I want more grown-up things

[K-Star]

I'm 21 now, and my dad keeps telling me to get out of the house. :P I know he's mostly kidding, but I'm seriously considering moving into an apartment near my college next summer.

 

[RoJoHen]

But, the most important thing is to make sure you have a way to have the kind of income you need to fund your lifestyle.

Well, that goes without saying. I am certainly not going to live beyond my means.

This was a helluva lot easier the last few years. Even though I didn't own a home, I still lived in a house with my roommates. Together, we were all able to afford to the house. Now I am without roommates (even though we all ended up moving into the exact same apartment complex!) so I am not able to do as much on my own.

And I am in no way, shape, or form close to having a girlfriend or wife or anything, so the only income I have to rely on is my own. I'm taking steps, though. A few months ago I actually bought health insurance!

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I owned a house in the suburbs and had the IT job at a Fortune 50 company, in a nice little cubicle.
Hell. Simply Hell.
Never again, the suburbs are beyond depressing homogenized crap...and working for a large corp is just another way to say sign me up just so you can wait to get laid off. Take this route and ensure your future is not in your hands.

I grew up in the suburbs. I actually don't mind them.

I grew up in the suburbs and I can't stand them, but I guess that's where we differ

 

[Spot's Meow]

I don't think the suburbs are inherantly good or bad. It is just a matter of taste. I grew up in the suburbs and I can't wait to get back - living in an apartment is just awful and I dream of the day that I can live in a house, no matter how small it is or how much maintenance it requires. I hate living and working in a city...so not the life for me. But of course others feel the opposite.

I can't give you a lot of real solid advice because I don't have a lot of those things either, but I do feel like I am on my way there. Mostly because I am working on my Master's degree and hopefully some day in the near future that will lead to a more stable job opportunity. And my boyfriend is working on his PhD, so I feel like we are heading in the right direction. It sounds like you are too with this certification exam thing. The hardest part is being patient. I think that this is an awful age because you are too old to enjoy the ignorance and freedom of being a child but you are too young to enjoy the finer things of life that come with having a steady career and being a "grown-up." So basically we have all the responsibilities without any of the benefits that should go along with it! Got to be patient.......

 

[vampgrrl]

there is nothing wrong with small town living especially with walkable areas and little main streets but there is something very wrong with the suburbs of post WW2 America.

 

[DBR]

Here, you can have all my grown up things, RoJoHen. I'm going get working on that treehouse with a fridge, water slide and trampoline floor I've been wanting to build for most of my life.

 

[RoJoHen]

Here, you can have all my grown up things, RoJoHen. I'm going get working on that treehouse with a fridge, water slide and trampoline floor I've been wanting to build for most of my life.

Do you have a yard in which to build the treehouse?! Because that's all I want!

 

[DBR]

Sorry... I forgot to mention, I'm keeping the yard and the tree in which my future residence is going to be.

 

[RandyS]

Somehow I don't think it takes quite that much money. It just takes good credit and liking where you live enough to settle down.

That's because you're only 24 and have the mistaken impression that you need these things to be a grownup. You don't. When I was 24 (in 1994), I mistakenly believed the same thing. It's an ignorance of youth thing. Just live your life, and these things will come in there own time.

How is it ignorant to want a house and yard? I never said I needed these things to be a grown-up. I just want these things! I hate apartment life. I want to live in a house. I want a yard because I enjoy yardwork. I want a garage because I'm tired of the inside of my car being 150 degrees in the summertime and worrying about whether it's even going to start in the dead of winter. That has nothing to do with youth, and it's not something I'm going to out-grow.

I just called them "grown-up things" because they're things often associated with being an adult.

Well, if you want these things, then you will need more money than God. That's what it takes. Trust me. The expense is overwelming. I have a house, but I got lucky because I inherited it from my mom. There is still expense. And I have a yard, the upkeep is incredible, particularly for a disabled person like me, and I have help (sometimes). Hey, if you enjoy yard work, you are invited to come do mine. I can't pay you much, but I'll give you free food.

Maybe the term ignorant was a bit much, it's just that I have a friend your age, and he's constantly spouting off about things that he knows little or nothing, and I remember what it was little being your age and wanting as you call it "more grown up things", and for me, as I grew older, that feeling not only passed, it died completely.

 

[kimc]

Personally I have all of things that you mentioned, but I long to downsize and live more simply...and I have a resaonably modest lifestyle.

I know what you mean. I own my own home, drive a reasonably new car and have a lot of STUFF. I've learned though that the more stuff you have and the nicer it is the more time and money you need to spend maintaining it.

Last weekend I went to a beer tasting party that happened to be hosted by some young men in their twenties. We sat there in that unconditioned apartment sweating like pigs but drinking ten-year-old barleywine - it was one of the more charming events I'd been to in a long time. There's a certain simplicity to those days that I miss sometimes.

Of course that doesn't mean that after the party I didn't run to my car and CRANK the ac.

I guess my point is just enjoy where you're at. Like others have said once you get the "adult" job the rest of it will follow soon enough. Then you can look back on these days with fondness.