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How to save money for an apartment... more importantly how to move out of your parents house without having to move back in. Here are my saving tips.
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So I've talked about my own experience of moving out at 18, what that was like, and
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just the challenges of entering the adult world that I wish someone would have told me
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And lately I've been getting all kinds of comments from you guys telling me that you're planning on moving out soon
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So today I want to talk to the person who's thinking about moving out
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Maybe you're not sure what you're getting yourself into, maybe you feel like your finances
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are strait, or you might just be on the fence about this because it can be a scary thing
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to think about. So I'm not only going to show you how to save money for your first apartment in this video
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I'm also going to give you a vivid picture of what traps to avoid so you can continue
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to save money even after you've moved into your first apartment. So you can make something of your life without falling into the trap that so many of us adults
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fall into. And that trap is living to work instead of working to live
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Hey what's up my name is Reggie Bryant and this channel is all about personal finance and personal growth where I show you how to save money and make more money all while bettering
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yourself every single day so you can live life on your own terms. Let's get into this video
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The first part of this video is actually something I didn't get to address as much as I wanted
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to in my other videos about moving out and that's simply how to save money for your first apartment
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Once I show you how to do this you'll walk away with the mindset of how to properly save
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for anything you want. So the first part about saving for an apartment is already knowing where you want to live
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You know what I'm saying? And it has to be reasonable. Reasonable in that it's price is affordable and I'll break down what that means in a minute
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And it needs to be a place that's safe to live. So I'm going to bring this example to life for you
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I'm going to make this very vivid. When I first got out on my own I was moving to a city where the cost of living was slightly
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different than what I was used to. I spent a lot of time all over the internet looking at apartments in the area that I was
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moving to and at the time it was 2017 so the prices ranged from about $700 a month to $1000
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a month. And if I had to base my decision on what they had online everything looked about exquisite
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and high quality. Basically according to the internet the ghetto did not exist
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Good thing I had my aunt looking out for me. She wanted to check out the place with me so we could both get a feel for what I was
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getting myself into. So we went on that trip. See one thing is you can't just look at the website
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It's literally their job to make their apartment complex look as attractive and desirable as possible
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You can't fall for that bro. You gotta pull up on them. So as we pulled up to one of my number one choices, the $700 a month apartments, I immediately
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knew it was going to be a no. I mean it was a bright sunny day outside, birds chirping, flowers blossoming
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But I am not exaggerating when I say when we pulled into the parking lot of this place
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I promise you the sky got dark, cloudy. I started looking around bro I saw trash all on the ground
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I just got a really strange feeling. The whole area just looked sketchy
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I told my aunt, I was like hey nah we need to turn around we need to get out of here
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She was like boy stop being bougie. So we walked in. The tour actually went pretty well
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The apartments were nice on the inside but it just didn't feel like a safe place to live
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Plus the night before I read a lot of reviews about how shady activities were going on over
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there and I read multiple bad reviews about people getting their apartments broken into
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So at the end of the tour I asked the property manager hey how is crime in this area
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She looked at me dead in the face with the straightest face ever and said crime has no address
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Excuse me? I dropped the mic and left bro. I ain't bout to put my life in danger
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My point is it was priced reasonably and I could afford it but you gotta think about
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your safety first. If you don't feel comfortable with where you live that's a red flag
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You stand the risk of getting your belongings taken, maybe even your life
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To make this even more real for you I've actually lived in an apartment complex before where
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shots were fired into someone's apartment. Yeah gunshots. Turns out it was the wrong apartment
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That did not give me a warm and fuzzy bro. And just to be clear about affordability just look at how much money you make every month
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Your rent shouldn't be any more than 30% of your monthly income
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That's the rule of thumb but you want to stay ahead of the curve with this so it's best to stay as far under that percentage as possible
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You know without moving into an unsafe area. Can't have you out here getting shot bro
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Just to put this into perspective when I moved out and got my first job my base pay was $60,000
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a year plus overtime opportunity. And look if you have overtime as an option that's great but you do not add it to this calculation
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And more importantly when you know your exact base pay you have to take the taxes out or
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you'll completely overestimate how much you can afford. So in my case $60,000 a year for me was $3,600 a month after taxes
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So that's when you take that number and see what 30% of that is. So I'm going to pull out my calculator quick and show you
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What you do is you simply multiply the number that you know you're making every month after taxes which in my case was $3,600 right and then you multiply it by .3 which represents 30%. Boom
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$1,080 is 30% of $3,600. Now to bring my point home I actually went under that 30%
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I ended up finding a very nice place. It was a townhome, two bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms and the rent was $870 a month
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which was 25% of what I was making. So there I was paying 25% of what I was making and I still felt like I was paying too much
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because all my other expenses came into play. I told you I'm going to paint a vivid picture for you
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After paying tithes, utilities, clothes, food, internet, car maintenance, student loan debt
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But on top of that you also got to remember there's unforeseen expenses when you move into an apartment
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Like a security deposit, an application fee, there's even a fee to reserve your apartment
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They don't play. After all those expenses I still had money left over but I just felt like I could have
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so much more. And even though I was making good money for my age it felt like I was saving money super slow
