[CRFSaver]

When I was a kid I was the king of savings. I used my lawn mowing money to buy my first equities (still have them). I never bought comics or game systems and hated to shop so I went off to college with a nice chunk of change. Then during college I didnt save but I didnt save tons. When I got out I saved big time for my first car.

Where I fell off track was graduate school. I got out of school with $6,000 in credit card debt. Luckily no school debt. So my first big bonus I paid them all off plus my student loans from graduate school.

After that I took a year off so that did not help in my savings. After I moved to California, I started saving here and there but the wake up call was when I got laid off. I luckily had money in the bank plus with unemployement I was fine. But I did have to leave California as I could not wait to find a job anymore (7 months). My cash was starting to run out.

So when I mvoed here I made a concerted effort to start saving more. I neglected my 401K for a couple years so I started putting huge money into that. I can't say I have evern really been down on my luck but watching those balances get lower and lower really says something to you.

now I am just waiting to make my triumphant return to the west coast.