I have been very fortunate to receive a union construction job through a relative, and I am very excited about the position. I have no debt of any kind and currently live at home with my parents. The job is 7 days a week, with double shifts during the summer, which gives me a lot of overtime pay. I’m in shape, down 120 lbs, and muscular. I’m also stress-free because my diet is already planned out on a spreadsheet, and I have no college debt (didn’t go) and no credit card debt.
According to my calculations, the job should provide take-home pay of $3,778/week, or $16,400/month during the summer. During the winter, it goes down to $1,430/week, or $6,200/month. The year-round average take-home pay is $8,800/month, which works out to about $2,020/week.
I currently have no money saved except for investments in XMR, and I want to invest around $10k–$12k into it. I also plan to contribute as much as possible to a 401(k). I do not plan on buying anything unnecessary, such as a new car, RV, computer, guitars, or anything else I do not really need.
My expenses are:
- $370/month for car insurance
- $50/month for my phone bill
- $150/week for groceries
- $15/month for Planet Fitness
Total: $1,085/month
I do not pay rent. My parents would not ask me to pay rent and are okay with me staying until I am able to move out and buy a house.
My plan is to build an emergency fund first, then set up automatic transfers into separate accounts for index funds, a house fund, a personal fund, a buffer fund, and a crypto fund so I can invest passively. I do not really want a credit card, but I need to start using one because my credit score dropped to 550 after not making a payment for a while.
Any advice is appreciated. Currently looking into HYSA and IRA, and will adjust this post later to show the amounts I want to transfer over to each account.
The trades have somewhat more risk of injury than, say, sitting at a computer all day, particularly if you’re working as hard as your schedule implies. Does your job, union or state have disability insurance, or the option for it? If not, can you purchase it from an instance broker ? If so, get disability coverage; and if there are multiple levels, get the one with the highest coverage.
Now, double-check all of the following with an independent insurance broker, as the rules may have changed since I did this, or your local area may be different than mine.
In my area, this is key: pay for your disability benefits POST-TAX. You’ll generally have the option to pay pre-tax (your income is reduced by the account of the insurance payment, then you pay tax on what you take home) or post-tax (your income including the insurance payment is taxed, then they deduct the insurance payment).
The reason this matters: if you haven’t paid tax on the premiums and you end up getting disabled, then those benefits will be taxed; but if you’ve paid tax on the premiums, then your benefits are tax-free. If you pay pre-tax, then you’ll have a little extra money each paycheck; but if you become disabled, then you’ll lose a bunch of your disability payments to taxes during a stressful period with extra expenses. If you pay post-tax, then you take home a little less money each week (not a concern in your situation); but if you become disabled, then you don’t lose any of your disability pay to taxes.
I’ll also add: for your car insurance, it’s entirely up to you what coverage you get for collision and comprehensive, but always opt for the maximum amount of personal injury protection you can get. And if you’re going to be stacking up your assets like you hope to do, please consider an umbrella policy to help protect those assets.
Good luck!