Life Talks - Apartments and Roomates

Today's Life Talks is about renting and roommates.

Over the years I have had several roommates and lived in several different apartments, living conditions and here are just some of the things that I feel new people who are about to enter this new phase of life should know about.

Location:

When trying to figure out where you want to live you need to figure out what your needs are. Do you need to be close to public transportation. How far are you willing to walk to get to public transportation if you need it. For the area that you are moving too what kind of people to you see hanging out? What kind of car are on the streets or in the complex. Do you know anyone else who is from that area? If so do they know anything about the area? Check out your ideal locations both in the daytime and night.

Budget:

When trying to come up with this number it would be a great idea to first find out what your budget is. One of the other Life Talk - Money$$$ would be a great start if you don't know what your monthly bills are currently. Once you figure out that number look at how much is left and how much you are able to spend on rent. This number should be a total of everything, which could include any pet fees, utilities, and actual rent cost.

If you say your budget is $700 but the apartment is $650, that would be okay if the utilities are include. If they are not your $650 rent could actually end up costing you $800 a month, which will not work. Figure out what your able to pay each month and still be able to eat, have gas, and some fun money.

Roommate(s):

First thing to do is figuring out if you want any roommates and secondly if you do want them, who? You can find roommates in several different places. If you're going to a new area for school they might have a list. Or their are websites to help with that. There are also friends and family that might work as well. This decision is mainly if you would like them and also how many.

The Apartment:

Now this one also takes a little bit of time to figure out. This is making a list of wants verses needs. After you've figured out the above it comes down to a list of questions.

1. Apartment complex or houses or townhouse that can be rented.
2. How many bedrooms?
3. How many bathrooms?
4. Does size of the kitchen matter?
5. Washer and Dryer hook up in the unit? Or laundry mat on site?
6. Parking spaces?
7. Does what floor matter?
8. Pets or pet friendly?
9. Kids or kid friendly?
10. Schools near by?
11. Other requirements?

Now when you have viewed these apartments and you have these requirements there will be a couple of things that you'll also have to keep in mind.

1. Is there an application fee? If so, how much?
2. If they do a credit check and your credit isn't 100% amazing, can you have a co-signer?
3. What kind of deposits will be needed to put down?
4. Can you get these deposits back? 
5. What kind of rental agreements do they have? (month to month, 6 months, 12 months, two years etc.)
6. When would the move in dates be?
7. Are their any amenities included? If so what are they and what hours are they open?
8. What are the parking rules?
9. Do guests need to parking passes or to be in a specific location? (No one wants their friends towed.)
10. If the lease needed to be broken what kind of fines and penalties would there be? How much notice would need to be given?
11. If  you had a roommate, and they had to leave could you sub-lease the room?
12. When is rent due? Are there any late fees if it is late? If so, how much?
13. Who do you give the rent to?
14. What kind of payments do they take?
15. Do you need to turn on and or switch the utilities?
16. If something breaks who do you call?

Life Talk - Money$$$$

Picture by Stuart Miles from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Some of the subjects that you are not suppose to talk about with people are religion, politics and money. Sometimes, you could even throw the topic of sex in there as well. However, today we're going to talk about one of these things, money.

Money is a very touchy subject for people. People don't like to go into specifics about it. They have a whole bunch of facts and figures thrown at them, they don't really know how it works so instead of asking questions, they just kind of wing it. This may or may not work. So today I just want to talk about some things and point out some resources.

First: Money is not evil. People who have money are not evil. True, not everyone "earned" theirs and they inherited but that doesn't make them bad people just because they have stupid amounts of cash. I do also understand that there are exceptions to this rule, but for the most part it is true.

Money is a necessity not a want in today's world. People use to just be able to trade some fur for some grain, or work a few hours for some food back in the barter days. Now, money is our barter system. I give you this and we exchange through dollar bills. It is how it works.

Second: Everything you do costs money and is affected in some way by money. It isn't just about brand names and high priced stuff, it's about everyday living. It costs money just to sit at home. There is gas, electric, rent, cable, internet, and water all needing to be paid each month if you're sitting at home or not.

Third: It affects your health in what you can eat and when you're able to go to the doctors. It not only affects things like affording insurance but having yearly physicals or just going to the doctors or emergency room when things get really bad. It is the difference between being able to get something checked out and taken care of with a simple antibiotic and doctors visit to ending up in an emergency room.

Fourth: For better or worse money is important and so is financial knowledge. It is something people need to know about and understand so they can keep more of it and use it for what they need and want.

In high school we probably had a class where we learned how to write a check and balance a check book. I'm pretty sure that was about it. No one talked about how it affects everything in your life, or about interests rates, credit scores, bank accounts, feeds, fines, CDs, IRAs, 401ks, and all of those type things. Unless your parents talked about it, which a lot of people don't talk about money, then there is a good chance people's knowledge come from either life fails or maybe a little bit of research.

So where do we start?

Life Talks

After giving it some thought, I've decided that I'm going to post not only some of my random life adventures, but also some of the my life lessons. I'm going to try and make them short little posts but if they need to broken up in two parts, by all means I shall.

What in the world do I mean by life lessons? Just the things I've learned thus far and probably what most of you have also learned. I think of it as my way of passing on knowledge I have gained, which may not be the way main stream media, parents, lawyers, financial people, or doctors may talk about it. Just one young adult passing on life lessons to other people or people's Google searches.

A few disclaimers. One, I am not a doctor nor do I pretend to be one. Nor am I a lawyer, banker, financial adviser, realtor, or any other professional. This information is just what I have learned. I shall be doing my best to cite actual sources from which I have pulled information from. Other times, I'm going to not cite it because I'm going to consider it common knowledge.

Two, I am not saying I'm right. I could be totally wrong, this is just some stuff that has worked/is working for me.

Three, some of this information is geared more towards young ladies that are probably coming of age and has not yet exerinced some of these life lessons.

Four, all of these topics are bias, because well, it's my opinion so of course these will be biased.


Also, if anyone has any questions on topics and want to hear what I may or may not have to say about them let me know! You can leave a comment below.

So this is the start. The start of something, not sure what, but something. First post will be on Friday!

Enjoy and have a great day!