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Grades aren't that important. You will have entry level knowledge once graduating. Business degrees are fairly generic, did you specialize into something like accounting?
Your savings are too small. I couldn't imaging moving to Florida without $5-$8 thousand. A car is a must, public transport here is terrible. Most employers will want you to have a local address before they will consider you. Full time target transfer is a good idea. Most landlords won't rent to you unless you have a job, and will want two months rent up front.
I urge you to consider joining a military service. You will get a chance to grow up, finish college, and save money. The military is a great place for an 18 year old who needs a few years to figure out what they are going to be doing for the rest of their lives!!
My wife and I moved from Nashville to Vancouver, Washington and after 5 years of planning for it the move was still very hard. Granted we are mid 30's but there are so many things that you need to consider but if you're going to take a chance then you're at the perfect age to do it. As others have said, see if your job can transfer you to another store. Unless you plan on living in an extended stay motel, which are as much if not sometimes more expensive than apartments, then you will more than likely need to have 2 - 3 times the monthly rent in income. Also consider taking a trip to wherever you want to move and really get into things when visiting. We drove across the country twice to visit the Pacific Northwest and even after that there were a lot of surprises.
Get yourself a resume together and look on sites such as indeed or simplyhired. You will need a job before moving unless you have 6 months saved up for all expenses plus emergency money. Out of the places that you listed I would go Florida if you are going to move simply because then at least you're still on the East Coast and within a 2 day drive of home or a short flight. I took that for granted when we moved and now we are looking at moving back east for a multitude of reasons. Don't underestimate your need for a support system and the ability to get home if need be.
When we moved it cost a lot more than we had planned. We ended up spending 10k on the move and we had everything packed in 2 cars and drove. Count in your gas cost, hotels, emergency money, winter tires/chains if you go for the west, 1st and last months deposit on a place, look up average utility cost wherever you go and check google maps for an idea of traffic congestion on all your perceived routes so you have an idea on how close or far away you can be. Maybe also check out a cost of living comparison site to see how much more or less it will be for you.
As far as being around people that you don't relate to I wouldn't shy away from that. Don't live in a bubble. You need opposing viewpoints and lifestyles to really see both sides of the world and see how other people think. That doesn't mean you have to be best friends with these people but learning to be cool with people outside of your main circle and belief system is pretty important and will teach you a lot.
Good luck. If you are going to do it then do it and if you fail then you fail but you can never say that you didn't try.
Grades aren't that important. You will have entry level knowledge once graduating. Business degrees are fairly generic, did you specialize into something like accounting?
Your savings are too small. I couldn't imaging moving to Florida without $5-$8 thousand. A car is a must, public transport here is terrible. Most employers will want you to have a local address before they will consider you. Full time target transfer is a good idea. Most landlords won't rent to you unless you have a job, and will want two months rent up front.
Do you own a car? For most areas that is a necessity.
Do you have a credit card? This is a good time to build your credit score. You will have to have a good credit score to lease or rent an apartment. Pay your bill in full each month & don't charge more than you can pay back.
Use whatever training programs Target has for employees.
You need $5 -10,000 saved up to start out somewhere (for.most urban areas that's not enough) unless your parents front you the money.
If you have desire for an advanced degree, consider a master's in finance.
I urge you to consider joining a military service. You will get a chance to grow up, finish college, and save money. The military is a great place for an 18 year old who needs a few years to figure out what they are going to be doing for the rest of their lives!!
Ask me how I know...
Rich
As I was reading through this thread, I was thinking the military, too! I think this is an awesome suggestion. No need to save up a lot of money beforehand either...which you'll need to do, just to survive, if you strike out on your own.
OP, I just moved to Nevada (Henderson just about 15 minutes from the Strip) and I love it! You have to enjoy the hot weather, but I do. It's dry heat, so temperatures are misleading. I'd say if you subtract 10 degrees from what it says, that's more like how it feels. When it's 100, it feels like 90 did back where I lived (Portland, OR), and when it's 110 it feels hot but to me not miserable, your mileage may vary. I admit I most enjoy that 90 to 103 or 104 degree range, and wouldn't say I "love" 110+, but it doesn't bother me at all. Obviously, I must be in the minority because it's a LOT cheaper to live here than it is Southern California, but I've lived both places and I prefer the weather here. I just prefer less rain, so I'll take hotter summers and slightly colder winters for 1/3 as much rain, that's a fair trade to me. I also felt the springs in LA were pretty terrible, not really any better than Portland, just rainy, cold, and cloudy many years. On my Top Ten Most Overrated lists, I'd have to put LA weather. I guess I was made for a desert because it wasn't good enough for me. Maybe you'll feel the same, maybe not, but when you combine 0% income taxes here with low cost of living, it's a pretty great place and there's always something to do. It's the entertainment capital of the world and like NYC, it's a 24 hour city.
