My rent is 23% of gross, and I have a flatmate. I would have trouble finding a place by myself for the $700 I pay a month.

23% is higher than this "ideal", but like Jesse, I do all right on it. (The place is smallish, but it's in an area I like a lot and has a driveway.) Even with that percentage of my gross going to housing, I manage to save a lot.

Helped, I am sure, by the Nuttykin terror of debt. The only money I owe is student loans, and that's almost done. A look at my living room is immediate evidence of my ability to be in the right place at the right time for family furniture castoffs. If I really really wanted to be frugal, I would give up my car, which I'm not willing to do now it's paid off.

I am not sure what has kept me from being able to pay off the credit card debt. I think it is just basic lack of discipline at this point, because it is not any of the monthly bills.

For the first 7 years out of college there was just no way, but the pay increase I got 3 years ago should have made more of a difference than it has. I guess the buying a place thing took a chunk and I keep doing things that take 1000 at a time like agency fees and construction. Maybe the beating myself up thing is unwarranted.

oh, it's like self-therapy.

There is something deeply, deeply wrong with people who think it's okay to send me work at 4pm on Friday.

I may smoke the crackpipe of workaholism, but there are limits. When you start pinging my inbox like an IRC bot after 4pm on Friday, you are, my friends, a jackhole.

oh, it's like self-therapy.

What are buffistas for, if not saving money on therapy?

Hey, all the cool kids are doing it, and I bitch about enough in LiveJournal.....

Salary (gross): 34K
Rent: $880/month
Debt: 20K (almost entirely student loan)

However, I am married and co-own a small theater, so if I were to figure our household, it would look like:

Salary (gross): 54K
Rent: $880/month
Debt: 43K (still almost entirely student loan)
Theater costs: 15K

Z's salary is/will be entirely contract-based, and so will fluctuate. We're not poor, and if we stopped producing, we'd actually be able to pay off our debt pretty quickly. However, if we stopped producing, our quality of life would diminish drastically. So it's a trade-off, and one we are lucky enough to have the luxury of making.

I think I'll keep renting for a while...

Was it one of those calculators that takes into account possible tax benefits?

I am, for about the first time in my life, in a place where I can be fiscally and professionally proactive. I'm not burdened by the state of hell, or green card restrictions, or family anguish. It feels a bit late to learn, but I'm going to.

Sadly, I'm still in the LA housing market, so it's going to be a while before homeowning comes into the picture.

Co-workers need to stop asking me questions in the middle of me hitting post ...

What really bugs me are people you send me work at like 7:00pm and then are surprised that I'm not still working. Hello?

Oh, speaking of money. Question for freelancers or those who work with same: I have to bill a client for the first time. I found an invoice template, but it seems so formal. Should I use it, or just use my "letterhead" with a couple of sentences on it?

I make $29K right now, but that comes with a footnote because I took a big paycut when I started this job. (Different industry, plus I had been fired, and any job beats no job.)

That's very similar to my situation. I'm making about half of what I made at the old job right now. It'll be interesting to see what I can scrounge up in St. Louis.