Quote:
Originally Posted by MuminAbdulla
Hello everyone! Hope all is well!
So a little about myself! I am 22, living with my parents in lovely, old Michigan. I am a clean, independent individual, and a lover of luxury stuff.
Snip irrelevant, boat-anchor garbage more applicable to old people
I guess when then the time comes what would be the FIRST steps to take?
Could you guys possibly recommend a Step-by-Step as to what needs to be done first so I can transition as easy as possible, my biggest thing I want to avoid is moving back because I had no choice besides to sleep on a street haha.
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Deja vu all over again: I was 22 when I blew town, that being Birmingham MI. Eons ago, and curious how times have changed: I had work waiting, in Reno, and my Plan B came through a month after that as-well. Made more money than I ever had in my life, literally, though if I'd known better I'd have known it was bird seed then as now. Perspective!
You're making more than I did, in adjusted dollars. And I had a STEM degree as a professional scientist. I had only a few years of lab experience and internship when I started. I had no work in Michigan, was moving TO a job, so the uncertainty was low. Back then, we relied on letters and phone calls. Cripes, long-ass time ago...Gen X, man.
I'd have been too cautious to move away from that kind of money at 22, though you will figure out eventually there is 2x, 3x available elsewhere all in good time. That will be an option in maybe 5-10 years, if you're decent at what you do. Friend of mine was complaining about $92/hr as a W2 contractor (sr. security expert/advisor), and I suggested he clam up. First World problem, for those w/10+ years in the parts of IT that actually matter (Cloud Dev, Security, couple other areas. AI, ML, IoT is coming at some point...)
No degree, huh? That will bite you, hard, sooner vs. later. You'll see. And you'll be scrambling to finish it, thinking about this thread in C-D the whole time I'm sure and "why, oh why, didn't I complete that check box from a school that wasn't Moo U?". You will, and salary will go from beer money to okay about two days after the ink dries. Then, you'll figure out later you need an MS, or MBA, and not from some ghetto place either. But that's later. Ivy MBA paid off hugely for me, at 39, later than many of my peers age-wise. I'm reaping that now, and have for about nine years.
"How" do you move, LOL. And you actually have real money to do this! I had the equivalent of $5K as backup funds. You should do well, depends how long it takes to find work, and maybe parachute back home if-not. I never did, moved West and never looked back. Step by Step:
STEP 1: Don't overthink the move
Pack whatever **** you have into scraggly old Toyota Camry. It better be reliable. For me, was an '81 Mustang Fox body. Ain't bragging about that, either. That's how much you need to leave with, no more or less. My Mustang was reliable, and your (whatever) should be, too. Mine never blew up, years later, either. Fond memories of Ford, thus...but to the point, you're traveling right. You do NOT need possessions. Have a garage sale, tomorrow, or pack it in the folks' garage (I did some of that, too, pre-move).
STEP 2: A Flophouse
I'd personally move into a rooming house, to do it over again, and I lived in a motel by the week my first month there: Reno, in my case. I winged it, being 22 and not really caring plus being highly resourceful.
STEP 2A: Live like a Vagrant, it Would be Eye-Opening (Seriously)
Since you're traveling light, you have tons of options. Living in the car is one, if you need to. In Silicon Valley, bet you would. I'm guessing life like that with the vagrants can be a hassle, but also strangely liberating other than dealing with mean cops, bums, thieves, and cutthroats. Hey, I've rubbed elbows with all long enough to know I never want to be any of the above, but they're people too. Having lived rags to upper middle class riches, across an arc of 29 years, I'll tell you all about how to live both ways.
STEP 3: Now that you live in a flop house, spend all day, every day, finding a job.
Better have a rock-solid, readable resume and at least one nice sport coat. Buy the latter at the Salvation Army or Value Village (great chain of donated goods here in Seattle area).
You don't need to do anything else if you live in a flophouse or are a vagrant in some parking lot, other than to make sure you don't get robbed (I never was). I'd keep life real simple. If you find a half-decent job, you can move into a scummy place in San Jose area with the vatos or other working class, or maybe better elsewhere. I wouldn't turn up in SV making less than a quarter-mil$, personally, but the equivalent of my house here in Kirkland WA down there in, say, Los Gatos would be $2.5M. Do the math on that mortgage. YMMV.
STEP 4: When you have accepted a half-decent job, in writing, find a half-decent place to rent for a year or two
I found an apartment in Reno for the princely sum of about (adjusted dollars) $600/month, after I had a job with a mining company (in my case) that paid about $50K in adjusted dollars. Worth every penny, too. Not quite scummy, I actually liked it there, and was 50% on the road anyway. Some crapped-out neighborhood is fine, live with the working folks, you'll love it as long as you don't have champagne tastes. I lived in a rodent-infested frat house last 1.5 years of my undergrad so anything otherwise was a major improvement. The new place had no rats. I loved it.
STEP 5: If looks like it might work, consider trading up with whatever equity (if anything) you've managed to squirrel away.
Buy a condo, or continue to rent in a better part of town. I bought a couple places after '99 and did some speculating and leveraging, which paid off handsomely. Alternative income sources help.
I'd also move where the work is. I did that twice more, landing in Seattle where I will stay remainder of my career. After, hard to say.
PITFALLS
No degree: bad in a place and industry where that's a bar for entry. In SV, you're 35 miles from Stanford U. That should tell you something about the competition. Not to mention Berkeley, USC, etc...
No job waiting: you're braver than me, it's a lot tougher now vs. way back when
Walking away from a $50K/year job because Michigan sucks (and yes, it does, compared to West Coast) isn't too clever, I must say. Unless you live in some hole like Kalkaska or Lansing.
Kiss "luxury" anything goodbye for 10 years, you can't afford it. Trust me. Put all that away or sell it to some pawn shop.
DON'TS
Don't bring more **** with you than fits in the lockable trunk and back seat of your jalopy. Period. I wouldn't acquire so much as one stick of furniture from "IKEA" or other dumb stuff for next few years or so. Buy everything at the goodwill or for free from colleagues and other giveaways. My mattress and couch were second hand for more than a decade. I'm just fine. My table was a spool from the power company, varnished and sanded. Rest of my stuff, including TV, was from Craig's List equivalent back then. I tossed the bulk away when I moved to SF in 1991, and that I didn't fit into a Ryder Truck (small one) just fine. By a wide margin, when I moved to SF area from Reno (for a job, in-writing), my most valuable possession was my motorcycle... and my 9mm SIG Sauer P226. Those two things, plus diamonds (portable wealth), are last-option get out of trouble devices, I (correctly) assumed.
Don't do anything stupid like "have a girlfriend" or pets or other anchors, until you're settled in. All that is more nuisance than you can afford, and anchors in life that
truly do...not...MATTER. I had nothing, and no one, I could not walk out on in 30 seconds flat until 1995, when I bought a nice BMW used. I was 26. Life was pretty stable by then.
Best of luck!
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