the single greatest mistake of being single

When you're single, you tend to live your life a little wastefully. I used to blow about $100 a week on CDs and cassettes, and of course managed to go out to eat whenever I liked. When it came to my financial responsibilities, I had my car insurance payments and the cost of gas. I was still living at home with my parents, and they had agreed not to charge me rent as long as I stayed in college. I had no utility bills, although I had set up a separate telephone line that I was paying for myself. These days, I would have probably picked up a cellphone (they were a little less common back then). I had really good individual health insurance coverage courtesy of my employer, and I didn't even have to pay a premium each month. So I was making decent money and not putting much away. Like many of America's youth, I ended up getting into credit card debt soon after.

I was fortunate, though. I met my wife when I started college and we married fairly young. As such, we picked up all of those married household-type responsibilities pretty early and started a savings account. Then I see how people like my younger brother live...

He's got a great job, making $80k+ a year. He doesn't put any money into savings, but has managed to get himself into a townhome. He frivolously spends his dough on all the latest gadgets and technological toys. He owns two cars in addition to his company-provided work vehicle. One of them is your typical tuner vehicle, complete with thousands of dollars in non-factory upgrades. Yet it barely runs.

He could be putting so much money away for the future, but he doesn't. He could probably live on half of his income (or less) and use the rest to pay off his townhome. Just imagine having the power to pay off a house in a few years at such a young age, and living the rest of your life without a mortgage. It's probably the single greatest mistake one can make when you're single and making such good money. While I have few regrets from my single years, I do wish that I had spent a little less cash on my music collection, especially now that the value of the music CD is shrinking so fast.