About First Time Adulting

Who writes this

First Time Adulting is written and published by Derek Holt, the name on a series of practical guides for people roughly 18 to 25 who are figuring out money, work, housing, cars, credit, and taxes for the first time.

I am not a financial adviser, an accountant, a lawyer, or a landlord. Nothing here is personalized advice. What I do is write the adulting topics in plain language, answer the question first, and link primary sources when a number or a rule matters.

Why the site exists

Search results for first-apartment, first-credit-card, and first-tax questions are often either written for parents, padded with affiliate roundups, or quoting figures that are years out of date. This site is aimed at the person living the problem, not the person worried about them.

How it is funded

There is no paywall, no advertising network, and nothing on this site is sponsored by a bank, card issuer, landlord platform, or car dealer.

Some pages link to life-skills books that I wrote. I write the site, and I write the books. Same person, both times. That connection is stated wherever a book appears, not only in a footer.

The rule on the editorial standards page is short: every page answers its own question completely. If a page ever leaves out the answer so you have to buy something to get it, the page is broken and I want to know.

Getting things wrong

Rules change. If you find something out of date or flatly incorrect, tell me and I will fix it and move the date at the top of the page. Corrections that change the substance of a page get noted on the page itself.

What this site is not

It is not tax, legal, housing, employment, or investment advice. Where a decision has real money or a legal consequence attached, the pages say so and point you at the agency or the professional who can answer for your situation.