Make a Budget – Before your rent is due, sit down with the numbers and look at your budget. Know how much money is coming in and where it all goes. How much do you make? How much do pay for rent? How much do you spend on groceries? On luxuries? With this information, you’ll be better informed as to how to proceed should your funds fall short and your rent payment look tenuous.

Get a loan – Sometimes, even with planning, the unexpected can throw off your careful budgeting. Consider getting a loan, but be sure to shop around. Some (like payday loans) can carry pitfalls, while other personal installment loans can be just the lifesaver you needed.

Move – If you find that, month after month, making that rent payment continues to be a stretch, you might want to consider moving to a new place. If you truly are not able to afford your current living situation, staying there will only lead to an increasing amount of stress and trouble for yourself. Move into something more modest, and you may even be able to start saving money for the future.

While rent day can be daunting, it is not impossible to overcome with the right planning.

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When going to your first apartment you will need to make sure that what you are buying is exactly what you need. You have to make sure that you are doing your best to get the requisite needs met otherwise your first apartment will be a nightmare. Now, you can’t avoid all the pitfalls of living on your own, and you can’t anticipate every problem, but you can figure some things out by a good inspection. Here is what you should be looking for.

Upon going in to look at an apartment you have to look at the sink and the tub to see if there is running water. You want to make sure that there is no problem with the water in terms of color or pressure. You want to make sure it turns on and off easy. Please make sure to check the shower head. If they are working on any of these things before you move in you might want to hold off in signing a lease until they are taken care of.

You will want to look at the windows and make sure they open and close with ease. These windows aren’t just there for a breeze or decor. They can be an escape route during a fire.  You have to be sure that there is working windows for ventilation purposes. If they don’t open, don’t close, or don’t stay open, then you have to make them fix that before you sign a lease.

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You have to be clear when it comes to your apartment that you cannot settle for anything less than the best. Now, that doesn’t mean the most money or the fanciest woodwork. This means that you have to make sure that you are getting everything you need at the best possible price. Now, you are going to look at a lot of places and you are likely to have a million questions but if you ask the right questions you are likely to find out the information you need.

Ask them what the turnover rate at the apartments are. This is a question that you have to be able to read between the lines on. The reason that you ask this question is because you have to know how quickly people are trying to get out of the apartment. Asking them how many vacancies there are in the place now or in the next month is also a great way to ask the same question. If there are more than 20% vacancy in the place you might need to question why no one is living there. You might not like the answers you are going to get.

You have to ask what the application process is like. The harder it is to live there says a lot about the place. This isn’t a tried and true rule but if they will let anyone live there, do you want to share a building with just anyone? The answer is likely no. You can have the apartment you want but you have to ask the right questions.

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You keep telling yourself that now is not the right time for the purchase of a first home. You have given yourself every excuse imaginable and at the end of the day they are all for nothing. You know that deep down there is something inside of you  that knows that you have to buy now. You tell yourself you don’t need to but you need to and there is no doubt about that. So the question is: why aren’t you buying?

The market is as good as it is going to get. The houses that were going for big bucks can be bought and paid for with a good interest rate and a heck of nice monthly payment. No, it’s not the ideal time for you but it will never be the right time to have a house at these prices again. You can wait and buy in five years but the problem in five years will be that you are now looking at the same houses that just might be right out of your range.

You say there is too much going on in your life. While that might be true the real situation is that there is just too much going on in your head. There is never the perfect time to buy. There is only the right time in your head and in your heart. Go after what you want. It’s the only way. You can have the house of your dreams if you act now.