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I want to move out and move into an apartment and be good financially but I'm 29 but i work at a minimum wage job and I have no skills at all. Any advice?
How badly do you want to move out? What sacrifices are you willing to make to do it?
I have a daughter who loves her parents very much, but wanted to be out on her own with her boyfriend.
She moved to North Dakota with him. In western North Dakota in oil drilling country minimum wage workers don't earn minimum wage. They often earn more than twice that amount and employers actually employ them full time with benefits. Instead of earning $8 an hour they might make $17 an hour as a convenience store clerk. This is a wage for someone who is unskilled, young, and with little work experience. The cost of living is roughly equivalent there to what it is here where my wife and I live. So, the $17 an hour is a living wage and than some. She rents a brand new two bedroom apartment with a master bedroom and master bath. She is easily able to afford the upkeep on her car and insurance premiums as well. Together, she and her boyfriend lead a solidly middle class lifestyle.
Of course, there are drawbacks. She lives away from her family in a state that has long, cold winters. But that was a price she was willing to pay.
Although her moving away like this was a shock, I am beginning to respect the choice she made. She does not have to depend on me to exist. She is fully self-supporting at the age of nineteen.
If you want to move away from home, you could do something similar. Your only other option is probably to go to a tech school, obtain a skill, and obtain work that pays more than your current job.
Life is tougher these days and good jobs are scarce. I hope you can use this advice to help yourself.
I want to move out and move into an apartment and be good financially but I'm 29 but i work at a minimum wage job and I have no skills at all. Any advice?
Low hanging fruit, wow:
1. Assess your skills and interests using various online instruments. Take some thoughtful notes. Cost: nothing.
2. Now you know the "kind" of work you like...maybe. And now you must determine if you have skill in this field, and if it can be monetized. Both matter. (1) . Cost: nothing.
3. If you can, dabble in your spare time in what you might like, and think you might do well, and can be monetized due to scarcity of labor. This isn't hard to figure out, but at the same time can be subtle.(2) Cost: online or in-person courses, shouldn't be too much nor take more than perhaps a year.
4. Gather capital, and make your move, if and when you can secure employment in your desired trade or career path. Maybe you don't need to move to where (most) of the work is; I did, to get away from California and utter inability to get ahead. Partially my fault for believing otherwise, some years earlier in a more-naive time, and I did like the Bay Area lots... but it just won't work for most trying to really get somewhere.
If you can puzzle out that the above is a logical process I just invented in my head, sort of aping how I did it with a few lessons-learned folded in, you're well on your way. If not, you'll fail, which eventually might be educational too. I've failed a fair number of times, on the road to a certain level of success. That's life.
(1) I am a field that pays the most for what I do well. Do well: "better than almost anyone else, hence I'm offered lucrative work, since all else being the equal the free market will determine the value of your skills". I do other things better, though, that pay (far) less and are (more) fulfilling. Those don't pay the bills and are hobbies. Tough luck, the world doesn't work that way. Life rule no. 1: "Can you monetize it?"
(2) My path to this was casual, first a year to dabble, then a few months of courses, and finally a realization I could pass interviews. I started just a little younger than you, and had a professional STEM job during. So personally, that's what I did, and was offered a job in something that I...see previous footnote. No one hires zeros, wannabes, and reprobates btw and as-mentioned the market will determine scarcity of labor value for whatever you select.
1) go to your dept. Of social services, apply for food stamps, medicaid, emergency cash. It will come on a card. If you have no income at all, you should qualify and be expedited immediately. Even if you dont, tell them you owe parents rent, youll get a rent subsidy, which might be enough to share an apt. With someone, or find a cheap room to rent.
2) contact your local mental health center, get a good proper diagnosis, and therapy.
3) check your local hospital system to see if they have a patient financial aid plan. My hospital, its satellite offices and pharmacies all accept this. First you have to have some kind of insurance (ex: medicaid). I have it, and my hospitals system allows a family of 4 to earn up to $95k/ yr and still get a 25% discount help, on hospital services, dr services, and YES, the same discount on prescription copays. Discounts range from 25% all tye way up to 100%. I get 100% help on my prescription costs, as well as 100% discount on services and dr visits. Tyey may also have a mental health department.
