Can I afford my own place?

Question

As a medical assitant can I get my own place with an income that varies from 10-13 dollars a hour. What should I want my rent to look like? And anybody that makes around that much with NO government assistance are you able to handle the expenses?

Answer 1

I'm a property manager in Oregon and we always require a tenant's income to be 3 times the rent to make sure that they willl be able to pay.

So - take your average* monthly gross income, devide that by 3 and that is the most you should pay for rent to be able to survive.

*Since your income varies - take the average of several months to use for your estimate.

Answer 2

Your not giving enough info...

What is your desired place, how long do you work? your state tax, your income, etc...

Answer 3

It would depend on your other expenses.  Do you have a lot of other bills?  Car payment?  You could potentially afford one but if you have a huge car payment, that is going to take away from what you will have to spend on the apartment. The same goes for credit card bills.  Look at what you make in a month- and what your bills are.  Consider that you will have to buy things like food, and probably pay some utilities.  You can probably afford a small place, but do the math first.  And you can always consider getting a roommate, to cut down on expenses.