<prompt> Human: Im gonna start this out by saying Im not terribly money savvy. I just want to make sure Im doing the right things...I need someone on the outside to just tell me, Youre good, keep doing that, or Youre an idiot, heres why.My deal is that I just graduated college in the spring as a Graphic Design major with quite a bit of debt you know, the usual. My oh dear loan that I really need to get rid of, is about 32,000 at 7.9 interest. My other loan is lower interest, but I dont remember the exact amount of it...either way, starting in December Im going to be starting to pay both of them off to the tune of 460 a month. My dad is the man, and as a belated graduation gift is giving me 200 to help pay for those. Thanks, Dad.Speaking of that dad character, hes big on saving. Like, he used to work for Fidelity and hes all about my 401k. When I graduated I immediately got a job that pays 80,000 a year very unusual for my major, I know...Ill get to that later. I was lovin life with my shiny new paychecks, up until I set my 401k up. Dad guilted me into putting in 20 of my paycheck. Which is good for my 401k, but not so good for my daily living. My work matches up to 6. I have a little over 3k hanging out in my 401k from the past few months if I checked the benefits website correctly...Im bad at this stuff.So the job is a good thing Ive got going for me, but here are some things that are not helping my case: I have a dog, money is no object as far as he is concerned I live in an expensive city since its close to my job so even though I have roommates my rent is still impressive I have a car that I dont need to commute to work but I have for the weekends this is for my mental sanity so I can get out of the cityAlso here is my monthly budget, as per mint.com: Rent: 900 Dog walker: 400 20a day, 5 days a week Shopping anything other than food: 300 Loans: 269 Food: :250 Dog stuff food, vet, etc: 200 Auto Payment: 160 only for the next few months, I dont have much to pay off Auto Insurance: 160 Parking: 50So if I really, really stick with all that, I should have 827 left over. This rarely happens because I eat a lot of takeout and like to have fun on weekends.Things that are stressing me out: I want desperately to escape from this well-paying job because I hate it, plain and simple. Its a big IT corporation, and being an artist and an animal lover, having a desk job is sucking my soul out. Im doing freelance art on the weekends to try and make a name for myself. I cannot escape from said job until December 2015 at least, if I want to keep the sign on bonus they gave me gotta love that fine print. But I dont know if I should be even thinking about that since money would be so tight if I was making any less. I may have to move out of my current apartment next year, as my roommates friends of mine will probably be going on to do different things. This leaves me with two well, three, really options: one would be to move into my own place, which I would like, but my rent would be looking more like 1200. Another is to move in with my mom to live rent free for a while, but then my commute to work would be horrendous and would drive me nuts and make me miserable. The third would be to try and scrounge together some random people or find craigslisters to be my roommates to I can continue living in a cheaper apartment. I really, really, really dont want to do that because fuck living with strangers. Advice? Things I should be doing differently? Words of wisdom? Perspective? Any similar stories of how you got out of a job you hated and still made a living? I feel like money rules my life right now, and I never wanted it to be that way.TLDR: Life is expensive and Im stressed about it. Also is it worth working a job I hate and being miserable now to potentially be happier in the long run? Help.Edit: formattingEdit edit: Wow, I was not expecting so much awesome advice and support...you guys are great. This was the slap across the face I needed to grow the heck up and to start re-arranging my priorities. Thank you all...Assistant: 400 for dog walking sounds ridiculous to me. Do you absolutely need that? Id much rather throw that money at the loans.Human: I mean...I guess he could probably hold it all day while I was at work. Hes only 9 months old I feel like thats not super fair for him. :Maybe starting in December when my loans kick in Ill start coming home during lunch to walk him myself, for free. That would be a huge help...Assistant: We were doing something like this too. We took the dog to doggy daycare and it was eating away at our budget. You mentioned you lived with roommates. Maybe you could ask them to take the dog out for you if your schedules are different. Also, heading home for lunch is a great idea. That is what we do now. As far as the work situation, can you work from home? Even if its just one day a week.Human: I do occasionally work from home. I know that a couple of my coworkers have one day a week set up as a work from home day. Im not sure if Ive been here long enough to do stuff like that.My dog walker IS my roommate. I feel like if I dont pay him I cant trust him to do it. Assistant: How much walking does 20 buy? An hour?Human: Hypothetically, yes, along with a couple potty breaks throughout the day.  <response>: My 7 year old nephew could walk a dog, it isnt exactly skilled labor. Why not find someone who can do it for 10 if you insist on doing it? 