My greatest years for income was 2011-2019. Same timeframe got married, had two kids, bought house, etc. Thankfully I saved a fair amount during those good years, making things a little less painful now. Using current paychecks to pay mortgage and inflation, not saving much of anything now, just breaking even.
The savings from before I have in relatively stable investments, and a portion in more volatile things like crypto (doing much better than 2022 in that regard).
I hate my job and I have almost no respect for my employer. Yet at 43 with 5 & 9 year olds and my wife as a homemaker, the thought of re-education, pivoting into something else feels too risky, so I stay in misery with the job I have.
Education doesn't seem to guarantee any tremendous income prospects making that idea even more discouraging.
I consider unlaliving myself quite a lot. That's nothing new really, have felt that since I was a teen. But it's more troubling on my mind than it's ever been before. Only thing that keeps that in check are my wife and kids, leaving them like that would put an unreasonable burden on them.
And so, I just keep keeping on I guess.
Always hoping that things will get 'better again' but the pessimistic (realistic) part of my brain kicks in. Back to speaking on finances and current economy, I think my kids generation is going to have a really hard time compared to now.
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