At what age you felt you were completely independent or stable?

41 comments

  1. I left school, left my home town, and started my career at 21, so that’s why I felt independent. It was probably a year or two after that where I felt “stable”.

  3. 24, finished college at 21, bounced around between jobs before landing a permanent gig where I can rent my own place without roommates and enjoy the occasional leisure expense.

  6. I graduated college at 22, couldn’t find full time work until 23, and couldn’t find a job with non-shit pay until I was almost 27. Still, a late start beats no start at all I guess lol.

  7. Tbd

    At the current rate I’ll graduate law school at 26, sooooo I’ll say 26 financially.

  10. I was completely independent when I moved out at 18 to go to college. I was stable enough to always have my bills and school fees paid for as well because I worked before going to college and continued afterwards.

  11. 24ish, when I bought my own place and started living alone instead of with housemates.

  14. Independent? 23, when I got a big boy job with my own insurance, and my own apartment after living with roommates for years.

    Stable? late 20s when I started making decent enough money to actually have a savings at the end of the month, and no debt.

  15. Moved out after college into my own apartment at age 25 and felt more than ready. My parents had basically just been getting in the way since about age 15.

  17. Independent, 18. I moved out immediately. Stable? Maybe around 26. At least relatively. I’m 29 now and stabilizing further

  20. I’d say 24. That the last time I moved out of my parents and received any kind of living cost assistance from them. I could have done it at 20, but I wanted to keep going to school after my degree and change my courses of study.

  21. I was 23 when I started my career, bought my first house, and was truly financially independent and stable (supporting myself and my oldest son, who was 4 by then. I was single until he was 9).

  22. I mean, I’m 23, my dad is dead and my mom is a mess of mental illness and hasn’t been a fully functioning adult in years. I may not feel stable or ready to be independent but I am and I have to be whether I like it or not.

  23. I have basically supported myself financially and lived apart from my parents since I graduated university at 20 when I moved abroad. I then wound up living with them for about a year at aged 27~28 because I came back to the country to start looking for work just a few days before COVID lockdowns started. It took a while…

    Stable though? Not there yet. I feel financially secure but I’m only just now at 29 starting to think about trying to become stable. It hasn’t really been a goal.

  24. 32

    Finished grad school. Had a good paying job. Was digging out of debt.

    Note from several years later, there is no such thing as stability. The only stability comes from always moving forward.

  25. I was 21! My only caring family member passed when I was almost 20. Took a year of being a screw up to realize I didn’t have much of a choice to get it together. Toilet paper isn’t free. I got in to a sales career and went from 15k yr to 40 to 80-90k depending on the year. I’m 32 now with 2kids, husband and a dog. We have savings and our kids get to do the activities they want in a good school district. We don’t live lavishly (no gucci, Prada etc) we lease our vehicles, and take short vacations that can be driven to. The thing that made me feel like I was “comfortable/accomplished” was when I was able to start giving money to people who needed it.

  30. Probably around 24. I officially moved into my own place when I was 22, but I was broke as hell and would occasionally need to ask my parents for money or to pick up groceries for me. At 24 my income stabilized a bit more when my freelance career started picking up, and other than a couple of emergency situations I didn’t need to ask my parents for money after that.

  31. I was 26 when I took over the last bill my parents were still paying for me. So I guess then. But i had been living on my own for several years at that point – I was independent from everything except that one bill for a long time.

  32. Never. Stability is an illusion. Most people are 3 – 6 months away from being homeless, if they lost their jobs.

    Do your job, stay in line and if your good, you can have more stuff.

  33. About 26. This was when I stopped receiving any aid at all from my parents (the only help from 22-26 was living with them rent-free), which continued until my early 30s. Now that I’m self-sufficient and my parents are getting older, they’ve started to send me and my siblings annual “gifts” to hopefully circumvent some of the taxes that are incurred when someone passes away.

  34. Some time around 26, when I got my first job that I enjoyed and that paid well enough to live comfortably.

    I graduated college at 23, and was mostly independent after that. I did an Americorps internship for a year, where you earn very, very little. Then I struggled to find a decent job for a couple years and spent part of that time living with my parents. I was either working places that made me miserable or working places that paid barely enough to make ends meet, and I’d’ve had to borrow money in case of any emergency over about $1000.

  39. Moved out at 16, first felt like I had my shit together at like 23.

    If you bail out of a sinking ship, expect to tread water for a bit.

  41. 23. Graduated college at 21, struggled to find any job for a few months, then spent two years working at a miserable tech support call center for experience. That let me get the job I wanted, I’m still there 5 years later, happy and making enough money.

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