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It took me a while to get into the groove of saving money and feeling financially stable
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because of this. So if I had to give you any advice I would say this
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Take your time. Look online, check out as many places as you need, figure out what you can afford and pull
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up on these places and see if they actually are who they say they are because they might be catfishing you bro
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Don't just blindly pay for an apartment because then you'll be sitting there with your lip poked out because you got yourself committed to a lease that will cost you thousands to
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get out of. A few of my friends went through that bro and I'm telling you, you want to see a grown
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man cry? That's how you do it. So as you work your way up to this point I want you to realize something that a lot of
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people overlook. You're all at different places in your life. You might still live with your mom
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You might have roommates. Maybe roommates you can't stand. Maybe you just got your first full time job but the one thing you all have in common is
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that you're thinking about moving out and to do that you need a plan
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You could be totally on the fence about this because I can promise you if you're anything
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like me it won't feel secure when you first move into your apartment because everything
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is on you. There's no mom or dad there to physically remind you about stuff
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Rents due on the first. Ain't going to be no roommates there to spot you if you come up short
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Your apartment complex might remind you one time. Then you'll get that notice in your mailbox talking about some pay within 7 days or quit
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That means you bout to get kicked out unless you give us our money plus a fee which adds
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up per day it's late by the way. But honestly moving into your first apartment is a very uncomfortable yet liberating feeling
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and I can tell you from experience bro I felt something that I'd never felt in my life and
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that was pressure. The pressure to perform at work. The pressure to arm myself with the knowledge I needed to get my life together
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The pressure I was feeling was unlike anything I'd ever felt in my entire life because this
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wasn't the normal pressure and expectation from my parents to do well in school
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It was the pressure to survive. The pressure not to fail and have to move back in with my parents
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That psychologically pushed me to do things that I never thought I was even capable of doing
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That's why I recommend this so much. It has the power to make you into the best possible version of yourself and you will
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learn very quickly how the real world works. It's something that just can't happen unless you experience it alone without any cushion
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to fall back on in my opinion. So it puts you in a situation where you actually have to create a cushion and I'm going to
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show you how to do just that. Here's exactly how to start off with a cushion so you don't have to end up building one later
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First you want to figure out how much the rent is going to be at your apartment. It doesn't have to be exact, just figure out how much you can expect to pay
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For example my rent was $870 a month but what I paid was more like $940 a month
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So just add a little bit to whatever they tell you you're going to pay and then from there once you figure that out multiply it by 3
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If that's right save up 3 months worth of rent and just keep it in your savings account
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I know I sound about demanding right now but just know that I'm not telling you what to do I'm just telling you how to save for your first apartment the right way
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So on top of all that I'm telling you you're going to want to pull up on these apartment complexes
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You're going to want to call them up and see what their fees are. I mean everything
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I'm talking about asking about their application fee, their movement fee, how much their security deposit is
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And then you know what you do? Ask them if there's any other fees that you forgot to mention that they still include
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I've done all this before and I'm telling you it's going to put you way ahead of the game when it comes to saving and getting prepared to move into your first apartment
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And most importantly you cannot forget to do this. Ask them if they do employee discounts for certain companies
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Every single company I've worked for had to deal with whatever apartment complex I was
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living in where they would actually waive, completely waive the security deposit
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So instead of paying $300 or even $600 you might not have to pay anything
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Now that's how you keep some money in your pocket. You know what I'm saying
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Just in case they're not able to waive any of your fees for you though, go ahead and save an extra $1,000 on top of your three months of rent
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Just in case. On top of all this just think about how your other expenses might line up with how much
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you're paying for your apartment. Think about your phone bill. Think about how much internet is going to cost you in your area
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Start thinking ahead about stuff like furniture and for the love of god if you don't have
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the money right now to buy full furniture sets just get your furniture piece by piece
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I know the urge of wanting to get everything at once but it's just not necessary bro
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If you end up buying stuff you can't afford now that's just going to add another bill on top of your other bills except this bill is going to be a bill that you don't need
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over all the other stuff that you do need. That was one of those traps I was talking about earlier
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You gotta avoid that at all costs. Nowadays it's even harder to live on your own
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The days of $700 rent for a decent place to even $1,000 rent for a decent place those
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days are leaving us. But you can still do this. All I can say is take your time
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Set a goal. Save your money. Think about the future. And don't get catfished by these apartment complexes bro
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Don't be afraid to roll up on them and see what they're about. I wish I would've known all these things before moving into my first apartment because I would've
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been that much more prepared for them. Instead I only knew some of these things
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So I say that to say some of you may have already known some of the stuff in this video but my hope is that this video taught you something maybe you didn't know and that way
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you can be more prepared as you save on your journey to get your first apartment
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Anyways that's the video for today. Thank you so much for watching. My name is Reggie Bryants and this channel is all about personal finance and personal
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growth so you can control you, control your finances, and control your life
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Thank you so much for watching. I definitely enjoyed making this video for you. If you like this video don't forget to subscribe
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Hit the like button. Share this with a friend. Tell somebody about it. Anyways I will see you guys in the next video
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