Discussion » Questions » Finance » How did you spend (or save or invest) your very first official paycheck*? ~

How did you spend (or save or invest) your very first official paycheck*? ~

 

*By “official paycheck”, I’m referring to reimbursement for employment in cash or other monetary instrument that you received in an official manner or official capacity, abe that [in the United States] fell under the auspices of you having a Social Security Account Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, a form W-2 was filed with the Internal Revenue Service on your behalf, Income, Social Security, or Medicare tax was withheld, Income tax would have been withheld, etc.

Posted - November 5, 2020

Responses


  • 13395
    My first paycheck was very small (75¢ an hour) so I was not able to do much more than pay rent and buy groceries.
      November 5, 2020 9:25 PM MST
    2

  • 10664
    I put it into my savings account.
      November 5, 2020 11:01 PM MST
    3

  • 17620
    I bought a new dress and had my own telephone line installed in my bedroom.  That was  my real job after high school graduation.  I worked at a movie cinema after school and made $1/hour.  I probably bought a piece of fabric to make myself a new skirt or dress or something.  I don't remember.  But I remember the dress.  It had to be dry cleaned and mother washed it after the first time I wore it.  She felt awful.  Life goes on.  I had plenty of dresses through my career at that company and I bought my mother lots of things too.
      November 6, 2020 5:14 AM MST
    2

  • 44654
    Groceries.
      November 6, 2020 7:56 AM MST
    3

  • I don't remember, but it was probably groceries and food from a restaurant. I was in college and had my first job at the Student Union. 
      November 6, 2020 9:04 AM MST
    3

  • 4624
    Rent, food, travel to and fro work.
    It wasn't a big paycheck, so after that there was none left.
      November 7, 2020 8:57 PM MST
    1

  • 16838
    Paid board-and-lodging to my parents, and bought my first guitar.
      November 8, 2020 12:50 AM MST
    1

  • I had my first job when I was 15.  I saved most of it so I had money to move out of my parent's house when I was 18, but my parents also made me buy my own things, like clothes, when I started that job.
      November 8, 2020 2:17 AM MST
    2

  • 53526

     

      Some people don’t realize that those are some of the best ways to teach a child about surviving in the real world: early lessons in practically that get the message across in ways that can reverberate throughout your entire life. I remember the shock and horror a single and childless friend reacted when I mentioned that instead of buying each and every thing that our children “wanted”, my wife and I would have them work for certain things. “You have money, why can’t you just buy it for them? That’s mean!”  I believe my eye-roll was classic . . . 

    ~

      November 8, 2020 9:54 AM MST
    1

  • It was very important to my parents that I learned about personal finance, so I never had financial problems.  I saved enough money to handle disasters.  However, my second boyfriend never handled his finances well.  He spent everything he earned, then he wanted money from me.  He loved money, but he hated working.  He found a good job, but when I came home from work, I found him playing video games.  He quit a good job because he said his coworkers picked on him.

    I dumped him.  I kicked him out of my apartment, becuase I couldn't live with someone who can't handle money.
      November 10, 2020 5:48 PM MST
    1