<prompt> Human: Hi, rpersonalfinance:Im a young teacher who works at a private school in a suburb of NYC, and I declared that this yearmy quarter-century markis the year of stability. I am struggling right now in terms of budgeting, mainly because I am not going to break even and my knowledge of finances is abysmal. Yes, I read the information on the sidebar, but there are a lot of factors to weigh in here. For instance, I make about 50,000 per annum. After taxes, its a little less than 35k. Rent is about 1650 a month for my own place. The average rent is 1400, but the safety is horrible. Parking is 600 per annum. Loans are 100 a month. Electricity is 5075 per month. Cable really Internet is 55 a month. Netflix and Hulu amount to 20 a month. Thankfully, the car I have and cell phone are provided by my ever supportive family, who are making ends meet. So I take care of all the mechanical fees, etc. But now I find myself having to pay for a graduate program because my school is so stingy that they only pay for 30 of my tuitionjust tuition. Fees, books, and transportation its in the City proper, so theres public transit, which gets extremely expensive are not included, and those will rack up more than tuition. I have to get my degree, they said, since its so important for their sake of vanity, wanting to show that almost 100 of their faculty have graduate degrees.I want to contribute to a retirement account, but I merely cannot put a few hundred dollars a month because I need to feed myself. In my budgeting, I attribute the most to food. I dont buy clothes. Ill splurge on a meal or two at a nice place with friends in the City, but thats about once a month. Twice max. My school doesnt contribute to my retirement until my third year of teaching. Im entering year two. I havent put a cent into my retirement with them, though I have about 5,000 from my first year of teaching at another school, where I put in, I think, 8, maybe 10 of my income.I cannot move into the City, or else Id have to buy transport tickets, leaving me flat broke. I dont know what to do, and Im in need of some coaching. I want to be able to be financially stable, but right now, that just doesnt seem plausible. Id give anything to have someone sit down with me and help explain how to be financially secure in a way that leaves me able to enjoy my life, too. When Im old, its great to have money to retire, but thats only half the battle. I want to enjoy the life I have now while I have no commitments: no girlfriend, no children, etc. Once I settle down, there goes ample opportunity to do what I want to do. I am penny-pinching for things I want, but its literally just change. I wont be able to enjoy a legitimate vacation.And then there are the bullshit expenses. Ive been away from the country on work not on vacation, and came back to a 50 parking ticket. Then I dropped my iPhone for the first time ever in my life and shattered it. Thats another 109 tax. These small expenses are fucking killing me, and hurting any progress towards some proper savings and fiscal promise. Im just...frustrated about all this. Im begging Apple to be gentle, and petitioning that my ticket be waived due to my not being in the US at the time. The latter wont happen, because the town government is so into money and bureaucracy.Please, guys, tell me what I should do. I dont know any of these things, especially things like IRAs, which are so vital for my future. I dont want to gamble my retirement funds on stocks, especially given just how uncertain things are. Stables ones, by contrast, dont offer much, either. I dont know. Please ELI5 all of this for me, because I grew up in a household with a financially irresponsible father, who maxed out his credit cards and took out more loans than I have fingers. I dont want that for myself or for my future family.Much love, Silverpeth.Assistant: Youre paying 1650 a month rent on a 35k salary. This is where all of your money is going. Lets break it down. Thats almost 20k a year or more than half of your net income. That leaves you with very little for everything else, so a broken phone becomes an issue.The amount you spend on housing is the problem. Human: No shit hes living in the NYC. I wonder whether he has full apartment or just a room though.Assistant: Full apartment. 800 square feet. uLawBookstore, I appreciate the words here on the roommate, but Im afraid I will say, No to that. I may be in the minority here and counterintuitively be digging myself into a bigger hole, but having a roommate is a step backwards, ya know. Yeah, you save your money, but then you have additional stress and bullshit. Id rather have my own place, where I dont have to worry about lifestyles clashing, etc., even living with a complete stranger. Ive had my own apartment since I was 20 in all the areas Ive lived including college, and Ive loved that. Its a huge step. Yeah, sure, it costs a little more, but thats much more preferable than splitting up a place just to save a little hundred.Also, I indeed worked this summer, and put those few thousand I made into a savings account. : This year is about hustle.  <response>: The thing about getting stable financially is you pretty much have to make concessions from your lifestyle to make it work. Living with a roommate can suck, but you are dumping way too much into housing at the moment and its the single easiest thing you can do. So looking at the position you are in you have choices, the more pain it costs you emotionally the more money it will bring you long term. Saying that youve lived alone since you were 20 and wont go back is pretty much the definition of lifestyle creep. You got used to living alone and now you dont want to step down to save money, like buying cheap toilet paper after buying the good stuff. There is no way for you to become financially stable without making some kind of a sacrifice. 