What are your living situations like? Especially young fighters.

[Catweiser]

Originally Posted by HIMBOB

Can't say I got the creepy vibe from that post either.

Yeah that guy is clearly projecting his own homo pedophilic urges onto the ts. My guess is hell respond with hostility, classic pedo behavior.

Good thread you are clear to proceed.

[White Mongoose]

Wow so little answer here!
Oh well... I start off doing Muay Thai as soon as I got booted from a university.

I was 18. It has always been a huge up and down roller coast.
I was working a job I hate (retail) where managers and supervisor were chane frequently.
So at the best my manager would make sure to schedule around my training and fight. I'd make enough to live on okay (living with roommate who also was a fighter) and still be able to attend college.

Sometime managers don't like it at all so they would just really fuck with my hours and stuff. I'd be scrapping for changes and stuff just to make ends meet.

At worst, I was put on night shift. I remember waking up at 7:30 am and drag myself to community college until noon then rush to be at training at 1:30. Train from 2 to 5 then rush all way to home to drop stuff off and eat quick dinner before show up for work at 8 and work until 4 am.

I did that for nearly a year while desperately trying to look for other job with no luck.
Finally I say fuck it! And moved out of state and got on disability.
Went back to school and training full time. It was a decent life.

However I learn the ugly truth about politic behind whole fighting world and how even coaches themselves could let things get to their head.
Plus I landed a really good job that I love and still have today. Also my body was starting to fall apart (had roughly 20ish fight in MMA, boxing, and kickboxing plus years of training, doing actives that are hard on body, not really making profit, etc...)

I end up deciding that I'm done with fighting and left.

It was a very tough decision to make. But there are just so many things I want to do or see and I need my health for it plus I am getting to point where I'm really fcking my life up (no real saving, no credit, no house, etc... At nearly 30)
So I think I stopped at right time.

Can't say I regret anything. I do still get urgent to fight from time to time but I'm much happier person now and no longer have to worry about if I'm gonna be able to eat that week or not, be terrified of getting bad injury that could cause me to lose my job, laying in the bed unable to sleep because I was wondering if I'm getting anywhere in my life.

I now look forward to all new and fun things I will get to learn and do, all new places I will visit or see.
That make me very happy.

[IamSpartacus]

It must be hard being young and not with a solid girlfriend or living with your family if you want to keep up really good nutrition.

Being on a really good diet, training hard and doing some sort of higher education is a really tough balance. During my uni years i didn't really play much sport competitively. Keeping on weight without a fulltime job and a girlfriend who is a great chef must be freakin hard lol

[Sunwater]

Im a 21 year old guy who started training mma fulltime since the end of last year. Im not located in the US (currently in Osaka, Japan) but im sure the situation with young starting-up fighters are similar globally.
Had been working a well-paying fulltime job since i was 18. Decided i needed a change, quit my job and came out here to the big city in order to join a gym and train. Was never into saving (was clubbing and partying pretty much every week)and had probably around 8000 USD when i made the switch. Unemployment insurance also brought in about 4000 USD for the first 3 months.
So about 6 months down the line im currently living in a one room apartment. Food and rent is about all i spend, anything else is a luxury.The piggy bank is nearly empty and ill probably have to get a job in the next few weeks. Training is going good, will probably have my first fight soon. But more than anything mma has taught me character and mental strength.
But i do sometimes wonder if it was really the right choice. More than the financial instability its the lack of time i have to spend with friends and family that hurts. Most of my friends dont understand or respect what im trying to do and it gets pretty lonely. I've certainly learned that its not as glamorous as it might appear from the outside. (Zero time to chase girls too )
But at the end of the day im proud i had the guts to jump into this thing and the perseverance i believe i have to continue doing it. My goal is to be able to tryout for TUF if it does happen in Japan.

[KidAlchemy]

I don't consider myself a fighter but might as well contribute.

I'm going to school studying engineering at an university for applied science. I live at an 39.5m^2 apartment right now which is cool but has really high rent (500€), I train BJJ from early autumn till late spring so I from that time I pay 260€ for training. I have about 270€ minus the training fee for food per month. Luckily I can work for summer and then starting next autumn I can hopefully move to an cheaper apartment and I'm going to start training BJJ seriously and start competing.