TRANSPARENT MILLENNIAL LIFESTYLE FEATURING ARTICLE ALLEY
Millennial… What does this word bring to mind for you? Do you have an image in mind of what the Millennial lifestyle is like?
I wanted to create a series of interviews with bloggers sharing their lifestyle choices and financial decisions as Millennials. Just to clear things up before we get started I know there is some debate on what a Millennial is exactly. The age group that is considered a Millennial for this post is represented by anyone born between 1981 and 1996 (ages 22 to 37 in the year 2018) this is the group I am considering as Millennials.
Alex states "I was born in 1995 and I don't eat avocado toast , but only because I can't cook and never thought to search it out in a restaurant. I do love avocado though!"
What do you do for a living?
Currently, I’m a juvenile probation officer. I just recently started this job in fact.
Do you have a degree and are you currently using your degree?
I have a bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with a Spanish minor. I do currently use my degree. I work with all kinds of people in my probation job and it helps to understand how the mind works and how the mind thinks, etc.
How long have you worked in your field and what is your current salary range?
Like I said, I just started this job last month. However, before this job I still worked in the psychology field as a substance abuse counselor which I did for over a year. My salary range stay pretty much stayed the same except I make a little more at my current job and receive better benefits. My salary range is from $25,000-$32,000 per year.
Do you save for retirement and how?
I guess this is where my 401k comes in. Since I work for the state one of the benefits I get is a 401k so each paycheck, I put in a little to it. Other than that, I’m not actively saving for retirement because I have a son and things just keep popping up that are more urgent.
Do you have debt? What kind of debt? What are your goals to pay off this debt?
I do have debt and a good bit of it. I have about $30,000 dollars in student loans, a $14,000 dollar car loan, and upwards of $3,000 on a credit card (car repairs are killer). I have a payment plan for all three and I actively attempt to pay more than the amount due every month on each one. For the credit card, I try to make two payments a month to bring it down. Every year with my tax return, I split the money up between the debts and pay some down as well.
Do you have or have you cancelled your home phone/cable/satellite TV?
We don’t have a home phone, cable, or satellite Tv and we never have honestly.
What percentage of your monthly income do you save?
I don’t have a percentage I save as awful as that is. My bank account is set up to where every time I use my debit card, a dollar goes into savings automatically which is the only way I have a savings at the moment due to falling on hard times. However, usually, I attempt to put anywhere from 100-200 dollars into savings out of every paycheck.
What monthly subscriptions/memberships do use if any and why? Such as a gym membership, Blue apron, Graze, Amazon prime, Dollar shave club, etc?
We have two monthly subscriptions. They are hulu and netflix. Those are the things we use for our tv entertainment needs. I love hulu because it allows me to watch cooking/food network shows which are not only my guilty pleasure but my comfort thing to put on. Plus, netflix gives us a lot of kids movies for my son.
How much do spend on groceries monthly? How often do you eat out?
Groceries are difficult. It ranges from 100-300 dollars and it varies. It depends on if our housemate is around much and eating the food too or not. When the housemate is home often, I have to go to the store more often and spend more. When he isn’t, I can shop for just three people as opposed to four and save money. We eat out quite a bit. Right now, we are running off of one vehicle while the other is in the shop (AGAIN) and it’s my fully electric Nissan Leaf which saves money in gas and oil changes. I don’t get off work until 5 then we have to get the baby from daycare so often times it’s 6:30 pm before we get home and neither I or my fiance are in the mood to cook so we grab fast food. Hopefully soon, that will change. We are making small changes. Do you have any passive income sources?
Do you own or lease a vehicle?
My fiance owns his vehicle outright. I am leasing my vehicle and it’s the bane of my financial existence right now. But necessary. I had outright owned my vehicle until I rolled it and had to get a new vehicle.
Do you rent or own your own home/condo/apartment?
My fiance owns our home, and we don’t have a mortgage because he paid cash outright and fully for it. It isn’t much, but it is home.
Bio
My name is Alex McGowan. I’m a Juvenile Probation Officer by day and a blogger/writer by night. My blog is called Article Alley which you can find at www.articlealleyblog.wordpress.com. I write about any number of things. There’s a series going on titled “Becoming a Homemaker” as well as mental health posts too! I don’t exactly have a niche so to speak. I am 23 years old. I have an almost 2 year old (2 on December 7th) son name Liam. I’m engaged to a wonderful, hardworking man and intend to get married in 2020. I’m deathly afraid of spiders. I struggle with depression and anxiety with panic, and I love to help people in any way possible even if it means being super vulnerable.
