Being Independent

Graduating and getting out on your own is a difficult step to make. There are a lot of things that you have to take into perspective. The choices that you make when you get out of highschool believe it or not are crucial and life altering. Decisions that you have to make are ones like what you want your career to be, where you want to live, and a big decision is buying a house. In making these decisions you have to do a lot of research and things to be prepared. I did a lot of research in hopes of finding a career that I would like and three things that I could see myself doing was owning my own spa ($100,000 yearly salary), managing a spa($60,000 yearly salary), or being an Esthetician. After thinking long and hard about it however, I decided I would like to be en Esthetician. An Esthetician is a person who gives care to skin in a non-medical way. An Esthetician makes a decent amount of money which is important to have if I want to be able to afford a house.

Being an Esthetician would be fun because I enjoy working with people and I am good at working with them. I am also good with my hands which is necessary in my job Making other people feel better about themselves makes me feel better about myself. One set back in that job however would have to be foot fungus. Feet aren?t my favorite thing on the human body especially with any kind of fungus on them. Going into a job that has a high paying salary often requires experience or schooling. I would have to take classes and work hard to get my license so that it is easier for me to find a job. To become an Esthetician it is only required to have at least 17 weeks of classes which would cost under $1,000.00 and at the end of the classes I would graduate with my license in esthetics. I looked at job offers and have came to the conclusion that if I was an Esthetician I would make an estimated amount of $50,000.00 a year. That salary however can vary depending on your qualities and experience.

I plan on living in Long Beach, California and the reason being is I have always had the desire to live near the beach. Living far away I would have to take into consideration transportation. Being on my own requires you to be financially stable. So I figured out that if I had a 2002 Jeep Gand Cherokee Laredo the payments would be approximately $300.00 a month. A car payment however, is not the only bill I would have to pay each month. Figuring all of my bills together such as phone, cable, food, and insurance it would cost me about $670.00 a month. Also because shopping is something that I enjoy doing I would also have to estimate a $150.00 credit card bill each month.

I began doing research for an affordable house in Long Beach. I looked at prices and interests rates on loans in that area. I looked up houses for sale on www.realtor.com and found one I liked in Los Angeles County in Long Beach California. The house has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and is 1,120 square feet. It was built in 1972 but has been kept nice and modernized on the inside. It includes a water view, two carports, a hot tub, a BBQ, dishwasher, microwave, washer and dryer, garbage disposal, an in ground pool, and a refrigerator. It also has a sewer, distract water, and a free standing gas range. The house costs $239,900.00. My affordable price range is set at $174,887.91 to $244,850.36. I found this by going to http://loan.yahoo.com/m/basics6.html. That website let me enter how much I make in a month and how much my bills are each month. Then it calculates it for you and gives you a price range.

After figuring out my price range I had to research how much I would have to take a loan out for, how long I want to take the loan out for, and what the interest rates are. I figure that I would, by the time I am going to buy a house, be able to afford a $20,000.00 down payment. This would mean I would need to take out a $219,000.00 loan.