<prompt> Human: Im a little lost and I could use some perspective. I am 31, single, female and I live in SoCal. I started working at age 26, making 50k. 5 years later, college debt is paid off and Im making 100k as an engineer. I expect to tap out at 110k with this company. I have 80k in my 401k and 10k in Roth IRA and 40k in savings. Houses in SoCal are expensive and I am not currently looking to buy because I have absolutely no family and few friends in the area Im from upstate NY. Im not ready to leave my company because they keep investing me training, pay, etc. I keep my housing under 25 of my net income. Im starting to get a little maybe way more spendy and I think part of it is that I dont really have a direction financially or personally. I think part of it is that I dont know what the next 5-10 years of my life will look like with regards to finding a partner and possibly starting a family. Im considering moving to a LCOL city, fostering andor getting a dog, but I seem to be in a holding pattern until while I give myself financial permission to take some risk assuming that Im still single? How do I figure out the optimal timing? Assistant: Set yourself a budget for fun things and keep to it while determining more of a longer term plan. As a default you could try saving 20-40 of your income. Theres no realistic plan you could formulate that such a saving rate wouldnt help. Human: Thanks for commenting. I guess Im in a rut of prioritizing saving money and not living life. I keep thinking Ill start living life when I get married. Maybe budgeting for fun stuff now would be good for me. But I also wrestle with feeling behind in terms of not being a homeowner though.  <response>: you dont need to waste money on mindless consumption to life live. if you want to do new things put those in your budget. plan big things, save on small things. 