It’s that time of year when conversations with graduating seniors revolve around one thing: what you’re doing after graduation.
The focus is often on jobs or grad school, making it easy to forget that beyond whatever your new 9-to-5 looks like, you’re also entering a new phase of life, one that might be in an entirely new place.
We’re millennials, so the constant in all this will be our phones remaining glued to our hand. Here are five apps to download to help navigate post-grad life, wherever you go next.
Spending Log
Cost: $1.99
What it does: This app logs your income and expenses so you can keep track of how you’re spending your money. It lets you set up categories – groceries, utilities, going out – so you can see where you need to cut back, and avoid running out of funds halfway through the month.
Cool features: Set up balance alerts; email transactions as a spreadsheet.
Citymapper
Cost: Free
What it does: Getting around a new city can be tough, so if you’re relocating, a transit app will come in handy. Most cities have their own individual app, but Citymapper serves seven areas in the U.S, including New York, D.C., the Bay Area and Boston and is useful for searching all available forms of transportation.
Cool features: Routes, times and costs for subway, bus, train, ferry, bike sharing and Uber.
Hey! VINA
Cost: Free
What it does: Helps women make friends! I’m personally very excited to hopefully never participate in an orientation-style ice breaker again, but the awkwardness did lend itself to making friends. Post-grad solution: this Tinder-like app for finding lady friends in a new city.
Cool features: Sample intro quiz question: “I like meeting up for a) coffee, b) wine, c) both.” The important things.
Yelp
Cost: Free
What it does: You have likely heard of this one, but it’s much more relevant in a place where everything you’d want to eat or drink isn’t located within a two-block radius (I’ll miss you Franklin Street). Use Yelp to find restaurants, bars, coffee shops and more.
Cool features: Photos of locations and food, recent reviews and a way to make reservations.
Balanced
Cost: Free
What it does: Compiles a list of positive activities you want to incorporate into your week, like going to the gym, seeing a friend or meditating. Any life change is hard, so while it might seem silly to track these things in an app, making it a priority to care of your mental health could help ease the transition.
Cool features: Lets you know when you’re on a streak, gives you positive feedback when you swipe ’done’ on an activity and suggests new positive activities to add to your list.
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