I’m in my 30s so I should be used to this by now, but this shit is getting so stressful guys. I have no savings, my checking account is drained every month with rent, and if there’s ever a serious emergency I have no safety net, I’m legitimately fucked. I’m one unplanned expense away from absolute ruin. Those in the same boat as me, how do you deal with this?
A lot of the good answers are already posted. I’ll share my experience.
A bunch of people I know, including myself, rose out of retail hell through customer service jobs. My first one was making $55k/year (in 2023 dollars. This was a while ago because I’m old) and jumped decently after a year. Plus it was steady work at a desk with insurance. I switched to another company doing the same kind of thing after a year or two, and was able to transfer internally to IT. A couple years later I made the leap to engineering. I don’t have a computer science degree. It was all experience and teaching myself.
A bunch of other friends took similar paths, and now have higher paying jobs.
But this was in new york city, where there are a lot of startups looking to hire people. And because the companies were small, the jobs weren’t a cubicle hell where you read from a script. I got to actually help people troubleshoot when I was doing IT. That first job I could just talk to people like people.
I don’t know how different it is now or in other parts of the country. I’m not sure how much the pandemic and AI hype has changed the market. But getting a first foot in the door is really helpful. You can meet people and get on the job experience.
A lot of job listings might require a college degree, but enough experience can be a substitute. Also knowing people helps a stupid, unfair, amount.
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You get some space by taking a better job and/or better budgeting
OR
You become numb to the grinding system
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You can try to check which expenses could be avoided, look for a better job, study to get a better one in your spare time, get a part time job, do some random tasks in Upwork, etc
You could also legally move to another country and work remotely, earning $1k USD/ month should suffice to have a decent lifestyle almost anywhere, although gentrification is becoming an issue in some places.
Coming back to the stress, you could talk to a therapist and see what could help that situation. Maybe some journaling and life planning could help you identify what’s going on with your life and how you can deal with it.
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If you don’t mind sharing, what education do you have, and what are you currently doing for work?
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