We’d have to do the long-distance thing, because I can’t afford to live in New York, unless you can help me figure out how to afford it! Which you probably can!

I’ve recently started putting money aside again, and we don’t even know what for right now. We may or may not want to buy an apartment one day, or pay off something else, like the car. We also have a kid, and somehow it feels good to have money aside when you have a kid, because even though healthcare is free and daycare is cheap, you never know what’s going to happen. What I know is that we wouldn’t have been able to pay our bills and rent for the past 12 months if it wasn’t for our previous savings (now used, thanks to my being at home w/ said kid), and it feels good to go through a period of time supporting our family with our own money that we saved.

No, but seriously- this is one of the best things I’ve read yet on this site. You know how they always say that you’re “saving money for a rainy day?” When I was unemployed for several months post-college (as most are these days), I was feeling weird/worried about having to dip into my savings. When I expressed my concern to my dad about the situation, he said “you’ve been saving for a rainy day, right? Well, look out the window, kid- it’s raining. Hard.” Now whenever I am debating dipping into my savings, I think about whether or not it qualifies as a rain situation, i.e. an emergency or something really thrilling/rare.