Your First Paycheck and Spending:
You should get a little benefit from suffering the aches and pains of aging. One of those benefits is the ability to wax philosophically about how things are different now. I did it in a blog post just this week. Talking about the freedom we had as kids, riding around our town on a bicycle with no one worried about kidnapping, rape, or other crimes.
Smarter with age?
I think those of us who have wrinkles, gray hair, or no hair as in my brother….have a duty and responsibility to share what we have learned and earned with the young people of today.
I am going to do a little wisdom sharing today….And if you don’t like it, go _____yourself!
(That is anther advantage of getting older. You care less and less what people think.)
Stupid Choices With The First Paycheck!
The top 5 stupid things kids do when they get their first paycheck! Drum-roll please.
- Get Drunk: This is dumb because you get a two-fer! You act like a horses ass while you are drinking, then you feel like one when you wake up! How much money has been spent on hang-over remedies? Enough to fill your house with #2 on this list! (No not that #2)
- Go to Ikea-Who doesn’t want to get rid of their college furniture. But please, you can get better stuff with a little character shopping at yard sales. Take the time to furnish your place a piece at the time. And you can learn a valuable career skill. Negotiating! This will come in handy when shopping for #5!
- Big Flat Screen: I almost didn’t include this, as so many have not waited till their first paycheck to buy one. This is like
staying up all night, no classes on Friday or after 10am. “I am a college student-I deserve a TV that stretches from my dorm window to my dorm door!” But for those that signed the no TV till I have a job pledge-this is an automatic! - New shoes/Gaming system- I am not sexist, but am a realist. Most guys will think Manolo, Weitzman, and
Louboutin are a big 3 accounting firm… rather than sellers of 4 oz. of cowhide for your full two-week paycheck! And most girls will not be spending hours in Best-Buy arguing over the fine points of Play-Station, and X-Box or mentally undressing the latest Nintendo. - The New Car-It may be the new “green” machine you think your new co-workers will approve of. Or a muscle car you have been drooling over since puberty. The lure of a new car is almost like heroin to an addict. You will not let 6 years of payments, thousands in interest, or 30% depreciation cloud your newly educated brain. “Let me have my just desserts you old fuddy-duddy!” you say…
My First Paycheck
For those of you who can recall those years without the cob-webs of raising two kids, and call every other night for the last 25 years, please let me know your dumb moves with your first paycheck.
I have a vague recollection of watching my wife drive off in the new Beamer, on the way to the shoe store. I was busy watching Body Heat on VHS with one eye, while playing Mario Brothers and drinking tequila shots…….*****
I confessed mine. What were yours? Comments and confessions welcome, and expected!
******(My wife made me promise to admit to writers license with that last sentence. I have never owned a BMW, and my wife loves shoes, but is a cheap-skate…And my kids did have a PlayStation, but they were the last ones in town with one, which they remind me of till this day.)
(photo credit by cuttlefish c.c.)
Tags: blowing your first pay-check, dumb first paycheck moves, how to waste your first paycheck, top 5 dumb paycheck moves
Since I’ve worked since I was 15, I’m pretty sure I blew the whole one… but really I mean at 15 its not like I had any bills.
I’m 95% sure it went towards *N SYNC concert tickets, which were like $150, but that was a whole lotta minimum wage hours!
Gosh, I was talking about my first “grown-up paycheck” my real first paycheck would’ve been from bagging groceries at 1 buck an hour. I probably bought a few packs of baseball cards or a new glove or something!
oh lol… well I think I bought a refrigerator with that one.
Refrigerator, well that’s not the same as getting drunk….Boring:)
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My first paycheck bought a new truck
. It was a small Nissan with 5 speed manual transmission, though, so I think I did pretty good! Looking back, though, I should’ve bought used!!
Yes, used would be good. You must be learning since you said it before I did! LOL!
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I would be totally fine if my daughter (now 7), lived at home for a few years after getting out of undergrad/grad school and saved a ton of money with her initial “real” paychecks. This means no wasted money on any of the things you mentioned!
Good luck with her listening to you!
I was either 15 or 16 when I started working, and I think the night I got the paycheck was a night shift. So I just went home in awe that I got paid for something (my job as a bagboy). Pretty lame huh…
There wasn’t much to do in my hick town anyway… But then again, I’ve always been tight with money
Aww come on, we need something juicy and dumb…