Not About Making Friends, It's About Spending Money

If you're young enough to be giving me a fair hearing, then you shouldn't save money, you don't need much of a budget and you won't go to hell because you didn't pay off your credit card balance in full last month.

Saving money when you're young is about as smart as huffing lead-based paint, but a lot less fun. This is my first piece of advice to you: A penny saved is a penny wasted. Stop diverting part of your paycheck into a savings account and start spending.

Put it in the first national bank of Carlo Rossi, my jug wine of choice until someone can beat them on price -- four liters for $10 -- before you leave a dime in your money market account. It's the responsible thing to do. But why listen to me over the professionals?

I doubt I'll ever be anything but completely irresponsible with my own dough, to the point that my dad lent me money to buy an apartment in order to stop "you from pissing away all your money." He might have added, "Again."

But when you have lent serious money to more than a dozen twentysomethings on the strength of friendship and not creditworthiness, you start to take a proprietary interest in how they spend it.

The fact that I lent some of these people money is either a testament to my generosity of spirit or further proof that I'm a dope when it comes to my own finances.