Reply to Can my sister afford this apartment?

Forum Index » Money and Finances

Reply to "Can my sister afford this apartment?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My fellow DCUmers, please put yourself back in the mindset of a recent college grad.  She wants to live with her friends in Ballston.  Go out to happy hours.  Go to the Clarendon Ballroom or wherever the kids go nowadays.  Meet boys and make poor decisions after the Clarendon Ballroom or wherever the kids go nowadays closes.   When you are 23, social life/boys are the priority.  Not a short commute to work.

I remember looking at apartments in that area with friends in 2000ish when I was young, and it was $700ish/person for 3 of us, so I assume $1100 for 3 people in 2016 is a normal price.  Yes, doing the quick mental math, her rent will be almost 1/2 of her take home pay, after taxes and deductions and retirement, but if she has no student loans or car payment, it is absolutely doable for a 23 year old.

My only advice for her, other than to enjoy being young and living somewhere fun, is to drive to work.  I would rather take the GW Parkway to 495 to 270 to Ballston than deal with metro.[/quote]

There are plenty of places to go out in Rockville.  She can make new friends.  I did this type of commute when I was out of grad school (lived in DC and worked in Sterling, VA).  I drove and paid for tolls.  It was soul sucking and I was missing out on happy hours anyway because of my long commute.  I didn't start saving for my retirement until 30+ because I thought I was too "poor".  In reality, I was not too poor, just spending way too much money to live in an expensive city and racking up consumer debt instead of saving.  My peers at 30-35 are buying homes and starting families and I'm wishing I would have not spent so much foolish $ because I thought I "needed" to live in DC.  I get what you are saying, but if I were the older sister, I would encourage her to look for housing closer to work, or at the very least, keep living with mom and dad for a while to see if the job actually works out.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics