I always say take a big risk and travel/move while you can. As soon as you grow up you have a life, wife, kids, job stability, etc and your vacations are your only time. After college i worked a bit and eventually broke up with my boyfriend. I spent a week at my parents and then immediately took off on a 3 month adventure to live in Sydney with no plan & a bit of money I had gotten from my security deposit. It was a time and life experience iI will never forget.
Thanks for the advice! Any tips on making do with little/no money? I have loans to be paying and not much good experience so I'm fairly certain I won't be able to find a job that'll pay that great. And from what I understand, rent in Seattle isn't terribly cheap (though it doesn't seem to be all that terrible from what I'm seeing).
I think the biggest thing is having a thorough grasp on how much money you have and how much money you spend and watch every dollar. I've always been OCD with my accounts. Now there are apps like Mint and stuff that do the hard work for you. If you figure out and watch closely you can survive on a way smaller amount than you expect. Finding a good place to live is probably the single most important thing. Find out from people who live there the different areas and get recommendations for areas that are still nice but cheaper than the rest. Find a room there on a month to month basis and live there while you feel area place out. Once you live somewhere for a bit you know exactly which neighborhood you want to live in, and being tied into a 1 year lease can suck in those situations. Plus you never know the friends your going to make, job you're going to get etc. If I were you I would spend a couple more paychecks where you are, and save EVERY penny, and research places to live. Save as much as you possibly can right now and accept that you may have a miserable month not spending any money. But it'll all be worth it when you have a couple extra bucks in the place you really want to be. Another way I saved boatloads was not being a beer snob - the cheapest beers (bud light, coors light, miller light - whichever one is on sale that week. If the beer ain't on sale, walk your ass to the next store. Learn to cook for yourself. If you're on reddit, I recommend /r/frugal and /r/budgetfood and /r/Cheap_Meals/. Once you stop eating out, and take note of where you spend you money, you realize how much you can save by cutting out that morning coffee, that tall can from the corner store, whatever etc. Those little things that you don't even realize you are buying because it's $5 here or there make a huge difference in your monthly budget. Also, don't waste your time on the get money quick schemes. There are sites like Mechanical Turk and fivrr and donating blood (is that still a thing?) but the amount of time you spend on them isn't worth it. It's way more worthwhile to try to get an office assistant or data entry job off craigslist. Help a small biz for $8 an hour, 5-10 hours a week. They tend to have more flexible scheduling, and maybe you can end up doing some of the other work from your other job. That can bring in an extra $160-$320/month. Lastly, keep in mind it's all temporary. If you work hard, focus on grow your skills not just the paycheck, and try to be a good person to everyone you come across, opportunities will open up. People like helping people they know and trust and like. In Australia, I ended up living into a closet for a fraction of the rent. I didn't end up paying the last half months rent because they enjoyed their feisty little American chick. The room was exactly as big as the air mattress I slept on. It was phenomenal. Because I religiously washed the dishes and wiped down the counters EVERY SINGLE MORNING (things people typically hate doing and put off until it's gross) they didn't mind the piles of clothes and stuff that would float out of my "bedroom" and into the hallway. Little things like that make a big difference. Be happy and keep your head up.