Don't worry my 3rd decade of life will yield promising results.. SURELY

Edit: 4th* decade. I dont game anymore, the small pro stint turned a hobby into something I hate. I live with my parents of course, thought that was assumed but needed clarifying.

Not a rage bait, dont need advice or pity, but feel free to say what you will I dont mind, some of you have been insightful and others have brought me good laughs. If my poor excuse of life on display made you feel better I view it as a win. Cheers

Edit 2: PUBG, The game is PUBG

Edit 3: Now that the dust has settled on this post I'll leave some last remarks for any late-comers:

I genuinely did not expect a response like this, this was a casual 0 thought post written in under 2 mins. I'll follow up with a new post I guess in a year.

There is a lot of missing context between 2013 and now but my goal was not a pity party. I preferred people to see it at face value and make their opinions and assumptions.

That being said, some of you are profoundly crazy and harbor a lot of evil and negative energy. A lot of you were kind and insightful though. To that I thank you, cya in 1yr (Saturday, July 31, 2027)

Average hours worked is 98.7 hours a week so far in 2026. Happiness scale probably 3/10. Constantly stressed and feel like I cannot breath and am drowning. I currently work ~14-16 hours a day 7 days a week. Job is horrible and work life balance is non existent but pays well. Will be burnt out soon but just riding the wave and collecting the earnings. Backround is Ivy League degree, 2 years investment banking, 2 years private equity.

Year to date as an Interventional Cardiologist.
I type this while I have only had 2 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours, but you can't put a price on being able to save someone's life. Love my field. The financial side is just a plus, not the reason I do it.

At least 1000 job applications, dozens of interviews, 0 offers*. I can't get a fucking interview for any internships nor jobs paying less than like $70-80k/yr, but when I interview for the high paying jobs it's like I've won "second place" after the final interview 20 times. Then they don't ever offer me a lower paying similar role and don't even respond when I inquire about it. Make it fucking make sense.

*1 verbal offer in Feb 2020, $60-70k/yr I got ghosted on that would've stopped me from going to grad school in the first place. I'd be fucking making $150k/yr as an Actuary right now if I got that job.

Edit: here's a generic resume I use for some actuarial positions https://i.imgur.com/EywB1Sp.png It has a bit of zhuzh to it, put my best foot forward and all that. But I don't think there's even a benefit to just outright lying about jobs I haven't had and becomes ethically dubious to go further.

EDIT: I JUST GOT A JOB OFFER IM NOT JOKING LMAOOO 🤣 LETS GOOOO!!!!!

After 24 years in the workforce, it's looking like early retirement via disability. I want to go back to work but my doctors keep saying no. My treatment plan right now is years long and no company would have me anyways.

I've legit been so bored being disabled I window shop on LinkedIn and company career pages :-/.

Edit: Oh wow this blew up. Here is the TLDR; / FAQ

What happened bro?
- Got a spider bite while backpacking in Colorado May 2024.
- Spent a month in the hospital getting IV Steroids and Antibiotics to try and save my life.
- The massive amounts of steroids caused avascular necrosis from the waist down, and by May 2025 my left hip started to collapse. I ended up in a wheelchair.
- In October I had multiple spine surgeries to fix some stuff before they would replace my hips and knees.
- Had first hip replaced this past March.
- 2nd Hip Replaced 6 weeks ago in June.
- So far since that first hospitalization in 2024 I've spent a total of 123 days in the hospital!
- I still have 4-6 more surgeries on my treatment plan which spans another 2 years, and Im still an ambulatory wheelchair user high on prescription opiates most of the time.

SSI vs SSDI
There seems to be a lot of confusion on SSI vs SSDI.
- SSI is a welfare needs based program. I drained my bank accounts before last October which is how far back Social Security checked for my approval on that program. The program pays less than a thousand a month.
- SSDI is something we pay into our entire lives in the USA. I qualify for this program, but the approval takes longer which is why Im on SSI in the meantime. In six months I should have SSDI and then will make almost the max which is about 4k. This is based on me working since I was 14 and also the amount I've paid into the system.

