You could call this “the week of giveaways.” Yesterday we launched a $100 Cash Giveaway and today we are following it up with another cash giveaway, except this time it’s for $999.99!
The theme of this giveaway is money problems. Everyone has money problems, though they vary greatly. Some people are stressed about how they are going to make that next mortgage payment or fund their kid’s college education; others have accumulated wealth and have to figure out how to protect it. No matter where you are in life, you likely have at least a few money problems.
I personally have a few money problems, though I like to think of them more as challenges than problems.
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Student Loans
Student loans are a reality that many young adults have to deal with. First and foremost, student loans should be viewed as an investment. People who have graduated college are qualified for many more (and higher-paying jobs) than those who only have a high school diploma. There are plenty of jobs out there that could technically be done without a college degree, but employers only hire college grads. Graduating from college has essentially become a prerequisite for a large majority of careers.
For me, student loan payments are one of those expenses you can’t “cut back” on. They are a fixed expense that I have to factor into my budget. Unlike some young adults, I don’t really complain about them. Yes, it would be wonderful to not have that cash outflow each month, but spending time and energy dwelling on the fact that I have student loans really doesn’t help anything. If anything, that cash outflow helps motivate me to make more money through developing my skills so I can make more at work and develop side income sources that can offset that cash outflow.
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Mortgage
My mortgage is another money challenge I face. It’s similar to student loans where it is a fixed expense that I can’t really change. One way we lowered our mortgage was by creating a rental unit in our basement. While we had to make a fairly large initial investment to get it ready for rental, the cash inflow is definitely a nice side income that we will enjoy (hopefully) for years to come. If your house allows it and you don’t mind being a landlord, I would highly recommend young adults look into this option.
Additional money “problems” come with home ownership. Any given day, something could break and require an expensive repair/replacement job. My furnace could unexpectedly break tomorrow and I would be stuck with a pretty hefty bill. Overall, though, I think the benefits of home ownership generally outweigh the negatives. Especially when you consider the fact that interest rates are artificially low right now.
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Health Care Costs
One aspect of American culture that I wish would change is the hatred of paying for health insurance and medical bills. Yes, health insurance premiums can take a bite out of your wallet, but in my opinion it’s more than worth it. I had an unexpected sinus surgery last year and I saved over $19,000 because I had insurance.
Many young adults figure that they are healthy and nothing will happen to them medically. The thing is, there are plenty of unexpected medical issues that can come up that you have absolutely no control over. If I had ate better and exercised more could I have avoided sinus surgery? Nope. Can hitting the gym help avoid appendicitis? Nope. I could go on, but I think you get the point. I recommend young adults take advantage of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) so that they have a “health emergency fund” to deal with these unexpected bills.
If you want to enter $999.99 cash giveaway, enter via the rafflecopter widget below. This giveaway ends on February 28th. Best of luck!
This giveaway is brought to you by Structured Settlement-Quotes.com.
Photo by Casey Serin
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My mortgage is my single biggest money challenge and hopefully once I have paid it off I have no more money challenges :)
@MonsterPiggyBank I have a feeling you will have more challenges beyond that ;)
Paying off our mortgage is our biggest challenge as well. I can’t wait until that beast is gone.
@GregatClubThrifty That’s very hard for me to imagine since I’ve only made a few months mortgage payments to date, but I definitely would LOVE to not have that cash outflow each month!
I can’t wait until my student loans are gone!
@SenseofCents Same here! A bit hard for me to imagine, but if I ever get to the side income levels you have reached I just might pay them down ;)
Student loans have been a big thorn in my side for years. Hopefully I can kiss them goodbye soon.
I don’t consider my mortgage a money problem, but I should. Maybe that would be the kick I need to get it moving and bring it down. Good luck to you with taking out these problems DC!
@DebtRoundUp Haha I don’t consider any of the things I listed as “problems.” I enjoy the challenges they bring : )
Excellent recommendation on the HSA – it has has saved us thousands of dollars in premium over the past few years. If you have to buy your own insurance, and you are a fairly healthy person, HSA’s are the ONLY way to go!
@KyleJames1 I love my HSA, even though if I was smart I would have gotten it from the very beginning and made max contributions…I didn’t have it my first year of work and I ended up going to the doctor only once. Last year I had surgery so maxed out my insurance, and this year it’s looking like a less intense surgery may max it out again. I have trouble imagining paying for medical costs WITHOUT my HSA dollars, simply because of the sheer tax savings.
@KyleJames1 HSA’s are indeed most popular with young adults who are healthy and visit doctors infrequently.
Once you start having children the math can change dramatically. A simple hospital stay for normal labor and delivery can swallow up the deductible and more. At this life stage a lower deductible plan works out better overall.
Home ownership is a big step… I think the ‘permanence’ was an initial stress for me – and I wasn’t even thinking about what could go wrong. I couldn’t imagine going back to a lease but, then again, I’ve been lucky enough to avoid any major maintenance expenses (so far).
@Jennifer Willard Same here, but I’m sure there will be some major maintenance in the next few years for us : )
Fortunately those 3 items are not on our list of money problemschallenges. Renting our current home has stopped us from doing upgrades and we don’t have to pay if anything breaks down. So for now it is great!
Right now we’re not landlords, but we’d like to buy a rental property in the near future. When we bought our condo we got a 2 bed just in case we ever had money issues (lay offs etc.) and needed to have a renter in the other bedroom to help pay the mortgage.
@StudentDebtSurvivor That’s smart! I specifically liked the house we bought because we were able to have the renter downstairs. I would like to have an entirely separate rental property eventually, but we have a long ways to go before we could even think about that. Gotta get that debt paid down, emergency fund built up, and some equity built in this place first.
Fortunately only one of those money problems applies to me as a young adult. I have tons of student loans, but I’m not yet a home owner and I’m Canadian so my health care is paid for through my taxes. Those are definitely big money problems to worry about though!
We are working on getting rid of the mortgage right now. I dont consider it too much of a problem, because it is still securing an asset after all :) My student loans were done a long time ago.
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