There are many factors to consider when choosing where to live, including location, proximity to work or school, and whether or not you want a roommate. The most important factor? The cost of your living expenses.<\/p>\n
However,\u00a0some\u00a0people are spending too much on rent without knowing it.\u00a0Read on to figure out if you should reconsider your living situation.<\/p>\n
You Spend More Than 25% of Your Paycheck<\/strong> Your Commute Is Too Long<\/strong> The Apartment Is in Shambles<\/strong> Your Neighbors Pay Less Than You<\/strong> xx, The FabFitFun Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":"There are many factors to consider when choosing where to live, including location, proximity to ...","author":1557554,"featured_media":97163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[260],"tags":[],"thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/static.fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/18151020\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-18-at-3.05.10-PM-660x400.png","thumbnail_url_middle_card":"https:\/\/static.fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/18151020\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-18-at-3.05.10-PM.png","formated_date":"January 18, 2017","category_name":"Life","category_icon":"https:\/\/d3vodd1ws13xud.cloudfront.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/10113832\/entertainment.svg","author_name":"","trending":false,"sponsored":false,"random_color":"#94fcc8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1557554"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nGenerally, you shouldn\u2019t be spending more than about 25% of your gross income on rent<\/a>. Additionally, your rent including the cost of\u00a0utilities shouldn\u2019t be more than 30%. You can also refer to this\u00a0rent calculator<\/a> to\u00a0calculate what you should be spending on rent.<\/p>\n
\nThe only time your commute should be more than 30-40 minutes in traffic is if your rent is dirt cheap, or if you’re living somewhere where you don\u2019t have to pay rent (like with your parents). Even if your rent is a reasonable percentage of your income, you also need to take into account how much you’re paying for daily transportation.<\/p>\n
\nIf things are constantly breaking or not working in your apartment (or the complex in general), and it seems to take forever to get them fixed, you may want to reconsider your living situation. Poor management can be hard to spot at first, but if you feel like you’re not getting the help you need from your manager, it may be time to move —\u00a0especially if you’re paying a lot to live there.<\/p>\n
\nYou shouldn\u2019t just be taking into account what your budget is, but what other people around you are paying. Before you sign a lease on an expensive apartment, ask around to see what your neighbors in that complex are paying. If they’re paying significantly less than you, you should talk to your landlord to see why and if you can get a better deal.<\/p>\n