Re-reading your comment I wanted to reply that tything and paying off all of our debt are our very first priorities. Next, are buying a home and a new-with-warranty second vehicle outright with no payments. So, we are not going to have a whole lot of money problems hanging over our heads. We are basically just deciding whether or not to invest less/get less house/buy a cheaper second car/whatever, so that for the first year we can keep $50k to the side for living off of while I write. It's not like, if we do the writing thing, we're totally screwed, or anything like that. And there are other things that are receiving higher priority by necessity.