How do I spend my last 7 months of freedom?

Hi all,

I'm starting at a BB in NYC full-time next year. I have 7 months until I sell my life to corporate America. I have $25k in savings and no debt. I'm spending 15-20 hours a week working a part-time internship to float my college money, and rarely dip into my savings.

How should I spend (literally and figuratively) my last year of college? Do I quit my part-time job, go on vacations once a month, and therefore blow half my savings because "money won't be a problem" once I start FT? Do I stay frugal in the name of compound interest? What's a happy medium -- blowing $1k, 5k, 10k

9 Comments
 

How much in college loans do you have?

I would split the difference. Go on at least one nice international trip but you don't need to blow $10k to do it.

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
 

"selling my soul to corporate America" - no dude  you're just working to make a living.. 

Not sure where you can go on vacations in this environment, there are massive bans on US travelers and if you can you'll have to go through a 2 week quarantine, which will be really expensive and time consuming.

Stay frugal and save for when everything opens up again. While we're on the topic of traveling, there is no need for you to blow so much money on travel unless you feel like wasting money. Your biggest expenses are usually the flight, and the hotel/hostel you'll stay at. IN my opinion, you don't need to sleep in a bougie hotel, just a place that is in a convenient location and is clean enough to sleep in. For a very fun time, I can't recommend Hostels enough. They are cheap and  + you get to meet people+locals and explore the nightlife. The social hostels (that's what they are called) have events where they take you to numerous bars and clubs, and get you priority entry to all of these places for free!

One of my favorite hostels was called TheBlackSwan in Barcelona. Every night we were taken to 2-3 bars, and then got priority free entrance to a club.

Use hostelworld.com to find the best ranked hostels. 

The only disadvantage of hostels is:

- Your experience is largely driven by the type of people you meet. I didn't vibe with people at this one hostel in Prague, they were a bunch of hipster Canadians that became jealous for some reason when I mentioned I worked and lived in Manhattan. However, the chances of this happening are rare and I've met lifelong friends in many of the hostels I've visited.

- Sleep quality. If you can book your hostel ahead of time, try to see if you can get a room with as few people as possible. Some hostels have rooms with one bed.

Other advice:

- For food, you don't have to eat at Michelin star restaurants to experience foreign food. There are plenty of local restaurants that will make you great quality food and is affordable. 

 - Before you travel somewhere, figure out if you can buy tickets to the main attractions online and ahead of time. To get inside of Sagrada De Familia, the widely popular church in Barcelona, you have to wait on a 4-5 hour line, and won't be guaranteed entrance on that day. Fortunately, I bought my tickets before the trip and was inside of the church within 5 minutes. 

- After my Oktobertfest vacation, I learned that A) you have to get to the tents early to get inside(you can sneak in but that's another story), B) your body takes days to process the beers you've drank. you might have finished ranks 4 liters of beer the day before, but on the next day just half of a liter will cause you to black out.

 
Most Helpful

Not sure what you're into but as someone who wishes they had more time to do what they enjoy, I would dip into the savings and take some time to immerse yourself in the things you enjoy. For me, I would go on a road trip around the country and spend my time backpacking in National Parks. In my early 20s I was very financially focused and would have said save the $25k but now that I'm a bit older in my 30s now, I've come to realize that time is the most valuable commodity you have and you have your whole life to make more money.

 
Funniest

i would spend your remaining free time perfecting your social skills...assuming you are a guy...learn how to flirt with and seduce women...so that it is not only easy, but zero effort.  i suggest don't just read boos or watch youtube videos, but really do it...get to the point where you can goto a bar or wherever, see an attractive girl that you want to have sex with...approch her, flirt with her..get her attracted to you and actually have sex with her the same day you met her...and then do it gain the next day, and the next...until you can do this consistently...with girls that you think are the hottest girls available. go on a bender and try to seduce 30 of  the hottest women you meet in 30 days

 

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