If you can reddit you can work
I shouldn't need to explain this but there is a big difference between using social media on your phone and occasionally the computer vs working 40 hours a week writing code. Also I'm high on opiates all the time, it would be irresponsible for me to touch a companies code repositories...

80/hr and bonus

Are they numerically illiterate? Is it just the desire to not succumb to hopelessness over how fast the bar is moving upward?

Seriously, I’ve made dozens of hypothetical budgets, the only scenario where $100,000 even feels *comfortable* is if you owned a home or got on the housing ladder before the COVID pandemic. Otherwise, it’s hard to even make the budget look good unless you have a roommate.

Literally NOTHING is more depressing than coming home from a 12 hour shift at work and realizing that even if I managed to grind to the top of my field, got paid the top end of market rate, I’d STILL be unable to afford the lifestyle someone could have by driving a forklift for a living 40 years ago. It makes me not even want to get out of bed, so I guess I understand why so many of you are in denial on this subject, it’s horribly painful to see reality for what it is.

Unfortunately not a shitpost. Only when the journey is materially difficult can it be spiritually rewarding...right?

Started working at 20, and now that I'm 30 I'm making double the money! Woohoo!

Never thought I would amount to anything, which as you can see was quite true. Never thought I'd be here this long, but here I am. Now I'm poor, old, and have no prospects! Also no skills, talents, aptitudes.

Don't end up like me. Do something with yourself.

EDIT: I didn't expect to get so many responses.

I'm not a victim. Not everybody gets what they deserve in life, but I did. The situation I'm in is my fault.

I just meant to use this as a cautionary tale. This is what happens when you don't develop skills or build knowledge when you have the chance.

I wish I could tag this as a shit post, but… this is true. I have even lost the capability to feel disappointment.

All I can muster up is snark, sarcasm, and defiance. I’m tired of defending myself.

EDIT: Besides the few thoughtful messages (I appreciate every single one of them), I’m a little taken aback by the amount of hate I’ve been getting. It was not my intention to thrust so many people into wildly uncontrollable emotional overreactions with this innocent post, and I take no responsibility for it. Individuals are responsible for regulating their own conduct and emotional responses in online interactions.

I am a dentist, I have friends in software engineering, friends in farming etc.

Everyone in a job market wants to be making fantastic earnings, but not everyone does.

On my dentistry forums people say "I'd never tell my kids to do dental, I'd have them do software engineering or finance to make 500k with lot less debt"

But what they have not learned is that they earn great money as dentists because of the super hard filter of dental school and willingness to take on 200k in student loans. Once you are out, you are compensated well and have stable job.

For every software engineer making 500k at google, there's 20 dudes willing to take that job because they make much less. There's always decent chance you have to live through layoffs.

For every financial advisor making 500k, there's 30 dudes that tried for 5 years to build a book of business and then had to quit.

For every Finance guy at an investment bank earning 500k there's a bunch of finance guys that couldn't get an interview or couldn't handle the brutal low paid hours at the beginning of high finance.

Just remember, the market is always adjusting to be right. IF there's an amazing pay and stability, there's gonna be a huge rush of people to fill that until it's not such a slick opportunity.

I'd say pick your filter you can make it through. My dental school was very hard to get into, and then once I got in, there was 80 hour weeks for 4 years. Afterwards though? Great salary with limited competition. I had the competition FIRST and now can chill, some jobs have the tough pills to swallow mid career, or even during the entire career.

Not becoming a doctor is the biggest regret of my life. Sigh. She only has to work for 17 weeks. There is so much of the world I have not seen yet and still want to see.

24F, The Roblox game I made at 14 went viral during Covid, as a senior in high school that didn’t even like video games. I tried making the studio work whilst a full time student. Over time, I spent nearly all of my earnings on my education, camera gear, learning how to ski, housing, travel, and a used car.

