Good day you beautiful people! I hope you had a great nights’ sleep and if not, well I can only assume you were stuck on your phone watching TIKTOK for hours, you were curled up in a blanket reading one of your favorite books or you decided to dive deep into Trumps’ trial that he was recently found guilty of. Honestly, it’s definitely good to wind down with a nice book or just mindlessly scrolling through TIKTOK until you’re able to fall asleep. I probably do it way more often than I should, but life is short, I’m going to do what I want the majority of the time. Anyways let’s get to it, this post is going to be all about how to be an adult after high school.

First and foremost, I think the majority of us, especially the newer generations understand that high school does not prepare you for what’s coming up next, which we like to call “adulting”. Now don’t get me wrong, there are certain high schools that are able to give students opportunities that others can’t. That could be as simple as taking a finance, or a technology, or even a construction class. After researching a bit, I found out that more than half of the states require schools to offer personal finance in high school, but it is not a requirement whatsoever to complete prior to graduation. So yes, those states are doing great by offering it but it’s not mandatory so why would they, especially if they’re not wanting to have any sort of financial degree after high school. Thats basically like carrying a handgun now, in certain states there is a self-defense/how to use your gun course but if it’s not a requirement why take it? I understand that a lot of people can debate that but nowadays everyone wants the most direct route, from point A to point B, and if it’s not a requirement then why do it? Everyone coming out of high school has a different mentality and options with what they want to do. Some have a 4.0 and are going to Harvard to become a lawyer, or you skated right through high school with no worry, and you want to go to an average college where you get an associate or bachelor’s degree and you’re doing great, or you join the military because you want to travel the world.

I really wanted to preface a few of those options so we can dive into what you need to do as an adult now that you have graduated high school. It’s pretty simple but a lot of people don’t understand it or just struggle in general. Now that you have graduated high school and made your choice of what your next path will be, we will go into many examples of what you should be expecting around the corner and how much more responsibilities you have. Now this will be an all-inclusive little guide that not everyone will start off with having to do but eventually everyone will have to deal with. A major item that we will start off with is having to find a place to stay/pay rent. Now most 18- and 19-year-olds trying to rent there first apartment don’t realize it’s not just the rent you have to worry about. Not only do you pay rent, but you will always have to pay a direct deposit which is typically at least half of your set monthly rent, so if your rent is $1,000, then you will have to pay a total of $1,500 upon moving in. And, if you have a pet then a direct deposit will need to be put down for that as well. If that doesn’t deter you from moving out on your own a couple of other expenses to keep in mind are your utility, electric, trash bills that could put another $250 easily into your monthly payments. Rent and utility bills aren’t the only items you need to be thinking about when moving into an apartment or even house, you need to keep in mind about actually moving all of your belongings to your new place you’re going to call home. Do you have friends or family that will help, or will you need to hire a company to move it for you? Furnishing your new home as well plays a big factor into how much you will be willing to spend during the moving process. Will you put it all on a credit card or wait until you save up for a couch and then a bed and so on. What I am getting at and as you probably know now if you didn’t already, is that moving costs can be pretty hefty so saving up, researching apartments, moving companies and everything that needs to be included will help you save money in the end.

If you’ve read this far, I’d like to thank you and get ready for some more basic information that a lot of kids don’t know once they graduate high school. Have you ever thought about how you’re going to live on your own in terms of paying bills, paying for groceries, gas in your car, outfits for your car and more? Well, I can help you understand what the best course of action could be in terms of taking out credit cards for the first time, taking out a loan for certain items and even just understanding the basic information when it comes to finances. Credit cards are such a blessing when you’re in a jam and you don’t have the money you need at that time, but they can also be very dangerous. The reason they can be so dangerous is not understanding mostly the interest rate and how that works. When you first get a credit card you have a limited amount that you can spend with it, say $500 if you’ve never had one. As you use the card, spending $100 there, $25 there, it starts to add up and before you know it, you’re at your limit. Every month you will need to pay the minimum payment which could be $20, $100 or even more depending on your limit and interest rate. You want to start building your credit as soon as possible, I was fortunate enough to have parents that understood that, so they gave me my first credit card when I was 16. I would go get a few things here and there for the house along with gas in the cars for them and they would pay off the card, which in turn gave me an amazing credit score by the time I graduated high school. Even if that doesn’t happen with you, the sooner you start building your credit score the better opportunities will be available to you. When buying a car, a house, renting an apartment, background checks, and etc., these companies will run your credit score to make sure they can essentially trust you that you will pay them back the money they are lending to you. If you don’t have a good credit score or even a score at all, they will either turn you away or have your interest rate skyrocketed rather than having an average rate. So, interest rates, on a credit card you want your interest rate to be as low as possible or just zero, but it will never be zero otherwise credit card companies would probably go out of business. For example, when you have your monthly payment on your credit card bill you will also have interest rate that kicks in, and that interest rate will add X amount of dollars to the actual amount of money you owe back. The best option if you’re able to do this is to either pay the interest rate every month or pay towards the principal of the card. The principal of the card would be you paying an additional payment towards the card to prevent the interest rate to hike up your payment any further. So, the bigger amount you have on your credit card due, the bigger the interest rate will be once your monthly payment is due. Loans work pretty much the same when it comes to interest rates, and usually you will take out a loan for buying large, priced items, like a car, trailer, house etc. To sum up credit cards, find the lowest interest rates and keep your payment as low as possible by paying additional payments or paying the total amount as soon as possible.

Now, this was a very broad and quick explanation of a couple of items and what to expect after graduating high school. I think this alone will help many post high school students figure out at least a small piece of what they should be looking out for especially financially or what questions to be asked. I want everyone to keep in mind that I am not some financial guru or have a doctorate in finance, this is just the experiences I have had, and knowledge gained from that only. If you guys liked this post please go subscribe so you can the latest updates on my website. Thank you all and have a stupendous day. From the late and great Dwight Schrute “Whenever I’m about to do something, I think, would an idiot do that?’ and if they would, I do not do that thing.”