Well, I guess I am officially a grown up (sort of). I can vote, drink, rent a car and.... as of yesterday I have a brand new credit card. Yes. I am 25 years old and I am just now getting my
very first credit card.
You all probably think I'm stupid and irresponsible for waiting this long to start building credit.
Honestly I don't really have a good reason for why I didn't get a credit card sooner. Maybe because I don't really understand what you need one for? Maybe because I think it's a bit of a scam?
I earn a salary and I pay for things with money that I have, either with my debit card or cash. I've never needed credit. I am responsible with my finances (most of the time... ignore the new outfit I bought for the wedding, and the plane tickets I just bought for Labor Day weekend). I pay my bills on time, I have no student loans to pay off or car payments to make (thank you, thank you, times a trillion mom and dad) and yet if I wanted to buy a home tomorrow I would likely not get approved as I have no credit.
No credit apparently is like bad credit in the eyes of the bank/the world and that sucks.
I'm not planning to buy a home tomorrow. But I am planning on a future that will include a home of my own. One that I can decorate and love and fill with my family (and put all those Pinterest ideas to work).
But y'all I know nothing... I may check all the adult boxes, but I had to ask my mom to explain to me how a mortgage works. Mostly, I had no idea what happens to the mortgage if you move out of the house before you finish paying it off. Thanks for dumbing it all down for me mom!
Aren't you glad you decided to read this post? It's super interesting and fun right?
Apparently being an adult also means getting worked up about your finances, on a Friday.
Let's break it down.
I take the metro to work every day, $8.20 round trip. Most days, either because I'm running late, I'm feeling lazy, or it's raining, I also drive to the metro and park-even though I live within 10 minutes walking distance. To park at the metro is another $5 every day. Also, I pretty much buy my lunch every day. That's another $8-$10 every afternoon.
While the metro travel is a non-negotiable (ridiculously expensive yes, but I have to get to work somehow), the $5 parking is quite simply a waste of money. I have two legs, and an umbrella. I should be walking everyday and saving that $25 a week.
If I bring my lunch to work every day that's another $50 a week.
But...lunch is a tricky subject. I don't want to sit at my desk and eat leftovers or my sad little yogurt and stare longingly out the window (that I don't have) but I really want to check off #43,
pack my lunch every day for an entire week. On nice weather days I can enjoy my lunch in the park or somewhere outside. But what do I do when it rains or in the winter (or when it's a thousand degrees outside) when the park is no longer an option?
These are the things I worry about? Hah.
But now that I have a credit card to call my own, and now that I know I don't have near enough money squirreled away for a down payment, I am feeling like it's time to get serious about my spending habits.
Ugh, the math/number hater in me is squirming.