Fitting two lives in one
I turn 25 near the end of this year. Saturn return isn't until you're 29, but 25 is a "quarter-life" crisis moment. Am I just hitting it early, or am I still having trouble "growing up"?
I feel torn between two life's ideals. On the one hand, I'd love to be married, own a house, have pets, a ranch, children, the whole shebang. Stable, idyllic, comfortable, complete.
On the other hand, I want to be single, travel the world, learn new languages, meet new people.
It's not that I can't have both. It's just that I can't have both at the same time. Well, at least not unless I suddenly come into a whole bunch of money. It feels like it should be pretty simple to do sequentially: do the travel the world thing first, then settle down. But what I really want is something like this:
Own or long-term lease a propert, and rent it out for months at a time so I can go travel. Get and raise a dog, and then once it'd old enough, either take it with me when I go or leave it with whomever is taking care of the home. Get married (or don't) and have kids, and bring the kids with me on world-wide learning "vacations." Eventually "settle down" (probably in my 50s) and work mainly at home, rather than out and about in the world, with only the occasional vacation or so.
I can totally do this. This is totally doable. I think the major obstructions right now are my boyfriend, my debts, and my job situation.
The boyfriend is not a problem, per se. I've just lately been feeling like we're not on the same page in life. He's content to stay home and play video games, take the easy job that lets him do whatever during the day, just go with the flow. He says he'd be willing to go with me on these world-wide tours, but he really wouldn't want to be out for more than a couple months. That'd be fine and I'd just go for longer without him -- but he doesn't like that. What am I supposed to do with that information?
The debts are a huge annoyance. I have ~$35k of debt between student loans (~$27k) and credit cards (~$5k, ~$1k, ~$1k). I have a little over $3k in savings right now, so I could knock out the two smaller credit cards and make good headway on the third one. I think those are what bother me more than the student loans, especially because student loans have a very long-term payment plan. I don't want to take the full 20 years to pay them, of course, but it at least isn't racking up insane amounts of interest in the meantime, unlike the CCs.
The job situation feeds into the debt situation. Not in that I'm not currently making enough to pay my payments -- I am, with enough left to siphon into savings -- but that my job is not conducive to a traveling lifestyle, and it doesn't look to be a very long-term plan in the first place. What I want to do is get my company going and have that become replacement income.
1) I want it to first become an extra $1k or so per month that I can put toward my savings ($250) and my debts ($750).
2) Then I want it to completely replace my paltry paycheck (which would take ~$2500, perhaps a little more given self-employment tax is ridiculous).
3) Then I want it to replace my paycheck and add $1k.
4) Then I want it to replace my paycheck, add the $1k, and recover my boyfriend's salary (~$2500, let's say).
5) Then I want to add having extra left to enhance my lifestyle: save for a down payment on a home, or put into retirement, or save for a long-term trip and flex what money I'm making with geoarbitrage.
The best part?
I want to be at least to part 3 by September 1, 2010.
I can totally do this. I can. I will. I need to! This is my life, my goals, my dreams, and if it's what I want, I will get there.
One day at a time, right?
I feel torn between two life's ideals. On the one hand, I'd love to be married, own a house, have pets, a ranch, children, the whole shebang. Stable, idyllic, comfortable, complete.
On the other hand, I want to be single, travel the world, learn new languages, meet new people.
It's not that I can't have both. It's just that I can't have both at the same time. Well, at least not unless I suddenly come into a whole bunch of money. It feels like it should be pretty simple to do sequentially: do the travel the world thing first, then settle down. But what I really want is something like this:
Own or long-term lease a propert, and rent it out for months at a time so I can go travel. Get and raise a dog, and then once it'd old enough, either take it with me when I go or leave it with whomever is taking care of the home. Get married (or don't) and have kids, and bring the kids with me on world-wide learning "vacations." Eventually "settle down" (probably in my 50s) and work mainly at home, rather than out and about in the world, with only the occasional vacation or so.
I can totally do this. This is totally doable. I think the major obstructions right now are my boyfriend, my debts, and my job situation.
The boyfriend is not a problem, per se. I've just lately been feeling like we're not on the same page in life. He's content to stay home and play video games, take the easy job that lets him do whatever during the day, just go with the flow. He says he'd be willing to go with me on these world-wide tours, but he really wouldn't want to be out for more than a couple months. That'd be fine and I'd just go for longer without him -- but he doesn't like that. What am I supposed to do with that information?
The debts are a huge annoyance. I have ~$35k of debt between student loans (~$27k) and credit cards (~$5k, ~$1k, ~$1k). I have a little over $3k in savings right now, so I could knock out the two smaller credit cards and make good headway on the third one. I think those are what bother me more than the student loans, especially because student loans have a very long-term payment plan. I don't want to take the full 20 years to pay them, of course, but it at least isn't racking up insane amounts of interest in the meantime, unlike the CCs.
The job situation feeds into the debt situation. Not in that I'm not currently making enough to pay my payments -- I am, with enough left to siphon into savings -- but that my job is not conducive to a traveling lifestyle, and it doesn't look to be a very long-term plan in the first place. What I want to do is get my company going and have that become replacement income.
1) I want it to first become an extra $1k or so per month that I can put toward my savings ($250) and my debts ($750).
2) Then I want it to completely replace my paltry paycheck (which would take ~$2500, perhaps a little more given self-employment tax is ridiculous).
3) Then I want it to replace my paycheck and add $1k.
4) Then I want it to replace my paycheck, add the $1k, and recover my boyfriend's salary (~$2500, let's say).
5) Then I want to add having extra left to enhance my lifestyle: save for a down payment on a home, or put into retirement, or save for a long-term trip and flex what money I'm making with geoarbitrage.
The best part?
I want to be at least to part 3 by September 1, 2010.
I can totally do this. I can. I will. I need to! This is my life, my goals, my dreams, and if it's what I want, I will get there.
One day at a time, right?