What makes us different financially? When is that an advantage? When is it a pitfall? How should we act accordingly?

Who are we? We ARE family - but we're 90-95% childless DINKS (double-incomes, no-kids). We form long-term relationships in which we tend to remain financially independent. Our adventurous men tend to earn less; our nesting women tend to earn more. We have very high disposable incomes.

This is an advantage tax-wise. This unchains us from the reproductive cycle; we don't invest six figures in assets that walk away. We can put those funds into long-term assets and assure ourselves comfortable later years. We have choices among real estate, financial investments, and collectibles. We can change jobs & careers with less worry. We can start our own businesses earlier. We can tolerate more risk - and we can earn higher returns.

We risk many pitfalls in running the American economic gauntlet. The greatest is when we imitate the married-with-children dominant culture, pouring money into hard-to-resell homes, focusing only on short-term financial investment, and becoming good little consumers. We often run scared and hide in one corporate closet for years - only to hit a glass ceiling as our reward. Sometimes we try to buy our way into straight society, purchasing acceptance on the installment plan. We may fortify ourselves behind homes & things. A few of us invest our all into a singular lifestyle, buying membership in a ghettoized group. And our A-gays continue to invest in fantasy lifestyles decorated with straight society's labels of superiority.

But imitation comes dear and hiding is expensive. Acceptance either never comes or is never certain. We become consumed on spending treadmills. Our fears and anxieties are never resolved, only fended off. The price of membership can be quite high. And those labels carry no guarantees.

What to do? First, inventory where we are, open-eyed. Second, take a look around at where straight society is. Then determine whether it's actually better, financially, to come out. What does this mean in practical terms?

• Taking advantage through career. Recognize that we can run the risks - and reap the rewards - of rapid career & job change. We can take the time & money it takes to learn new skills. We can be the career guerillas the 90s require.
  
• Taking advantage in investing. Throw out conventional, Money magazine advice. Simply take advantage of the fact we can invest a large part of our high disposable incomes for the long-run. We don't need to stock pick. What we can do is the most important thing anyone can do: invest early. Because this can produce such key results for us, let's learn to do it ourselves; it's simply too important to entrust this to others whose judgment is clouded by commissions.
  
• Taking advantage via entrepreneurship. We can be fired or discriminated against by clients or bosses anytime. So let's act accordingly. As employees let's be intrapreneurs, innovators, consultants, maximizing our leverage, using out position as outsiders as an asset. And let's consider having our own business. Let's ride the wave of the future; we'll well-equipped to do so, without the baggage of non-working spouses, untied down by children. Technology supports us in doing this. When we're on the Internet people don't know, or care, what we do privately.

For the dominant American lifestyle no longer works financially and no longer satisfies personally - and increasingly no longer exists. Minorities, niches, and regionalism are the new forms of society. Technology now supports and promotes increasing diversity. The forms of family have exploded. The economics of personal finance have changed. Corporate employment offers less and requires more. Increases in lifespan and changes in gender roles are creating new stages of life. Traditional means of providing for future security have broken down.

We can provide a laboratory for forging new answers. Our key differences can drive us into the future - faster, safer, better. We can choose an inner direction, making the most of our best. We are redefining family; we're creating new, micro-societies. We can translate diversity into competetive corporate advantage. We can capitalize our differences into entrepreneurial advantage. We can divert our consumer spending into buying futures with productive assets. We can make the tax system work for us, not against us. We can assess & protect against risks specific to our lifestyle - in health, income, and assets. We can take the gambling, magic and tradition out of straight personal finance. We can manage our wealth with passion, over long time frames, through clear planning. We can make a living e-statement with our lives, giving back what this wonder-full gay lifestyle can so fully give, financially, if we but let it.