Invest young, retire young.

Mr. Nice is in Vegas this weekend, back next week. I'll see him Tuesday or Wednesday. Think we're going to see a film - need to do some research and see what he might like.

Been thinking looooong and hard about what I'm going to do with the extra money from my allowance. Some of it will be spent on silly things - clothes, shoes, Tiffany's, perfume, gourmet food - the things that will improve my "quality of life" in the here and now.

But what about the future?

This year, I'm setting a personal financial goal. I'm going to set aside 5000 dollars to invest in a Roth IRA (Individual Retirement Account, if you're unfamiliar). Roth IRA's are a great choice - unlike regular IRAs, which tax you when you take money out of them, a Roth IRA allows you to remove money from it tax-free at any time. Since over time tax-rates go up, it makes more sense to pay taxes up-front (or not, in the case of gift income) than to pay whatever the going tax rate is 40 years from now.

I've been reading a lot of financial advice, and after looking at some calculations, I realize that if I'm able to put away even 2000 a year into an IRA for the next 45 years (with a projected long-term return of 10%), by the time I'm 65 I'll have close to 2 million dollars. If I live another 30 years beyond that, to be 95, I'll be living on about 60,000 a year. Which, even in the year 2050, shouldn't be too shabby an income. If I can invest more each year, I can retire with even more than that, even EARLIER than that. And nothing sounds better to me than some sweet sweet early retirement.

Of course, I know my extra income from sugaring won't last. I need to make the most of it while I can, and that means investing in the future now, while time is on my side. I've loved the sugar journey so far, but I already recognize that it's simply a fun thing I'm doing while I'm a young starving student, not a full-time job or even necessarily a steady source of income. Hopefully by the time my productive life as a sugar baby is over (between 25 and 30), I'll have a solid career that's making me enough to live comfortably.

Sugarbabies, I implore you. Invest in your futures. Don't trust in Social Security. Invest young, ride out the market, retire young, and travel the world as that rich cougar who drinks pina coladas and makes all the cabana boys carry stacks of towels in front of their Speedos.