The author (not pictured) felt lonely when living at home with her parents after college.

The author (not pictured) felt lonely when living at home with her parents after college. RealPeopleGroup/Getty Images

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Like many pandemic graduates, my young adult life started not with a bang, but with a whimper.

There was no big celebration, just a diploma picked up from the school office and a new job as an associate editor at a Charlotte-based digital media company.

I graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in December 2020. My lease, signed with four housemates, ran until the following summer. For the first half of 2021, I worked remotely in the same house I’d lived in during my first semester of senior year. Professional life wasn’t much different from my life as a student, but I was content.

When the lease ended, I was faced with three choices: move to Charlotte in anticipation of when my workplace returned to in-person work, find new housing in Chapel Hill, or move back home.

At that time, COVID vaccines had been rolled out, but the pandemic wasn’t over. I didn’t want to move to a new city under those circumstances. With most of my friends leaving Chapel Hill, staying felt pointless. Moving home was the cheapest and easiest option. I took it.

The savings added up, but I was languishing

I moved into my old room and shared meals with my parents, just like I’d done before college. I worked from home, writing and editing articles about personal finance.

My parents didn’t charge me for rent or food. But, I helped out around the house and covered any personal expenses, like my phone bill and miscellaneous purchases.

With no rent or bills, and student loan payments paused due to COVID, I saved roughly three-quarters of my income. I invested some of that money and kept the rest in a high-yield savings account.

But while my savings grew, my personal life languished. My parents were loving but often treated me like the kid I used to be, not the adult I’d become. After four years of independence during college, that was hard for me to adjust to.

I was also lonely. St. Louis was my hometown, but I had no community there. My friends were scattered across the country, and pandemic restrictions made it hard to meet new people.

I knew I didn’t want to stay in St. Louis long-term. Building a life there felt pointless since I planned to leave once the pandemic ended, but I didn’t know when that would be.

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Moving to Charlotte was the fresh start I needed

After eight months of limbo, I finally found the motivation to leave home when my workplace reopened for hybrid work. With my parents’ support, I moved to Charlotte in February 2022.

When I left home, I had about $15,000 saved. That money was invaluable in kickstarting my new life, which came with a surprising amount of upfront costs.

I had no problem paying for my apartment’s security deposit and first month’s rent. When I couldn’t find a suitable car due to the 2022 car shortage, I could up my budget and keep the monthly payment manageable with a higher down payment. I felt comfortable buying supplies for the apartment without second-guessing every expense. I even had several thousand dollars left over for an emergency fund.

I didn’t spend extravagantly, but it was incredibly freeing to know I could pay for the things I needed — now and in the future, thanks to my emergency fund — without going into debt.

Starting my young adult life without credit card debt and with a financial buffer made everything less stressful.

Was it worth it?

I’m incredibly privileged — and grateful to my parents — to have had the choice to return home while working full-time. Not everyone has the chance, and not everyone has the choice. I was also lucky to land a job upon graduation, a privilege many pandemic graduates didn’t have.

But was moving home worth it?

From my personal finance journalist’s perspective, unequivocally yes. The money I saved set me up for long-term financial stability and made my first year in Charlotte so much easier.

From a personal perspective, it’s complicated. Those months at home weren’t exactly the happiest time, but I don’t regret them. They taught me that in order to build a life that made me happy, I needed to stop taking the cheap and easy way out.

The year after I moved to Charlotte was one of the best in my life. My expenses ballooned, but I had freedom, community, and a better relationship with my parents despite the distance — all things worth more to me than money.