"Settling down"

I'm going to be a married man in 9 days, but the idea of settling down has been so appealing to me ever since I graduated university.

I wanted to be in a comfortable position in my life before I decided to get married and wanted to settle down. We already have a home and even though we're not considering having kids at any time in the near future, there is that possibility that kids may come into the picture.

I think the term settling down doesn't necessarily mean your life has to slow down. Its one of the reasons why we decided not to have kids in the near future because we've both been working so hard and sacrificing so much to put ourselves into such a comfortable position, we want to have some free to do some world travelling and everything else along those lines. Granted we could enjoy our lives just as much if kids were into the picture because if kids come into the picture we want them to be our primary focus and not necessarily our own selfish wants and needs. I've seen it too many times in which couples try to make their social lives more important than the lives of their own children. I think you can perfectly balance both a social life and your children as long as you stay focused and willing to make some sacrifices along the way.

We've been together for over 4 years and we still haven't gone on a holiday together because we haven't had any free time and the funds were not available. I just really haven't took time to really get out there and enjoy everything the world has to offer, but I firmly believe that I wanted to get my foundation built before my future wife and I took time to get out and enjoy the world.

I just feel pretty grateful that I managed to meet someone that had the same desire to settle down as much as I did, and I was 24 and she was 22.

The only true drawback that I'm seeing with me having this strong desire to settle down is my perception and attitude toward a lot of my friends and its kind of my own fault. A lot of my friends are in their mid-20's and lately they've become less and less appealing for me to hang around with because as I'm trying my hardest to get to a point in my life in which I'm financially stable so I can be comfortable when I'm settling down I see a lot of my friends really doing nothing with their lives in terms of building a foundation for themselves. In my eyes they still work at crappy jobs, not saving any money and even the majority of them don't have a vehicle and they literally waste any amount of money they get. The thing is I can't really hold it against them, because I'm not their parent and I'm not their guardian and they are more than welcome to do what they want with their own lives. I can't tell them how to live. They're still my friends.

In terms of your question Sass, there is no required age for people wanting to settle down, I wanted to settle down as young as 23 which would probably be unheard of for a lot of people. Everybody is going to have their own definition of what settling down truly means. I feel pretty proud that I'm getting really close to reaching that point in my life and I think when I get there; this is when I'll really enjoy my life and everything it has to offer.

I apologize in advance if the post is long.

Jam it back in, in the dark.