Ohhh, yeah, I've done the contractor route, I know how that goes. :|a And if you didn't want to move, I don't think it's that dumb--I know I wouldn't want to move out of Seattle at this point; I really love the city and I know it well, and I have friends and roots here at this point.
The thing about the 401K is that it's one of those accounts that you can't withdraw from until you're a certain age without severe penalty (it's something like 10% of the total? it's bad, at any rate); I would say that a good serious savings account the sooner you can the better, because a lot of them do compounded interest, so you earn interest on your interest. It adds up pretty nicely, if you find a decent bank!
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The thing about the 401K is that it's one of those accounts that you can't withdraw from until you're a certain age without severe penalty (it's something like 10% of the total? it's bad, at any rate); I would say that a good serious savings account the sooner you can the better, because a lot of them do compounded interest, so you earn interest on your interest. It adds up pretty nicely, if you find a decent bank!