Financial Independence - Part 2: Living On My Own 

In my last blog, I had advised us about speaking to our parents. When I first spoke to my parents and asked them to describe their responsibilities, I thought it  sounded simple enough.

Turns out there is more to this than meets the eye!

This summer I lived away from home for an entire 4 weeks of my summer program in Berkeley. My very first time without the adults that are my guardians, my care takers and money managers. I had to figure out breakfast on my own, not fuss about the food in the cafeteria, do my own laundry, decide on my sleep and wake up hours, and manage my workload and social connections while doing all of that.

It was a game changing lesson in living independently.

I had set a budget for the 4 weeks for spending, and I had to wisely decide how to spend that. This was my hard earned money from teaching piano. 

And it is so easy to go over budget, since I was using Apple Pay connected to my bank account.

In week 1, I had spent over 50% of my budget on just food. I had 3 weeks left and only half of my budget to cover needs like bottled water and supplies for projects, along with my fun wants. 

I made a plan. Wednesdays were the hardest days with all the intense work we had to do, so I reserved spending on yummy Ube boba as a reward for Wednesday. And Fridays or Saturdays were reserved for eating out as a group. Food trucks are amazing, we tried a taco food truck and it was fresh and delicious and not costly. 

At the end, I  went over budget, by a little not a whole lot. I felt good.

 I left my program feeling immense pride in the learnings and friendships I had made, that will stay with me forever.

Ria Kumar

August 14th, 2025