Hi guys, I am coming out of a bad depression I suffered during the last 3 months of 2019 following a shitty breakup, and finally getting my focus and motivation back, but am quite torn between 2 choices regarding how to handle money and investing in the future vs living my life the way I am used to.

So I explained in my previous posts, how I handled every aspect of my life very poorly as a result of my terrible breakup. I neglected my health, job, and didn't even care to pay bills including my rent for 2-3 months.

As a result, I was forced out of my luxurious apartment in downtown, and was feeling humiliated by the experience, as well as feeling shitty about myself for allowing a pathetic woman to get me to this point.

I was shopping around for other apartments to rent, and applied and got approved for 2 equally nice apartments and was going to go for it, but then I had a few of my friends telling me to not rent a place so expensive and focus on saving money for a year or so and buying my own place instead.

I make a decent salary $ 100k but due to my previous lifestyle I wasn't saving shit, and always lived beyond my means.

So one of my relatives who is a very successful real estate investor told me to stop wasting money on renting expensive apartments and to try having a roomate or something for a year until I have saved enough and improved my credit score which was fucked by my irresponsible spending habits.

But I feel like shit. The fact that I went from living in a super cool place that made girls fight over who is going to sleep there to living in short term rentals until I could find another permanent place. This really hurt my perceived SMV and I suddenly feel like my SMV was hit hard by my loss of status.

Fuck I just can't imagine myself living in a shitty apartment with roomates and going out and gaming women knowing that I will be ashamed bringing them over.

Part of me wants to go ahead and get a nicer place to live even if I don't save enough, the other part wants to listen to what people are saying and saving up to be able to get my own place in a year or so. I can't make up my mind. I don't want to give my ex the satisfaction of thinking that my living conditions have deteriorated, even if chances she'll find out are very slim as we cut all contact.

What would you guys do?!