We come from different backgrounds, studied different subjects in school, and will do different things with our futures, but if there is one thing we all have in common, it’s that we all secretly want to be Carrie from Sex and the City. We refer to her by her first name and reference her in casual conversation as if we actually know her. We envy her Manolo collection, daily lunch dates at the trendiest restaurants and brownstone apartment in the Upper East Side…which she somehow affords by writing one column a week for The New York Star (yea right). While we might get “carried” away (excuse the bad pun) when we look to her for bold fashion and dating insights, there is actually one very valuable lesson that she teaches us – and that’s don’t rely on a guy as your financial plan.

By the time the season finale aired in 2004, Carrie had been through her share of men. Among some of the most noteworthy were: Aidan Shaw, the rugged furniture designer who evicted her from her own apartment (which he bought during their relationship); twenty-something Sam who had yet to grow up; Jack Berger, the insecure author who broke up with her on a Post-It note; Bill Kelley, the politician who dumped her with the excuse that dating a sex columnist was bad for his reputation; Jeremy, her high school boyfriend turned mental patient, the Russian A.K.A Alexandr Petrovsky who she followed all the way to Paris, and of course Mr. Big. (Here is a video montage to satisfy that twinge of nostalgia that you inevitably just experienced: Sex and the City: The Relationships).

Point being – as Carrie so fabulously demonstrates – for most of us young ladies, men come and go. According to the American Sex Survey sponsored by ABC News, the average woman sleeps with 6 men in her lifetime, and a study by Women’s Health revealed that for most women the number of partners matched closely with number of relationships. So even if you think you have found your Mr. Big, it’s a good idea to maintain your financial independence.

Many young women are out earning their boyfriends these days anyways. According to eWEEK careers, salaries of full-time female employees in their 20s have surpassed those of their male colleagues in big cities like Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis, Dallas and New York. Yet with all of this success, there are still plenty of girls who think men should handle all of the finances. Cosmopolitan just featured an article about rich guys, offering tips for those girls whose long time fantasy is landing a loaded guy. The author writes, “high-income dudes (those earning $104,000 and up, as defined by the Tax Foundation Group in Washington, DC) are on our radar even more thanks to such shows as The Hills, Gossip Girl, and The Millionaire Matchmaker.” I don’t know about you, but I think Gossip Girl and The Hills is the last place I would go for serious advice about anything.

So forget Speidi, and take some advice from our favorite gal to catwalk down the streets of New York: relying on a guy as your financial plan isn’t a plan at all.