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Adult·ing
/əˈdəltiNG,ˈaˌdəltiNG/
Noun
the practice of behaving in a way characteristic of a responsible adult, especially the accomplishment of mundane but necessary tasks.
Before adulting began for me, I told my dad my senior year of college that I was excited to start my career so I could earn my own money and finally afford the wardrobe I have dreamed of. At that moment, I thought he respected what I thought because he nodded and said, “Yeah that will be nice”. Looking back, I think my dad appreciated my simple outlook on money, and probably was thinking “Must be nice to think of money just to buy clothes”.
Fast forward to this time last year, I moved into my own apartment, started paying bills, and making my own doctor appointments. I had to start spending the money I spend 40 hours a week to earn. I began to actively think about money: how I spend it, what’s worth my money, how I’ll retire, and how much to save and invest. Rarely did I think about my new clothes LOL.
But that’s okay because this year I learned a few things that are helping me develop my own philosophy on money now that I have some experience under my belt. I hope some of the things I share can help save you money and stress on your own journey.
- Verify the Actual Cost of Medical Bills
I am lucky enough to have a job that offers me insurance for a wide range of medical visits so this year I visited the dermatologist and a regular doctor for an annual checkup.
After the first visit, I got one statement from my insurance provider, United Healthcare, and the other from the doctor’s office. Imagine, my surprise when I see the medical bill stating I owe $200 while United Healthcare said I owe nothing, they covered it all.
My heart sunk. What the heck was the point of insurance if it didn’t cover an annual checkup? I started to feel rage and started to feel a lot closer to my mom than ever before. My mom is the type of woman who advocates for a clothing item to be on sale since it was on the sales rack, wants to speak with your manager, and is going to spend an hour on the phone with customer service to get her $20 back.
I knew what I had to do, even though I cringe at customer service phone calls. I called my doctor’s office using the phone number, handly written, on the medical bill. And GUESS WHAT! It only took 5 minutes for them to check their system and “oops that wasn’t supposed to be charged, your insurance covered it all”.
The same thing happened with dermatologist 4 months later. I called them and instead of owing $600 I only owed $300! If I had just followed the instructions on the medical bill and paid online I am sure I would’ve paid the full $600.
I talked to a friend who’s mom worked in billing at a hospital and it is a common thing to mark up as many costs as possible so please look out for yourself. Always double-check with your doctor’s office after you receive their bill.
2. Pay Rent in Small Portions
Paying rent sucks. I never had to actually take money out of my own paycheck to pay rent (God bless Resident Advisor jobs in college) so paying upwards of $600 at the beginning of every month was a shock to my paycheck. After I paid rent, added to my savings and investment accounts, bought groceries and gas, I felt like I had no money for fun activities. I was watching the calendar awaiting a mid-month payday.
After awhile I decided to use my paychecks in a smarter way. When I got my mid-month paycheck I put $250 towards my rent using the digital payment platform for my apartment complex. It would let me pay early towards the next rent and then when the 1st of the month rolled around it didn’t suck so much to pay the rest of my rent.
3. Invest
Ah ah ah, before you get intimidated by the word above, hear me out. Investing is simpler than the way professors explained it in Finance 101. Investing is as simple as setting aside money to grow long term in stocks, bonds, or mutual funds. You can multiply your money over time without doing any work. It’s a beautiful concept, however, professors didn’t really explain how to start investing.
The good news is there are apps and digital platforms that can make investing an easy to understand and enjoyable experience.
Top 3 Easy Investing Accounts:
Acorns
Stash
Betterment
The best part about these platforms is the low, low fees. So low you don’t even notice. I personally have found the most success with Betterment. They take 1% of whatever you have in the portfolio at the end of the month. At my age, I can only afford to invest a little bit so 1% of my investment is less than a dollar at the moment.
These investment accounts are good ones for college students and those just out of college because they offer low fees and they aim to educate. Once we actually start to make enough disposable income to invest with and incur high fees then you could consider moving to another bank to invest with.
Let’s Talk About Money, Baby
If you have any of your own lessons to share, I’d love to hear them. What lessons about money have you learned this year? Talking about money is healthy, learning from others about money can only help you. Young women and men need to ask questions and learn so the #MillenialRetirementPlan can actually be the retirement we want not just a downer twitter joke.