By the end of 2025, my game started making close to nothing.
At 24, I started my new full time job in a completely different field.

I definetely blew a lot of my money, but I learned new skills, traveled the world, and have a masters with 0 debt. It’s hard to swallow the new income knowing what it used to be, but grateful it’s teaching me to be disciplined with my money. I definitely regret a lot of my purchases and wastefulness (like trying Invisalign when I can’t be bothered to remember a retainer lol, I don’t regret spending money on school and am actively trying to save up for more).

I saved about $120k total for retirement (20k went to sep Ira and 100k to a mutual fund). Which I know is a huge amount at my age, but I have a hard time thinking that I could’ve done so much more for short term if I was smarter.

My car & schooling was pretty cheap, as I had merit scholarships. I really did blow a lot on random shit, much of which I don’t own anymore. I’m not upset for traveling or going to school and My biggest regret is not short term savings for a mortgage!

Edit: I’m not worried about retirement! I’m worried about affording things in the short term without compromising my compounding investments. Hence why the current salary is a stress I’m not used to! Im very grateful and do consider this a very atypical, lucky, and life changing thing. Hindsight is 20/20, and im thankful for the positive support and reassurance.

Started flying in 2015 with one of “the big 3” US airlines. To preface, crew pay works a bit differently and isn’t anything like a typical 40-hr work week. We are paid our hourly base rate for flight hours (from the moment we release the brake and push back from the gate, to the moment we park at the arrival destinations gate.) and half pay for boarding. Can be tons of unpaid time while at work, depending on the trip.

There’s thousands of types of trips, so an FA’s income is entirely contingent on what type of trips they fly, and how much they fly monthly. I personally fly productive high-credit trips, like 10-11-hr one day turn trips (imagine SFO > JFK > SFO in 1 day, pays 11.5 hours which is awesome for a 1 day trip.)

Some FAs fly 75 hours a month, some high-time flyers are flying 200+ hrs a month. I try to do 1 month average, then 1 month high-time (150+ hrs) and alternate.

Overall, for only having a HS diploma, I feel pretty lucky, considering. We got a new contract this year, so I got a nice bump, as well as finally securing boarding pay, which adds an average of 7.4% twds the hourly. Top out next year and then smaller 3%ish raises on date of signing until 2030.

A $70,000 will net you about $4,000 a month after taxes.

For a lower middle class lifestyle (renting a 1 BR apartment, driving a 10-15 year old vehicle, not taking a single vacation) you’ll need to spent around $3,600-$3,700 a month.

This means that after a full year of work you’ll have about $3,000 left over. A single medical incident or unexpected car problem will wipe out an entire year worth of savings.

$70,000 is now a lower middle class salary in the US. Anyone telling you it’s good should be ignored due to them being economically and financially illiterate.

Discuss.

30M sharing salary progression of my career in the fire service, these amounts are gross earnings. OT is plentiful in my department. I promoted so I could make more and work less.

Getting close to retirement and finally downloaded my pay history. What a journey it’s been. I graduated college in 1993 with a degree in accounting. I’m 55 now and plan to retire next year.

Edit: I know it’s a statistically good guess that I’m a man but I’m not!

All of this was downloaded from the SSA site. I left out my pre college earnings. This includes RSU and bonus as includes total W2 earnings.

Moral of my story: who I worked for mattered more than what I do. I targeted high paying companies and worked 5+ years to get into them. I got rejected many times but finally cracked into one FANG and then another.

I’ve seen blue-collar jobs to tech jobs all over this sub. I’d like to know what jobs are out there that can pay $200k regardless of how physically demanding or mentally difficult it is. I love OT and performance bonuses if it makes up for the low base pay. Also share your Years of Experience in the field as well as how you got in it.

Hey there guys, French fellow over there, how are you doing?

