094/


Hey everyone, I graduate college with a degree in Finance this May. I landed a job that i start in July. Starting salary is $45,500. The main reason i am starting this thread is for any suggestions/hints/things you wish you had done/things you shouldnt have done when you were my age. I am 22, have 0 debt. The first year i will be living at home so will get to pocket most of my salary. I have 10k saved and plan to use that as a down payment on a used Nissan 350Z. Any suggestions on things not to waste money on, where to invest? how much should i invest so early? etc...any life tips help!! thanks guys!


financially: don't buy a 350z?


its good to be young and have fun, so if thats what you want and will keep it for a while, thats a car that will probably be "in" for a long time.


Yeah, don't buy that sports car, your insurance will suck. Throw as much cash into IRA/401K as legally possible.


Never buy a car that you can't afford to pay cash for.



Oh for it to be 1998 again, after moving back home from college (not graduated) to take a $35k/yr job.

What would I tell myself?

1. Don't buy a new car (within a month of moving back)
2. Don't buy a stereo system for said car (that was stolen a few months later)
3. Don't buy a stereo for the girlfriend's car (luckily she's still around as my wife -- car and stereo are long gone)
4. Don't just pay the minimums on your credit cards
5. DO move out of my parents house ASAP. After a few years of not living at home those 4 months were hell.
6. Pay off all the debt (had cc and loans from college which is why I had to quit)
7. Change my lifestyle to be a lot cheaper (still working on it 10 years later).

Now, the things I did right?
1. I learned a BUNCH at that job. It was at a small company and I had the opportunity to learn a lot of different things (from customer service, to tech support, to business development, to software development). If I'd gone to work for a big company there is no way I would have gotten that experience.
2. I made some very good contacts and friends that continue to help me, just by talking to people and keeping my ear to the grapevine.



Don't buy the 350Z. Seriously. Cars are a terrible choice. You will not enjoy it as much as you think, and you'll kick yourself later on in life. Buy yourself a nice 2 year old sedan with reasonable insurance and a good resale value (accord/camry/maxima come to mind). Save your money (06 350Z vs 06 V6 accord was at least $3K savings on kbb), learn about the stock market, and invest in growth stocks.
I had a turbo honda prelude that I put over 40K into. I sold it years later to put a roof on my house for a total of 10K. Getting 10K back on 56+K spent (40 + 16 the car cost me) makes you wonder what the hell you were thinking. In hindsight how I wish I'd have put that money into Google stock and had something with 4 doors and saved extra on insurance. Even the extra 3K you'll save will make a huge difference.
5 years down the road when you've made a good return on the money you saved, you've already bought a house, and your insurance has gone down a ton because you're either a) married or b) over 25, you can think about buying a new vehicle. In all honesty, by that time you won't care because you'll have matured and having a fancy sporty car won't really appeal to you anyways.
Get over the whole "first job I'll celebrate by buying the car I want".

Just my opinion. Life is rough because you don't get second chances.




Some thoughts on a different tangent...

Choose one form of your name and use it on all your accounts. John A. Doe, John Doe, John Andrew Doe, etc. That will help minimize any confusion with your credit reports.

Never co-sign a loan for anyone. If you are willing to co-sign, just give the person the money and work out a repayment plan instead. That way, when the money doesn't get repaid, your credit rating doesn't go down the toilet.

Open every bank and credit card statement when it arrives. Read all inserts. If you use paperless billing, what might have been a readable insert in a mailed statement could become a small link you might overlook. And that link might be telling you of a major change in the terms and conditions. Sometimes paper bills are better.

Keep your accounts balanced monthly or quarterly, whenever your statements come, to protect yourself against incorrect charges which might post to your account. You only have a limited period of time to dispute them.

Shred all financial information and credit card apps before tossing them in the trash.

Be sure to make backups of your financial records you keep on your PC. Someday your hard disk will crash, I guarantee it.

First time you find yourself not being able to pay your CC bill in full, and you didn't plan on it, realize your spending is getting away from you and do something about it. You don't want to still be paying interest on Chinese take-out you bought a year ago.

Learn to resist high-pressure sales tactics. Great salesmen can size you up very quickly and push all the right buttons to convince you to buy what they are selling. A lot of people have trouble saying "No, thank you." They are masters at getting a "maybe" to change into "yes".

Get an understanding of how income tax works. Don't just plug numbers into software and do what it says at the end, because you should know something about WHY the numbers came out the way they did. Otherwise, how can you know what actions might reduce your taxes?

Don't tell anyone what you make - co-workers, family, friends. There's nothing to be gained by it, and plenty that could go wrong. There's no undo button for that.

And the single most brilliant financial maneuver you can make at your age is to start saving now.