My age...

(I should have mentionned in my post about Excel that my budget sheet has been tweaked from Fabulously Broke in the City's budget that she has available on her site. Her blog is one of my favorites - go check it out!)

I was having lunch today with S and some of her friends, and, other than it being a complete bore (some of her friends bore me and I don't really enjoy small talk), it really gave me an insight into how some people my age deal with money.

They all seemed to think that either:

1) The world owes them something.
2) They are going to be forever short on cash.

Which, in my opinion, neither are true. One girl's parents are buying her a brand new car, yet she doesn't have her licence. She is currently debating whether she wants to spend (sorry, her parents spending) $5,000 for her to take a class in China for a month. She buys Louis Vuitton purses and doesn't have a job, currently. I'm guessing she gets her $$ from mommy and daddy. She seems to be one of those girls that worries about foolish things and which I hope secretly run out of money some day so that I can get the pleasure of watching them meet the real world. Yes, I'm mean like that.

S herself is good with money. She's got $11,000 worth of student loans, but like me, she just graduated one month ago and has a plan to pay them off. Good for her, I'm proud of her.

The last girl there, makes double what I do, and seems to think she'll be forever in debt. Not sure how that works, but I didn't want to start a debate right then and there.

I am really really proud of my progress, and I like sharing that with people (in a non-bragging sense, mind you), but all my cries of joy are met with is displeasure (read: sarcasm), confusion and/or pessimism. Here are only a few samples of things that people have said to me:

I say: "Yes I'm planning to move to London in the fall."

They say (sarcastically): "And how are you going to do that??"

I retort: "I'm going to save at least $10,000 here, get a job there and work my way around."

They wonder: "$10,000 hey? Good luck with that."

I shrug and say "Well, I've got $5,000 in the bank already and I've only been saving since January 1, 2008, so I think it's doable."

They then say one of a couple different things:
1) It must be nice to be able to save that much money
2) *rolls eyes* Oh.
3) Well, enjoy it now, you won't be able to save that money when you get a real job.
4) Talk to me when you have bills to pay.

What I really want to do with these people is grab them, shake them and yell at them that it's taken hard work, effort, and sacrifice to get where I am. I hate it when they think that I have the easy way out since I live at home and work up to 60 hours a week in two jobs.

No one, not once, not even my parents have said the words I'd really like to hear:

Good for you.

(And no, this isn't a desperate plea for you to tell me that, it's just I enjoy feeling like I'm doing good, and no one seems to have the faith in me to achieve my goals. Partly that makes me want it that much more. Just to shove it in their faces.)