Sooner or later it is an idea that goes through anyone’s head. Emancipation and leaving the family home to live alone is an important decision that sometimes tends to be delayed due to a lack of economic possibilities. Many do not dare to take the step because the income does not reach them or because they do not trust their current work situation. Read below some tips we give you on how to know if you are ready to live alone.
Table of Contents
Economic independence
The first thing you will have to evaluate before packing your things and leaving your parents’ house is to know if you can afford all the monthly expenses that living alone entails. Undoubtedly, by living in your own home, you gain advantages such as having greater independence and freedom to organize yourself, but at the same time, you have to face other responsibilities and many fixed expenses.
Make a list of all the insurance expenses that you may have and be realistic in your valuation, do not miss any and, when in doubt, round up and not down. If you have doubts, ask your own parents or trusted friends who can give you an estimate of their monthly fixed expenses: rent or mortgage, electricity, water, community, Internet and telephone, insurance companies, mobile phone, transportation, etc.
To this, you have to add the expenses that, without being fixed, also accumulate throughout the year. Clothes, weekend outings, leisure, books and whatever else you can think of. Try to make a monthly average of these expenses and add them to the fixed expenses.
Now comes the tricky part: compare with your current income. Are they enough to be able to make the decision to emancipate yourself? Keep in mind that it is also always advisable not to arrive too close to the end of the month and to be able to save a little to have a small economic mattress for any unforeseen or emergency. If they do not reach you and you still want to leave the family nest, it is time to move on to plan B: share space and expenses with more people.
Union make force
You can’t be alone, with friends you can. All the expenses that alone become an insurmountable obstacle, if you share a flat will be reduced by 50%, 66%, 75% and so on, depending on how many people you share a home with. If you have several friends in the same situation as you, you can organize and share housing and financial responsibilities. If you want to go live with your partner and you both work, you will also have much more facilities to do so.
Homework
Not making the bed habitually is not going to prevent you from going to live away from your parents’ house, but if you want to have an organized and clean home, the idea is that if you are not an orderly person you start to mentalize yourself now. Leaving home does not mean just doing what you want, since you have to take care of many tasks that we do not pay attention to when we get them done. The truth is that they are real-time and energy eaters: cooking, washing dishes, sweeping, doing laundry, ironing, making beds, shopping, vacuuming, etcetera, etcetera.
As in the previous point, sharing a flat also means sharing tasks, although in these cases you have to have a bit of luck. Not everyone always sticks to their chore quadrant or cleans at home as effectively as would be desirable. But that is not usually known until you live under the same roof, so you almost always have to gamble.
Motivations
Also, think about what are the real reasons why you want to emancipate yourself. Do you want to run away from responsibilities at home or are you not getting along with your family lately? Is it a sudden decision or have you been meditating for a long time? Do you value freedom in your personal life and financial independence above all else? In any case, leaving your parents’ home and living alone will be an enriching experience that will surely help you gain maturity and autonomy, even if it does not necessarily have to go well.