At what age did you move out of your parents house?

Hello, 21 here and living at home.  Which i am not necessarily ashamed of, to me 21 is still young.  Now due to some legal issues, odds are i wont be able to actually find any work in the field i went to college for until 2010, i mean i cant even get a fricken job shadow!

So by my estimate... given that i am surrounded by small towns with zero employment opportunities combined with Michigan's sh*t hole economy i will probably be living in my parents basement till i am 24-25 years of age.  Do you think thats too old considering my situation?

And just so i can get a relative idea of how old it is, i would like to know when you moved out, permanently, thank you :)

19, after my first year of college.  I wouldnt wait till 25... thats just old.   Move out try it if you crash and burn and fail horribly most parents are more then happy to let a kid back in for a bit.

Well, I actually haven't moved out of my parents' place so I can't really give advices... But what is so bad about living with your parents? It's strategically better if you live with your parents and save your rent money. And that's what I plan to do when I get a job (around my parents' place, hopefully). Oh, I'm also 21 but still attending college.

But if you plan to NOT work and still live with your parents, I must say, that really isn't a good plan. I'm not sure what kind of legal trouble you are having, but if you want to be independent, you can't always be picky about your jobs..

-Lemon Jello

Curios what was your field of study? I didn't leave home until I got married at 29. I didn't feel bad about living at home because I was working full-time and was never really home.
If it is comfortable at home I think your fine. Eventually you'll start making enough money to afford a place of your own. I have friends who have lived at home into their lates 20's early 30's to save money for a downpaymnet on a home. Seems a better idea than renting some dump.

I'm LOOKING to move out by the end of this year, I'm 20.  I still have schooling to do, I plan on taking like 1 class a semester while I'm moved out. I've never actually had to be independent and responsible for myself.  I think it's about time I give it a try, since I know my parents will back me up if I fail.

I am also unhappy trying to have a relationship with my b/f, as it stands, he is not allowed in our home due to a complex set of events.  I am not allowed to stay where he lives (his sisters) because she is.. I don't know crazy.  So I can't even go over there on a regular basis.  He is paying rent and he can't even have his g/f over, how sad is that.

So I want to move in with him and a co-worker of mine.  I have no idea what I'm doing XD.  I'm worried about everything, including money, location, and who is going to buy the coffee maker.  I think it's acceptable to live at home until you have a career, it's just really hard to have a serious relationship when you're living with your parents.

i will have a bachelors degree in computer management in 2008, and the legal stuff pretty much prevents me from getting any kind of computer related job until i can get that erased in 2010.  I dont work now, and its not a matter of me not looking... its just quite simply.. there is no work to be found, i used to work with my dad but they cant afford me anymore. im hoping when the summer is over i may have better luck, oh ya my city only has a population of 3400.

my only chance is to find a job with another larger city thats 40 minutes away (i go to college there), and even then its still tough to find anything because nobody is hiring.

Does anyone with experience know of a website with a good checklist of things you're going to need once you make your first move?  I keep forgetting about things like pots and pans, cleaning supplies.  I'm afraid I'm going to be completely overwhelmed and underprepared without some sort of compiled list.

i was 21 when i bought a house with my bf and moved out of the parents

I moved out when I was 17. My mom made me. The only time I went back was when I was 19 and had surgery, and needed someone to take care of me. Once I was healed up, I couldn't wait to get back out of there.

Once you leave and have your independence it's nearly impossible to stay with your parents.

I think you can find any job and support yourself. It's not that hard. You can work retail, health care, hell even fast food (although I wouldn't recommend that one) and get the life experience you need for the rest of your life.

You can't stay at your mom's and leave at 25 and then suddenly magically have a great awesome job and know what to do with it.  You have to learn how to pay bills, time management, and how to deal with blows. Life is not easy once you are on your own. You don't have anyone to rely on but yourself.

It doesn't make you a loser if you stay home until you are 25. My fiance did, and now I have to take care of all the bills because his mom did everything for him. He doesn't know how to deal with blows and stresses out easily, where as I take everything in stride.