I would consider if you were moving somewhere like here trying to find a room in someone's house, like for instance my aunt has a casita, she uses it for family and doesn't rent it out, but there are other people with casitas or things like that and you could get a better deal on rent without perhaps having to put down as much money or have huge qualifications and application fees. It would depend on the person, and it is a little more work, because your savings at present are very small. Any place is going to be expensive when that's all you have to your name, but it can be done. When I first moved to L.A., I did the room in a house situation and at $500/month, I was paying less than my friends at the dorms ($650) and they were splitting a MUCH smaller room. My house was on the edge of campus, like literally bordering it, and there was a wooden gate to campus, so I just walked out the lady's back yard and onto campus. I was closer to about half of the classes I had than people living on campus, which was awesome. Of course, I was also really boring, so I didn't mind the whole "not having people over" to my room situation because I had enough places to hang on campus, basically. Trade-offs and all, you know.
I will say you need to acquire some sort of skills if you're going to make it in a city like Las Vegas. There are two worlds in Vegas and I feel like many people are just oblivious to the one they don't live in. Exposure to both can be an educational experience, going either way. I understand that the minimum wage is quite low, and I understand 44% of people here work in the service industry in some capacity. Many of those people have lambasted me on this forum for thinking there's really anyone else like me, but what they fail to realize is there are A TON of us and we're the "silent force" that makes housing more expensive here and affords the things they can't. If you go onto the Vegas forum, you'll often see complaining about this or that being way too expensive, "people here can't afford that," even while the houses sell, the apartments rent, etc. I've only been here for 3 months and I have 4 guys in my potential "new friends" category and I've met 2 of the neighbors. That makes 7 people including myself, 8 including my wife. Not a single one of us depends on the local economy for our income. NOT ONE. Of those 4 "friends," 1 owns an Internet based business and lives in a $1.5 million house; he's from CA, it was cheap compared to what he was used to there. The other 3 work remotely for out of state companies, so they don't care what the wages are here, either. I own a company that does nationwide work and we're based in LA, but I also don't care about LA any more than I care about, say, Seattle. We do work everywhere and don't have a physical office. One of the two neighbors owns a business she started in New Jersey and she has an office here. The other has a company based in South Korea. My wife is a wedding photographer where most of her clients are flying in to Vegas from elsewhere or they're paying her to travel to their wedding (destination weddings) to photograph, so she also doesn't care about the local wage average or economy. My point is, it's important to know and understand that, no, I'm not rare, if you go to a no income tax state, lots of us don't care about the local wages or economy, we make our money elsewhere, and for us, this place is cheap because it's way cheaper than Portland, Seattle, SF, San Diego, or Los Angeles. The locals working for $8/hour on the Strip think houses are unaffordable because anything is unaffordable if you're making so little money.
In other words, if you come here, you need to realize for one group of people, everything here seems like it's getting "out of hand" and "too expensive," and for another group like me and everyone I know here, it's cheap because it's cheaper than what we're used to paying and our income didn't decline by moving here; we don't have jobs here, so we don't care. The people who are going to afford houses and good lives in Las Vegas are going to be working as police, fire, healthcare, professional services, managerial positions on the Strip, HVAC techs, construction foremen maybe, pool techs, or other jobs related to the fact many people move to Vegas every year. Skilled trades are worth money. Short of that, our Target DOES pay $13/hour, I saw the signs, that's not bad for here.
Ask Target to transfer you to another location (or go on your own).
Once there, and settled in, look for the better job.
I totally agree about transferring with target as a start.
I'm not sure where your interests lie. There's money to be made in trades and there are frequently apprenticeship programs with the Gov't.
I like to ask: What have you always wanted to be since you were a little kid? I believe God plants that in your heart. The sooner you get on the path you're designed for, the happier/more contented you'll be in life.
I don't know about the military. You could end up in a very warm place. But it's worth checking out. Lot of people swear by it.
Checking out the Target trainee program is an excellent suggestion. Moving with a job beats moving without a job any day.
If you can, get a credit card and a decent car before you make the move.
Plan on sharing a place to live. Craigslist, roommates.com, college bulletin boards, ... Not only is it far cheaper to share the rent, and utilities, you meet more local people, learn more about the area, including the good jobs.
If you have some career you've always been fascinated in, by all means try to get an entry level jobs. If not, try out different jobs, see what works for you.
A friend's son started as a night clerk at a chain hotel, then became the night auditor, then manager, and now works in the corporate office, though I believe with another hotel chain. He loves it and is still in his twenties.
Lots of doors. Check what's behind them. See what suits you.
Good luck!
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