Marj

I submit my dilemma to you, fellow Answerers:

Many of my roommates (there are 6 of us) are subletting their space in my apartment while they go home for summer. Three of our subletter spots still have not been filled (thanks, economy)!

Now, my roommate's friend says that he plans to sleep on our couch for "most of the summer." I have NO problem with friends crashing here for a night or two, but when we NEED people to pay for rooms in our apartment, it seems very unfair that this guy thinks he's welcome to crash here for months for free. I'm sure my roommate who is friends with him must have encouraged him in this idea, or else he wouldn't have presumed he could do this.

Your thoughts? How long should he be allowed to crash here before he should be paying a fair share of rent?

For a while now, I've been searching for housing for next year under the rule of thumb that housing costs should be no more than 33% (1/3) of one's income.

But how does that percentage change (if at all) if you're not making very much money? I'm going to be making around $2k a month at my new job, and in Los Angeles even studio apartments are going mostly for $800 and up.

I want to live in someplace safe and at least modestly clean, and I don't waste money on frivolous things, but I don't want to lock myself in to too high a rent and go hungry!

I recently created a profile on Linked In, so I don't have many connections. But what is the proper way to make new ones? For example, if my supervisor is on the site, should I try to add him as a connection, or would that be presumptuous of me? Or should I ask in real life first?

Similarly, if one of my connections has a connection I'd like to speak with, but that person has a vastly more important job than I do, should I try to make contact through the site, or not? I just don't want to come across like I don't have respect for their higher position, but at the same time, I want to make the most of the site.

Thanks for reading, and hit me up with a * if you found the question worthwhile :-)

I really really want an MP3 of that song the letters sing at the end! Anybody know where I can find one? There was one on esnips.com but I couldn't figure out how to d/l it.