If you move out around 22 and just work on trying to be an adult it will be easier for you once you do get your dream job!

You can't jump from teenager to adult though. That would be way to hard for you!

i was 18 when i moved out and went to college, never moved back. i don't think there's anyway i could move back home. i love living on my own and supporting myself too much. i have been able to pay all my own bills for a while so i am pretty good at money management and prioritization of my needs.

I moved out when I was 20, into a one-bedroom apartment by myself. I later shared a two-bedroom apartment with a friend, then a house with some other folks, then an apartment with a friend in NYC, an apartment with people I didn't really know (a summer sublet we were all students), then into my then-boyfriend's apartment for a few months because I couldn't find any place and had just a few months of school left, and then I moved after school ended (but before graduation) to another city into a two-bedroom apartment by myself, and from there into my first house, which I sometimes shared with one other person (various friends at different times because they needed a place to live).

I think it's a mistake to wait for a "dream job" in your field before moving out.

I do NOT think it's a mistake to live with your parents while you are finishing school, assuming you are going to school full-time and are a serious student. (None of this "professional student to avoid becoming a grown-up" stuff; I think that's just pathetic and think the parents who allow it need to learn something about the point of parenting.)

I think it's a mistake to move in with an SO directly from your parents' home.

I think it's not a mistake to work part-time while going to school. I think if one is working, over the age of 18, and living at home, one has an obligation to assist with living expenses and household chores, including cooking dinner once or twice a week, shopping for groceries, and doing all one's own laundry and cleaning up whatever messes one has made, in addition to being responsible for one's spending money and general expenses. One should also do one's own taxes and be responsible in other adult ways.

Whew! I do have a few opinions about this, don't I? :-D

18 but i was ready to leave by 15!!! haha i wanted OUT

i moved out just 2 weeks ago, i'm 18. although i just moved in with my grandparents. but there are no little brothers and sisters. my grandparents aren't questioning my every move and thier quiet lifestyle is more becoming to mine.

I was 21, and moved out to start grad school.

God help me if I ever have to move back in. Even when I go home to visit I want out within a few days. 

I moved out at 20, I think. (A few months before I was 21)  I Lived in another State for about 6 months or so.  Then went back for some months & moved out again permanently at 22.  That was it.  Family is best taken in small doses.  :P

I moved out of my mum's place a few months before my 17th birthday. Into a big flat with my now-husband. It was a process... i spent more time at his than my mum's and then my mum was moving house and asked if i wanted to move out. So i did . And that was just over three years ago. I know i shall be moving in with my mum for a few weeks when i finish uni... just so that i can find a job and a house back in my hometown (it's easier when you're there!). Aside that, i doubt i'll be moving back in.

 If i hadn't met my husband when i was so young i probably wouldn't have moved out (aside uni) till i was around 23-25.  Given your situation i don't see it's anything odd.

I've been out of my parent's house since I was 16. It was a mix between living with friends and boyfriends. I basically just did whatever I wanted.

Funny story.  I moved out at 27, but my parents moved out when I was 25.  The housing market sucked then and they didn't want to sell.  My mother had a job as a minister, and that came with a rectory, so they didn't have to pay for a new house.  They let me stay while I finished up uni, then another year after I got married in return for paying all the bills except the morgage and keeping the place in good repair.

After I moved out they sold the house for a shade less than they bought it for, only to have the market explode the next year.  Now the place is worth at least twice what they sold it for.

going2lose, your mom made u move out when you were 17? isn't that illegal? i'm 17 and a junior in high school

I moved away for university at 19, came back for 2 summers, so I guess I was 21 when I moved out for good.

It's not so bad when you know you will move out, it's just a matter of when because of a job situation......

it's totally different when people just don't want to be on their own, won't/can't afford their own bills, or just plain like having their parents take care of them.

24/25 is FINE, don't think you are strange in any way!  It's when you hit 30-ish that you need to worry ;)

2 days after my 18th birthday. I left with the clothes on my back and nothing else. I didn't speak to my parents for 5 years after that either.