hmm... your predicament sounds like my life. Getting older is pretty scary. I'm 27 now and i still don't feel like an adult. i'm still a little kid on the inside, wandering the world in wide eyed fascination.

Fortunately something thinks i'm good at something so i have a pretty good job with a pretty decent wage. I live with my girlfriend and we've just bought a house and paying a mortgage. Now i'm scared about the financial situation, and i'm worried that I might lose my job because of these huge government spending cuts about to hit in the UK...

I don't think i'll be buying myself a new desktop either... Even though it is 8 years old now... my PS3 is enough for me.

But.. the world ends in 2012...

You need money when you are young and hungry, not when you are old and tired. That's my philosophy.

No, I'm not a student, though I aim to go back to school. Yes, I am fairly low income at the moment.

As to your second post:

I had assumed you were more fiscally conservative than that. People are hungry their whole lives.

My wife's father worked in a job where he was earning a quarter of a million dollars a year for something like ten years. He hasn't got any money saved up, though. Managed to fritter it away.... somehow.

I one hundred percent believe in saving money and investing money in such a way that my money will continue to work even when I can't.

Me too, it's definitely worth saving. i put as much away each month as i can, but keep £75 aside a month for cool pleasures, like a new TV or games. that seems to work pretty well. 

i've blown most of mine savings on the house deposit now, but thats an investment so i can handle that. still got some savings left, enough to keep me going for a few months at least if i do end up unemployed. but i there won't be any foreign holidays for a couple of years!

what is this "responsibility" you speak of?

It means one day you might not have food anymore.

AGNC is a great one to invest in right now, IMO.

Established in 2008 as a real estate trust fund, it's returned 89% of its purchase price in dividends to stock holders.

Its good to be fiscally responsible.

I have 140 bucks and I feel soooo rich! ^_^
I been saving them, so pretty soon I'll have 200... and then go crazy or something, dunno.