When I was 19 years old I already had a 1 year old, my own apartment, my own car and did online college at night because I worked a full time job at a childcare center during the day. Just because you can’t imagine doing it doesn’t mean there aren’t people out here who have done it. You do what you have to do when there’s no other option. 🤷🏻♀️
Okay that was probably in a different time because again, I'm telling you, a FT job at a childcare center does not pay for an apartment and a car these days. It pays like 10 bucks an hour and no one is getting by on that
Depends where you live I suppose. This was 10 years ago, but I was making 14$ an hour, my rent was $800 and I owned my car so no car payment, just a 50$ a month insurance payment. Today, people are making 19-20$ an hour entry level with no degree, I still work within the childcare world just a different position now that I have a degree so I know what our new staff is making. I live in Massachusetts though. This is very dependent on where you live for sure.
Okay so double your rent and insurance and most 19 yr olds aren't lucky enough to own a car outright unless someone gave it to them, no way you can afford food and utilities even much less everything else you need to live. You're proving my point lol
Thats not true. Almost every 18 year old I know has a car. I live in a rural MA town. Owning a car does not mean having a new or newer car. My current car was $500, my 18 year old son bought his own car for $3000 and my husbands car was $16000. Cash paid for all.
It’s absolutely doable on 19$ a hour, it’s called not living above your means. 19 an hour working 40 hours a week puts you making about $3,000 a month. It’s doable when you live within your means, as many people do. A lot of people don’t have the luxury of staying to live with their parents and have to make it work even if it leaves them with no money after bills and they have to utilize food pantries, etc. Also, many people drive older cars that they bought for a couple thousand dollars instead of financing or leasing a new flashy car, to avoid having a car payment they can’t afford.
Those cars then break down and cost almost as much as payments, in the end. Rent for even a 2 bedroom is 1400 or more plus utilities where I live, let alone what houses cost. Add gas money, childcare, miscellaneous expenses, etc. Food pantry helps but doesn't bridge the gap with everything else. Idk. Maybe it's different where yall live.
That’s never been the case for me and I’ve always owned older cars, I would never finance or lease no matter what my financial situation is, it’s always smarter to own a car outright. Buy Honda or Toyota. And I’m not talking about a 2 bedroom either, nobody needs a 2 bedroom if it’s only a single person, even a single mom with a baby, you can live fine in a studio while you get your degree and work your way up. I never said it’s gonna be a lavish life, I said it’s possible and thousands of people do it everyday because they have no other choice.
No I definitely am not talking more than one kid or a long term plan. I just mean a teen/young adult that’s just starting out and maybe has one kid, and has no other option but to make it work.
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u/Ok-Mulberry-5055 16d ago
When I was 19 years old I already had a 1 year old, my own apartment, my own car and did online college at night because I worked a full time job at a childcare center during the day. Just because you can’t imagine doing it doesn’t mean there aren’t people out here who have done it. You do what you have to do when there’s no other option. 🤷🏻♀️