4) get on indeed.com, create a resume, and start applying for retail jobs, you have the experience if you worked at home depot.
5) with the help from mental health therapy, you should be able yo be put in touch with your local Vocational Assistance organization.
A) they can help you find a job
B) they may pay an employer for the cost of on the job training
C) they pay for college certification courses and programs
D) they may completely pay for a 2 yr degree.
6) I have almost always worked more than one job. Ive done everything from mowing lawns, raking leaves, shoveling snow, etc. Maybe you can do that right in your neighborhood? How about pet walking and sitting? No need for a car. Advertising on craigslist will help.
7) if and when you have 10 years working experience and at least 20 social security credits, you can apply for SSDI. Do NOT settle for SSI, it is very limited. SSDI, you can still work, and that will increase your SSDI check each year you do, you can only gross up $1220/m in earnings or you lose your check forcthe month if you go over.
You will also qualify for Medicare 6 months after your SSDI starts.
I know this because i have physical and mental disorders too, and I collect AND work part time.
When you first apply, you will likely be denied. Keep appealing til you see the Administrative Law Judge. The MORE medical records you have to back you up yhe better to get approved.
The ALJ had an 8 1/2" thick folder of all my medical records, he said he had no problem approving my case. So apply AFTER you have substantial records to back up your claim.
You can also get a free legal assistant to help you apply anx appear with, social services or mental health can help put you in touch with them.
If I can be of more help, direct message me through here.
I have bad credit so I don't qualify for any loans and financial aid. I also have $900 of college debt.
Credit score has NOTHING to do with whether the Vocational Rehabilitation and Education program in your area ( what ever they call it there) will assist in paying for on the job training, or college courses, it is FREE to those disabled eligible people.
Call tyese 3 digits: 2-1-1. Thats it, no area code, no prefix or suffix, JUST 211.
ASK where to get help with food, ask about the Vocational Rehabilitation program agency, ask how to get help with security deposit for an apartment, ANYTHING you NEED help with. They will be able to assist you, AGAIN FOR FREE and put you in touch with the right people and organizations.
But, if you just want to stay bummed and don't want to help yourself, then just sit there in your parents bedroom and pity yourself.
Due to tye several severe medical issues I had, I ended up homeless living under a bridge next to the RR tracks, in the middle of NY winters.
I applied 5 times to DSS ( Department of Social services) and was turned down 4 times. I finally impressed upon the intake worker lady I WAS HOMELESS! Wasn't there at least a mens housing i could get into?
But I was looked at as a single man with no kids whom they ASSUMED could/should be working or get a job some how.
I niw, 20 years later own my house, half paid for, 2 paid for cars, money in the bank and a loving spouse of 19 years this past Friday the 12th.
I am actually thinking of going back to college to finish a 2 yr degree, and i can use our Vocational Rehabilitation Training program to pay for it for free.
Point being i pulled myself up by the bootstraps got out and did a LOT of legwork (WALKED MILES AND MILES, OR scouring the road side for nickle returnable bottles and cans to pay the bus fare), volunteered at food Pantries for extra food, and got things DONE.
After 3 serious by failed suicide attempts, i finally got the CORRECT diagnosis of my mental illness, and yhe proper medicine in 2008 and it opened up a whole new world for me!! I was only being HALF treated for Bipolar, as an example. I only complained of tye deep depression i suffered and no one prior thought to grill me about manic episodes. I spent 4.5 hours with a psychiatrist in the psych ward after my 2008 attempt and FINALLY got the proper diagnosis on that!! I have other mental issues too, but getting that part straightened out, I was a MUCH better and improved person!!
If you don't want to do the work, youll get nowhere , but with some effort on your part and direction to the professionals and programs that will help you, often FREE of charge, you can become the best person you can be!
It may be true that if you are out in the sticks you may have to go to a nearby city for all the help you could be entitled to, but it IS out there!
The best to you as you try to find your way to a new and better be-all-you-can-be person!!
Again, if you want help click my screen name and send me a direct message...id be willing to help you to the best i can, but you have to do the legwork!
