Forget the House— Financial Achievements to Be Proud Of Now

Remember when you still paid bank late fees?

Buying flowers at Trader Joe’s is a luxury and no one can tell me otherwise. Photo by author.

Buying the house, funding the wedding, paying for the kid, and joining a coveted urban country club — we Gen X and Millennials of one bedroom rentals and day jobs and scuffed Converse don’t know this life. We can sit around sad in our thirties, forties, and fifties that we don’t have that slice of American Dream or we can laugh every time a shiny flyer for a local $1.15M property shows up in the mail or — this is what I really want us to do — we can look back over all we’ve accomplished financially thus far and be proud of ourselves.

When I could barely buy groceries and pay my landlord — let alone get myself any medical care — I decided that when I could waltz into Whole Foods and wantonly buy a large container of wild blueberries I’d know I made it. This was one of the smartest insights my anxious twenty-seven year old brain ever produced; as a result, I have tracked much more closely my real great good fortune rather than comparing myself to the Joneses; which would invariably lead to meeting my demise via Capital One.

Here is a by-no-means-exhaustive list of financial benchmarks that if you have accomplished you can wholeheartedly feel very, very, very proud of yourself for having made happen:

1. You pay your rent every…