If you’re like most of today’s college graduates, you may find yourself ill prepared for the real world of financial responsibility. You never saw how your parents lived when they were first married and struggling. Consequently, you may be basing your after-school expectations on an upper-middle-class lifestyle. Here is my financial advice for those of you learning to live on your own.

My own financial education began when I was very young. My parents shared openly with us about the cost of running the household. I learned our home mortgage was $12,500, or about half the value of the house, and the interest rate on the loan was 4.5%. I knew my father’s annual salary ($7,500) and that a week’s worth of groceries cost $20 for a family of five.

Although you have to count on spending about 6.58 times more than that today, the principles of proportional living I learned are still the same: You can look like you are rich or you can actually become rich by saving and investing. Wealth is what you save, not what you spend. So be rich. Live frugally, and learn to save and invest.

The people who are struggling financially buy things and clutter their homes with them. The middle class buy liabilities such as boats and vacation homes and must spend money every month to maintain them. The rich, in contrast, buy investments. An investment is anything that pays you money.

Now that you are learning to live on your own, learn to live like the rich. The frugal millionaire enjoys both financial security and peace of mind. Living well within your means is a skill you may not have picked up from your parents or in school. Rather than learning from the so-called school of hard knocks, consider the following suggestions.

Rent is probably your biggest expense, but keep it well under 20% of your take-home pay. To lessen the impact, share your living quarters with roommates. If you learned nothing else in college, you at least found out how to share a room. Later on, when you get married and want your own place, you’ll need the money you can save and invest now.

Whoever actually signs the rental agreement or lease and pledges to pay the rent on time each month deserves a better financial deal. That person should be able to charge his or her roommates more and also get first pick of the rooming options.

If you decide to live in a house or apartment and sublet, make sure to factor in the possibility that a roommate may leave without notice, owing you rent. Insist on a sublet agreement that requires the first and last month’s rent to lessen the impact.

Your car ranks as your number-two expense. Again, keep total costs well under 18% of your take-home pay. With the salary at your first job after college, you probably can afford to make the payments on a trendy new car. Don’t. Expensive cars increase both your insurance and your maintenance costs.

Be practical. Your car is a means of transportation, not a lifestyle. Buy a reliable car that has low maintenance costs. One that is at least a few years old will have already depreciated the most.

Only buy a car you can pay for with cash. Shun easy credit. The only decision that’s worse than buying a depreciating asset is buying that depreciating asset on credit. Paying interest on an asset that’s going down in value may buy you a ticket to the poorhouse. Instead, start saving some of your monthly salary immediately for your next car.

After rent and transportation comes buying food. The average family spends 10% of their take-home pay on food. If you don’t eat out, you should spend about 6%. When your earnings increase substantially, perhaps you’ll be able to justify saving food preparation time and eating out. But until then, the time you spend cooking is well worth it. The calories you purchase at restaurants are about 2.5 times as expensive as those you prepare at home.

For example, if you brown bag your lunch all week, you can easily save $5.40 a day. Saving $27 each week adds up to $1,458 per year. After factoring in the rising costs of eating out and investing your savings in the stock market where they will grow and multiply, the difference to your net worth is amazing. Investing $27 each week will produce $100,000 in 20 years and $1 million in 40 years. Bring your lunch from home starting at age 20, and you’ll have an extra million dollars at age 60!

Eating at home isn’t the only way to save money. To extend your savings to the grocery store, here are a few commonsense rules that will lead to uncommon cents savings.

For dinners, master a dozen easy-to-prepare meals. If you can read, you can cook. Keep staples on hand to make these meals. Consider a bread machine and a slow cooker as essential purchases.

Plan your meals when you are hungry, but shop right after you have eaten. Shopping on a full stomach will help you limit impulse purchases. Make a shopping list. Buy staples in bulk at super discount stores.

Avoid convenience packaging and expensive processed foods. Try buying the generic store brand. If you don’t like it as well as the leading advertised brand, many stores will refund your money. Actually compare the prices. Most stores make the bulk of their profit from products placed at eye level.

You don’t have any extra in your budget for monthly services. You have only about 6% more to spend, and the remainder you should be saving and investing. You may tend to ignore the services that are billed automatically each month, but they will be the most serious drain on your finances. So consider getting the least expensive package of features or doing without entirely. These electronic transfers include phone service options, cable or satellite TV, high-speed Internet, and health club dues.

Next week, in the second part of this series on learning how to live on your own, we discuss how best to manage the money you’re saving by living frugally.

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See Also:

• Learning to Live on Your Own, Part 2