What's the biggest challenge facing young journalists? For me, it's money.

What is the biggest challenge for young journalists? Well, for me it's realizing that I'm not going to be a young journalist for that much longer, and because of that I wonder if I can afford to be a journalist.

I got into this business not too long ago because I felt it pulling at me. The importance of informing communities, helping people understand their place in their community and the world, the need to challenge those in power...these ideas struck me and inspired me to leave a job in PR that just started paying off financially.

Despite a bump in the road (a graduate program that failed to deliver), I've been pretty happy with my decision to enter journalism. I work at an innovative paper, er news organization, that gives me opportunities to report for print, for the Web and for television; it gives me space to explore lots of stories; it's taught me multimedia storytelling methods and has made me feel as if my decision to enter journalism was the right one. Unlike some outlets, this paper takes chances and encourages innovation and exploration.

But, as countless journalists before me can attest, journalism doesn't pad your wallet very well.

And with the media business free falling at an alarming rate, and no true viable business model on the Web, I'm pretty sure it's going to stay that way.

Add the lack of money to a desire to live in a big city (where jobs are shrinking, not growing), and I have a pretty good reason to wonder if I can afford to be a reporter. After all, I've got debts to pay and it's nice to be able to eat and drive my car.

There are social pressures, too. All of my friends, it seems, are getting married, buying houses, having babies. If a woman will ever agree to it, I'd like to get married someday. My romantic failures aside, the prospects of a reporter's paycheck providing the things I would like in my life are slim.

I am satisfied knowing that I am achieving what I want in journalism. But the future is scary. With 30 on the horizon, I realize that I'm not so young anymore and I'm tired of Ramen noodles, tasty as they are.

Can I afford to be a journalist? I just don't know.