<< Back to all Blogs
Login or Create your own free blog
Layout:
Home > Gave Some Advice

Gave Some Advice

August 22nd, 2014 at 04:14 pm

I had a little Facebook conversation with my niece yesterday. She is 20 and been out of high school for over a year. She did go to college in her hometown for the past two semesters. She had a plan to move to California, where her Dad lives. Oh, and she just met him right after graduation last May.

Her Facebook post was about how she was to have left to go out there yesterday, but she had now delayed the move until mid March. She mentioned she needed to save more money in order to make the move.

I'm pretty sure her parents are not helping in any way, other than one of them will drive with her when it is time to go out there. She may still be living at home, but I know I heard some talk of living in an apartment.

I responded to her Facebook post advising her to make her savings goal specific and to break it down to figure out how much she should be saving each week or month to meet her goal. I also advised to do some research about the costs involved in moving, school tuition and fees, cost of gas, utilities and deposits. In other words, I advised making an educated guess as to how much to save.

Her response was, "You're 100% right, I've just been saving as I go, but I definitely need goals."

After that little response, I wrote again to say, "Hoping to get there, just doesn't always do it." She responded that she does need to actually start planning.

I don't have a lot of contact with my niece, since she is in another state. I don't know where her parents stand financially, but I would guess it is like the average american family, with credit card debt, car debt, mortgage and a little investing. And probably a tiny emergency fund. As a result, I couldn't help myself to give a little advice.

I hope it helps her. She is very motivated to get her college degree, so I think she has the potential to make the financial goals to get where she wants to go.

Have you found yourself giving financial advice to someone you don't normally discuss such things with?

Posted in Family | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “Gave Some Advice”

  1. Joan.of.the.Arch Says:
    August 22nd, 2014 at 04:25 pm 1408724723
    1408724723

    Maybe she (and you?) could look into what length of residence is required to qualify for in-state tuition. It could be much less expensive if she is officially a California citizen before she enrolls.

  2. Petunia 100 Says:
    August 22nd, 2014 at 06:38 pm 1408732704
    1408732704

    It takes 12 months to establish residency in California and qualify for in-state tuition. Smile

  3. rob62521 Says:
    August 22nd, 2014 at 07:46 pm 1408736770
    1408736770

    It sounds like you had a good discussion with your niece and she was open to suggestion.

  4. creditcardfree Says:
    August 22nd, 2014 at 07:48 pm 1408736929
    1408736929

    Yep, it is 12 months. I'm not sure she'll wait that long to get back to school. It seems reasonable to us, but at that age, I just don't know. I will mention it though.

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]