<prompt> Human: So I am 21 and curious about how much I should look to be paying in rent. I have a bit under 50k some in bank and some in stocks. I work full time, making about 20kishyear. Will be going to school as well after summer. My car is paid off, other expense is my cell phone, but besides that I do not have any other expenses at the moment. I have never lived on my own and am not sure what a reasonable amount would be for me to pay each month along with things such as food etc.  <response>: Other people have said it, but Ima gonna repeat it. Dont pretend like the 50k is income. Its not. The way I see it, you have two kinds of money - income and capital. And, sort of like a business, you have both operating costs food, gas, rentmortgage, etc and capital expenditures down payments, new TV, medical bills, vacations. Things you budget for and things you save for.If you pretend like 50k is actually 4kmonth, or 3k or 2k or 1k or whatever, its going to be a bit of a shock when that runs out. One of the first things anyone on this sub or ANY financial planning site will tell you is that you need to have an emergency fund. A big wad of cash sitting in a very accessible place some people get all fancy and try to start a bond ladder or something, I say just let it sit in a savings account. Its there for if you lose your job or have a big unexpected bill or something. Its there to keep you off welfare, keep you out of your parents basement. Id put like 13rd or so of that 50k into a savings account and forrrget it until you are in that oh fuck situation. The rest, you probably need to put towards school which is basically a capital investment. Whatever investments you make with it, it wont have a return higher than not paying interest on student loans. 