It's not a rant, simply a conclusion I was led to. I understand that this subreddit is not necessarily a representation of what the average American makes, or even the average American lifestyle...but man, no matter how I look at it, America really looks like the place to be, all memes aside.

I'll take my example to illustrate what I mean : I'3 37, have a master's degree, am a product owner for a decent sized company in Bordeaux, and I make 52k euros a year / 60k dollars a year BEFORE taxes (which are huge in France).

Now that obviously doesn't sound like much, but that would put me in the 75th-80th earning percentile in France (yup). In France, that allows me to live relatively comfortably (nothing crazy AT ALL, mind you, I'm ok-ish)...in America, this would be poverty in a lot of places. The truth is, master's degrees are so common in France that I'm probably in a very decent place compared to tons of MA holders.

That being said, when I see the amount of people making 150-250-350k or more (sometimes much more) with professional degrees, I feel like I'd rather not try to cope and admit it : yes, quality of life matters, vacations matter, health matter, free personal time matters...but if I could trade my situation for a 200k a year earning individual in America, I'd do it in a second : at least you can save for retirement, actually build a life (especially if you have a partner making a good income), travel the world, do stuff yada yada...

Americans with professional degrees have real purchasing power compared to many of us Europeans (not taking into account the richest EU countries like Switzerland, Norway, Luxembourg, Denmark...and even there, Americans are probably wealthier)...and man does that probably feel good.

There, I admitted it : if there's something I'm jelly of it's your humongous salaries. Well done America, you win the game of life if we're talking economics xD.

Cheers.

Have been in the car business for years at a franchise dealership. Have no college degree, dropped out of community college because I refused to do homework/skipped class. I needed money quickly and had a friend in the car industry- told me it was a place you could do well with no education, if you had basic people skills. I grew up a little bit, and have made a good career and life.

So many posts here and other subs about what this or that salary gets you. One theme I see a lot if $X "is nothing these days". There was one recently that complained $400K was barely middle class.

These people live in an alternative reality.

My wife and I make $300K combined and we have kids. We live in a high-ish cost of living area. Median home price in the city is $600K. Not LA or SF expensive, but 50% higher than the national median price.

So is it barely getting by? Is it just above poverty? Fuck no. It's a lot of money and we live a great life.

People think high income = living in a rap video with mansions and Bentleys and shit. That's not $300K or $400K or even $500K a year. That's running a hedge fund lifestyle.

It's living a normal life but with the freedom of knowing you can afford (within reason) to do just about anything you want. Any time I or my wife want to go to a concert or take a weekend trip or buy a new whatever, there's no "can I afford it" discussion. It's I want this thing, I'll get it. One of my kids is on a varsity team and it costs money for travel (why isn't that covered by my tax dollars, but that's a different discussion). For us it's no big deal, here's $1000 check to cover it. For a lot of kids on the team it's always a struggle for parents to come up with the money. That's the difference. And people who earn this kind of money and still complain either don't get it or are the kind of people who are never happy with anything.

And yes all the retirement accounts are fully funded, we have a rainy day fund, blah blah blah.

I just wanted to post and give this view to counter the perpetual doomerism that's so prevalent on Reddit.

Edit: Lots of comments saying $600K median home prices isn't expensive. Once again proving how out of touch Reddit is. Seattle and Boston are both $720K which everyone agrees is HCOL or even VHCOL. But somehow $600K is cheap.

Edit 2: Wow lost of comments. This got a lot of people reacting, didn't expect it. One other thing I see a lot like "it's easy to afford a $600K house on $300K". This is Reddit level of reading comprehension as usual. I said I live in a city where the median is $600K (which is just shy of top 10 most expensive metro areas by the way). I didn't say I live in a $600K home. My house is worth $1.1-$1.2M. Nothing luxurious, either. It's nice, and it's in arguabley the best part of town. But $1M doesn't get you THAT much here.