I spend the majority of my day browsing through financial blogs, which is amazing for my self-esteem. I've been really fortunate to (a) get myself out of debt, (b) have no dependents, (c) have jobs that aren't affected by the recession (YES THERE IS A RECESSION NO IT'S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD). Even with losing Aaron's income, our financial decision differed greatly--namely, he spent money, and I saved it. If he had $5 or $10 or $100, it disappeared into his stomach or his 360 within hours. I subscribe to the belief of making money work for you--I put absolutely everything on my credit cards and pay them off every month, which means I get massive bonuses, like free airline tickets, every six months.
I've tended to shy away from happiness and contentment, somehow rationalizing that to be satisfied is to be dead. The insatiable life is the successful life. This is a fucked up way to live, and I think is a big part of the reason I stayed with Aaron for so long, he of the instant gratification. There's a happy medium in there somewhere, and I think can be called index funds with a weekly dose chocolate chip cookie dough and/or the occasional one night stand. Food, money, and sex are all basically the same thing: they all relate to our unadulterated, biological, primal need for survival. I think we're allowed two out of three at any given time; guess which two I've been thriving on for the last several months.
In all this, I've forgotten so much of what I liked about life B.A. (Before Aaron), and that was actively working towards attainable goals. So, I apply to law school. I book vacations months in advance. And I set up financial goals for myself, because I'm finding that I like the idea of money-on-paper a lot more than paper money, if only because it provides the ultimate entertainment for a materialistic, shallow, self-absorbed 20 something such as myself.
And it all comes full circle.
Anyway, so here are my financial goals: I want $3000 in my online savings account/emergency/fuck-you fund, which I will accomplish next month. I want to max out my Roth IRA contributions, which I can accomplish by the end of the year at $330 a month. I want to get started properly in the stock market and throw $2000 into some index funds, which I can accomplish by the end of the year at $400 a month. In the event that I buy a house this year, all of that money, plus the Roth IRA I've been contributing to since I was 18, save for two months' worth of cash-on-hand for absolute necessities, will go into a down payment. If I don't buy a house, I'll start experimenting with more aggressive stocks. Because I'm 24 years old, I have no debt, I live below my means, and I've got nothing but time to lose.