As long as I could pay our bills, have a cushion in case of emergencies, and health insurance, that would be great.

This is where we are at, as a household -- we make enough to pay our bills, we both have health insurance, and we have a decent amount of savings. And I do feel relatively secure, financially. Yet I also feel like we "should" be making more, and that feeling sometimes troubles me.

Part of that, of course, is that we want to start a family soon, and, you know, I hear that having kids can get kind of expensive. So I really don't know how long our financial cushion will last once we have a kid or two, and it will be increasingly important that we have that cushion -- if one of us gets laid off, it will impact not just us, but our kids as well. On the other hand, I think the question of "how much is enough?" is really important and tricky to answer. I don't want to feel like we're making money just to have more money, you know?

I'm not being very articulate, I guess, but this question is one I've been thinking about a lot lately.

f I were independently wealthy: I'd quit the job (today in particular, where I cannot get any traction on something that is so going to blow up into a big political mess), spend six weeks with a personal trainer, and then go climbing in France with a friend who's getting divorced. Then maybe Thailand or Vietnam.

This! I'd work out a bunch and get in amazing shape, then travel around and take some classes, and eventually probably settle somewhere and do volunteer stuff (because I've been unemployed a few times, and it is NOT FUN to have nothing to do all day)

In, "Huh, people are different," news, I can assure you all that if I suddenly became wealthy, approximately the LAST thing I would do is work out with a personal trainer and get fit.

One of the things that's really interested me as I've gotten into genealogical stuff is the trails of wealth. The only serious wealth in my ancestry came in banking and steel in Pittsburgh in the 1830s and 1840s, but that wealth persisted down into my grandfather's generation (4 generations later) and is in some ways still visible today (although indirectly).

I wonder how that figure varies by location - when DH and I were making $75k/year (combined), we did not feel at all financially secure!

Yeah, I bet that was a national average.

Here's the article: [link]

Yeah, I'd do a ton of yoga if my days were more my own to schedule.

oh man, my friend's one cat got out last night and he had a major freakout when she brought him back in and scratched and bit her all up. Now she's going to the ER to get loaded up with meds so she doesn't get the cat scratch fever! His name is Colonel Brandon but he really wasn't being a gentleman. He was much more like a Willoughby! (He's not normally a vicious cat, though, thank goodness. He just had a freak out.)

I'm thinking about signing up for yoga this summer. I want to get my flexibility back, and with the weight coming off, I think I'll be able to keep up. They offer the first class for free, so I think I'll stop by and see how I like it.

ARGH. TINO.

(This email chain has been going around in circles for a WEEK. I finally get a response back and FUCKING TINO* is complimenting himself on "tracking down" some information that was IN MY ORIGINAL GODDAMN EMAIL.)

*Not his real name.

I'd take every dance lesson I could and dance at least 2 hours a day. Or do acrobatics. Or martial arts. Or all three (hey, if I'm independently wealthy, why not?). And I'd do something like Intersection For The Arts: [link] but more skewed towards theatre/performing arts. I'd probably actually work harder than what I am (trying to) now, but it would be for something I believed in.