This is me. My biggest college regret is that I didn't live on campus as least the first year. I missed out on making friends and feeling connected.

Which would potentially just be more expensive than the parent's being taxed on investment gains.

The closest thing would be for OP to claim their parent as a dependent, but that would require the parent to have below a certain level of income and for OP to pay 51% of the parent's total expenses for the year.

I don't see anything particularly unique about your circumstances, so the standard advice you'll find on here for young people just starting their careers will fit the bill.

One thing that I think is good advice for everyone is to stay physically fit and take care of your health. Being healthy has innumerable positive effects on your financial situation, especially as you get older.

I see, thank you this is a great idea

As far as I'm aware there's no tax advantaged way to gift family members money that's not for education expenses.

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Talk to the parent. Have them open brokerage account and add you as authorized, and you can deposit money to it and help manage the investments. The deposits are gifts, but everything else is done in their name.

For what purpose?

1. Use birth control and protection at all times when engaging in sex
2. Consider becoming an independent contractor (with nice high hourly prices) - but work towards it first by becoming a good software developer and building up a potential client-base.

If what you're doing now works, keep doing it. Pick a bill and auto-pay it with the credit card, and pay off the card every month.

There is a popular misconception that using your credit card heavily and paying it off every month will increase your credit score faster, but this is not the case. A $4/month Pandora subscription will work just as well. There is another misconception that carrying a small balance on the card month to month is good for your credit, but this is false as well. Pay it off in full every month.

The "personal finance" decision is to take the car, but I would also say dorm.

Mainly because I lived on campus and I'm so glad I did. I met many friends and created so many memories. Sure, I had a couple not great roommates, yeah people tend not to clean the communal kitchen, a couple times people were too loud, but I would 100% do it again. The community aspect was a real blessing looking back.

Holes and dry spells aren’t a thing so long as the account is open. I have 14 credit cards (sign up bonus collecting), I use 1 on a regular basis, maybe 3 in a given month (depends on perks and types of purchases). The rest rarely if ever get used but consistently report “paid as agreed” to the credit agencies every month.

IF you can be responsible with it and pay it off every month, the credit card should be your first choice to pay for things because of the protection and perks (if any). For example, if someone skims your debit card and steals from your bank account, it’s a pain to fix that takes time. If someone skims your credit card and racks up false charges, you simply tell the card company you didn’t make those purchases and you don’t lose a cent.

No my brother co-signed with me

Thank you! I appreciate it

I've got a Google Sheet that works well for me. It wasn't a quick process to get all the formulas working. Note, this worksheet is designed for analyzing the merits of selling a mortgage, not buying. YMMV.When sharing a Google Sheet URL on here previously however, I was warned that it allowed an uncovering of my Google identify.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1B_Tg0q_pokqSbSGNpynQHGosm7QUREf5Kg-KcbKxE5A/edit?usp=sharing

The above sheet is shared from a new, anonymous Google account. Please make a copy of it to enter your details.

There are pros and cons to both. Living off campus in an apartment brings on a whole new set of chores you may not have had in the dorms. Cooking, dishes, cleaning bathrooms/kitchens/living spaces, keeping up with utility bills, finding somewhere to do laundry if there isn't any on-site, etcetcetc.

Does your college offer suites? Mine did, and that was the best of both worlds. It was 4 bedrooms split between 6 people, 2 bathrooms, a kitchenette and a living space. We got the apartment living feel without all the added junk that goes with living off campus.

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I lived in a standard dorm, a suite, and off campus. The off campus apartment was 3 levels, all filled with members of the college soccer team (10 total), and was considered party city because it was a relatively small school (~2000 undergrad students) with most people living on campus. Was it fun? Absolutely. Did it suck having to constantly clean up after having 50 people over 4 times a week? Absolutely.

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It also sucked having to hound everyone for their portion of the utilities every month. It got so bad at one point I had to turn off the internet in order for people to pay me their portion. These were all people who I had known for years and shouldn't have had any problems with, and yet, there were.

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In hindsight, suite living was the best of both worlds, at least for me. There was enough room where you weren't on top of a roomate all the time, you could still have parties as long as you were respectful of your neighbors (same goes for any apartment, really), and you didn't have the pitfalls that went along with off campus living.

Ah ok! This was something I had been thinking of doing once I hit 3 months in the emergency fund. (Holiday spending might have set me back a bit but I should be to that point by the end of February or so)

This is my first job out of college and I was basically broke once I took it after paying for associated moving expenses so savings has been a little slow.

From a credit risk perspective it is best to use <3% of your total credit line at any time. For you with only one card with a $3k limit this means $90. So if you consistently have a balance above that, let's say $200 you will get slightly dinged for "high utilization".

Your goal should be to always pay off the card fully each month and keep the card active. Active does not require a purchase every month but rather once a year or so, whatever prevents the card from being closed by the issuer.

You should put a Netflix subscription or something similar on the card and then use it however much or little as you want as long as you pay the balance each month.

Your system sounds like it will work but I think it's more complicated than it needs to be. Something like YNAB would make this easier in my opinion and less accounts to deal with too.

As the parent of a grad and a current student who each went 50/50 dorm/apartment, there's a lot of factors to consider. Ask yourself/research: Will you want to live there during any summer/winter breaks? If so, definitely go for the apartment. Apartments provide the convenience of coming and going when you want to, not when the school decides you should. Less move ins/move outs. You appear to have only one semester under your belt. Are you sure you will be happy to live with this group? Can you stay another year in the dorm and then rent? How much upper class housing does the college provide? Will you likely be forced to move off at some point? The circumstances at your university could be very different from others' experiences, so take that into consideration.

> I’m in the process of turning my 1 month buffer I currently have into a healthy 3-6 month emergency fund

They are not the same thing. You should put the emergency fund in a separate savings account. Your one-month buffer stays in the main checking account.

Open a 3rd account to save for short term needs, like furniture and sinking funds.

I like this mortgage calculator:

https://www.mortgagecalculator.org/additional-payment-calculator/

Hm i wonder if that’s a symptom of how I have my finances organized. I’m in the process of turning my 1 month buffer I currently have into a healthy 3-6 month emergency fund. It’s a little juvenile but it keeps all the bills paid on time, a consistent amount going into savings, kitchen stocked, etc. but does keep me perhaps overly wary of larger purchases like new (and needed) furniture.

Meal plan options are usually independent of dorms vs off campus. I had a full meal plan for my first semester in an apartment. After that I just got one with x number of swipes to get brekafast and lunch while on campus for classes.