Sitting pretty

[danaeris]

I know the answer to "When do I get a car" — when I have a license and know I'll have the cash to continue feeding the beast (ie., this job is out of probationary period).

The question to which I have no answer is this:

When do I move out?

Every month I live here, I save up the cost of food and rent (minus 250). It's a pretty sweet deal. Too sweet. When do I move? Sure, if I met someone I'd probably want to move for the privacy alone. But barring that, when do I move?

As soon as possible? Well then, tomorrow, and there goes saving money down the tube.
As late as possible? Well then, as long as I can stand it, and who knows where the line is there.
When opportunity strikes? Well then, I could be waiting forever for the perfect opportunity.

There's got to be a good in between. I'm sure there are reasons other than hedonism and pride to move.
Like, sanity, or even, self-sufficiency, and letting those skills stagnate.

Questions I'd love advice on:
->Reasons to move out.
->Possible deadlines to help motivate the move.

Comments

[jadia.livejournal.com]

Here's my take on how to decide when to move out. My opinion of living with your parents is that it gives you some stability while the rest of your life is getting settled. So when you have some surety in the rest of your life, that's when it's time to move out. I think the sort of stability I'm talking about is in terms of money - after your job is set, after you've figured out a reasonable way to deal with your finances (ie, car payments, rent, whatever).

But I think you'll be able to figure it out. You have some urge to move out, so it doesn't sound like you're likely to stagnate into living there forever even when you should move. I also think that your self-sufficiency skills aren't going to atrophy that quickly as long as you still care about being self-sufficient, which you seem to.

If you're still worried about it, some nice deadlines I'd personally use are like, "after my job is certain" or "after I get my car and feel comfortable using it and paying for it on a monthly basis".

[curgoth]

On one hand, I'd wait until the financial ramifications of Car sink in. On the other hand, it can't hurt to start looking at listings for places now, in case you see your perfect place drift by.

[lastmx.livejournal.com]

Wait for the condo market to finish crashing, then get a decent place in downtown TO, that way you won't *need* a car. It also starts to build savings for the long term.

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

I'd say wait until...
-you have a car
-your parents drive you crazy
-you can't go any longer without a a hypo-allergenic cat :)
-you find a place you simply can't pass up

If any of these come up (or a combination of them) then that is a good time to move.
For me, it was a place I couldn't pass up, a SO I wanted to spend all my time with, and wanting out from under my parents.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Do you have any desire to buy a place, or are you satisfied with renting for the time being?

If you might think about buying, then stay as long as you can and save the money. If you're content with renting, you only need first and last month's rent and a bit extra for unexpected bills.

Also, the "I can't take it anymore" factor could kick in any time. Especially since you've already been independent. Going back to a semblance of dependency must feel really strange.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

You can get the license out of the way soon, no?

[tunape.livejournal.com]

this sounds like an optimization/economics problem. A simple model could be as such:

Let time, t, be in months with parents.

utility(happiness) of saving money:
U(money) = a*t (a is a constant)

U(privacy) = -b*t

U(total) = a*t - b*t = (a-b)*t

of course, things are not nearly that simple. your utility does not linearly increase with money saved. eg. if you have $1M and saving an additional $1k won't gain the same amount of utility if you have $1k and save an additional $1k.

anyhow, you can do the math. set goals for what is a reasonable amount to save to get you on your feet, and how much lost of privacy you are willing to put up. ;)