I'm single at least as far as the IRS is concerned so I figure I might as well chime in...

I have a long-term girlfriend I live with, both in our mid 20s, she is a high school teacher, we have no kids, own a house together, both own our cars and have no other debt except the house. I for one, couldn't be happier. We travel the world, go out where we want when we want, bum around town, never really worry about money. Between the two of us we are pulling in about $100K/year. Not bad for a couple of goofballs in our 20s. Having done the restaurant (all the way up to management) and the IT thing (networking) I can honestly say that I consistently enjoy this job more than the others. Yes, there is BS you put up with but you will find that in any job.

Now, somehow I lucked out and found a girl who is independent and self-confident enough to handle the airline lifestyle and actually enjoys being bowled over and thrown on the bed after not being together for 4 days. If you've got a girl who is the jealous or clingy type or who needs you around all day every day, then you might want to save yourself some grief and get out now (of this job or the relationship). Or if YOU are the clingy or jealous one, you may want to also consider getting out now.

And for those of you doubting SAAB, on my second year at XJT, if you want to talk GROSS pay MINUS per diem I made just over $53K. I'm sure I don't work the system as hard as SAAB but it's not hard to make money when you have good workrules. It's not just hourly rate x hours worked = yearly pay. For those of you interested, it says I worked 988.7 hours last year or about 82 hours/month.