<prompt> Human: Ill be making 45k next year while also giving my employee a fair bump in pay since hes been through thick and thin with me.Part of me misses seeing that money for my retirement but part of me wants to start planning a franchise or license model to expand to the suburbs and other parts of the cities. The former obviously provides more security but the latter would provide an immediate and long term benefit assuming it works.Ill also be picking up the brunt of the expenses as my girlfriend prepared to quit her job and expand her business. She has a well to do father thats financing her expansion and we both know that his will will be sufficient enough when he passes weve been together for 7 years with no plans for kids or marriage... Do I roll the dice and gamble with expanding or do I start building what little I have in my IRA again?EDITThanks for the input! I think Im going to continue the gamble and look to expand. Nothing is a sure bet, but we have grown exponentially in the last 14 months and know a lot more about how to negotiate leases, how much space is actually needed, and can open a second spot for a lot less than what this first attempt has cost.  <response>: You should never plan on inheritance. You definitely should not plan on your girlfriends inheritance for anything. 