Credit score has NOTHING to do with whether the Vocational Rehabilitation and Education program in your area ( what ever they call it there) will assist in paying for on the job training, or college courses, it is FREE to those disabled eligible people.
Call tyese 3 digits: 2-1-1. Thats it, no area code, no prefix or suffix, JUST 211.
ASK where to get help with food, ask about the Vocational Rehabilitation program agency, ask how to get help with security deposit for an apartment, ANYTHING you NEED help with. They will be able to assist you, AGAIN FOR FREE and put you in touch with the right people and organizations.
But, if you just want to stay bummed and don't want to help yourself, then just sit there in your parents bedroom and pity yourself.
Due to tye several severe medical issues I had, I ended up homeless living under a bridge next to the RR tracks, in the middle of NY winters.
I applied 5 times to DSS ( Department of Social services) and was turned down 4 times. I finally impressed upon the intake worker lady I WAS HOMELESS! Wasn't there at least a mens housing i could get into?
But I was looked at as a single man with no kids whom they ASSUMED could/should be working or get a job some how.
I niw, 20 years later own my house, half paid for, 2 paid for cars, money in the bank and a loving spouse of 19 years this past Friday the 12th.
I am actually thinking of going back to college to finish a 2 yr degree, and i can use our Vocational Rehabilitation Training program to pay for it for free.
Point being i pulled myself up by the bootstraps got out and did a LOT of legwork (WALKED MILES AND MILES, OR scouring the road side for nickle returnable bottles and cans to pay the bus fare), volunteered at food Pantries for extra food, and got things DONE.
After 3 serious by failed suicide attempts, i finally got the CORRECT diagnosis of my mental illness, and yhe proper medicine in 2008 and it opened up a whole new world for me!! I was only being HALF treated for Bipolar, as an example. I only complained of tye deep depression i suffered and no one prior thought to grill me about manic episodes. I spent 4.5 hours with a psychiatrist in the psych ward after my 2008 attempt and FINALLY got the proper diagnosis on that!! I have other mental issues too, but getting that part straightened out, I was a MUCH better and improved person!!
If you don't want to do the work, youll get nowhere , but with some effort on your part and direction to the professionals and programs that will help you, often FREE of charge, you can become the best person you can be!
It may be true that if you are out in the sticks you may have to go to a nearby city for all the help you could be entitled to, but it IS out there!
The best to you as you try to find your way to a new and better be-all-you-can-be person!!
Again, if you want help click my screen name and send me a direct message...id be willing to help you to the best i can, but you have to do the legwork!
Due to the severity of the attempt, i ended up in the hospital in a locked suicide watch ward.
The floor psychiatrist spent 4.5 hours grilling me about my entire life.
He then said "you're not depressed. " he paused long enough for me to start to say "then why do i feel this way?", but before I could get it all out, he said "you're bipolar!".
I have a few other mental health issues, chief among them anxiety disorders and such, but they are minor compared to the seriousness of the bipolar.
I had for 12 years been only treated for the depression, as that was my primary complaint. Swinging into deep depression lead to suicide attempts. I never realized my opposite "go go go getter" attitude was part of my illness. I just thought it meant i wasn't depressed during those times.
Then I was started on treatment for bipolar, and it changed my life dramatically.
Oh i still have bouts of depression and manic mood swings and have to be vigilant not to let one or the other take over and control my life, but the proper medicine helps to stabilize my moods.
Thats why I suggested you get in touch with your areas mental health department. Mine has a "walkin clinic ", one can be seen that day to start the process.
Yours may require an appointment, so call ahead.
They should be able to set you up for a sliding scale fee based on your income, if you don't have insurance.
They should be able to help you even if not able to pay.
I have zero connections , Resources, and l also have untreated ADHD, Schizophrenia, Bipolar and other mental disorders as well
If you truly have these conditions untreated then perhaps call the United Way of Greater Houston and see what restricts there are to help you with those. The. Once you have proper treatment, try community college for a certificate program of some sort. You e already spent the 11 years since high school doing minimum
Wage - six months to two years is nothing if it will help you for years to come.
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