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?
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.
my dude how rich are you?
2/3rds the things you suggest, he’d had 0 access to
Can you specify which ones? I’m genuinely interested in what would be difficult to access here. I think maybe the therapist would cost a lot if you don’t find a cheap or even free option, but life planning and journaling are completely free to do on your own, looking for a better job can be done for free on LinkedIn, studying can be done for free in Youtube, getting a part-time job can be done if you have extra time, checking Upwork I think costs now because of the connects but there are probably other free alternatives for task-based gigs.
Going to another country legally should also not cost as much if you prepare for it, but I guess it could be challenging if you don’t have any chance to save any money at all, but going to LATAM should be relatively affordable to Americans and Canadians.
I wouldn’t say I’m rich although I live a frugal albeit comfortable lifestyle, I went to Asia (1 month) and Europe (3 months) last year while earning $6 per hour, I just had to save for a few months, I was renting studios in city centers so not even going to hostels and eating crackers. I’d say I spent around $3k on that trip
Besides the therapist, moving to a foreign country requires savings. Getting broke overseas, likely without knowing local language, sounds like a very bad idea.
I agree. Moving to another country, even if it is on paper requires money. So does a therapist. I’m in a better position than op and I don’t get a therapist although I could use one.
Self study is important though. speaking from experience with the same life experience as op, learning a new trade and going with it has changed my life for the better by a lot. finding the right (paying) employerin the trade is a bit of work (years). some jobs just don’t pay enough to live off. I know it’s wrong.
A tip I can give op is to put the savings in a bank account you don’t have access to. in the same of somebody else. I went through a period of cash only. This was pre-smartphone, so transfers between accounts required me to go to the bank. Perhaps move financial applications to a secondary phone if you have one, or install when needed.
It’s funny because that’s a big part of capitalism for when people couldn’t afford to keep up, and people like him don’t see how expensive it is to be poor. They’ve been convinced it’s not the systems problem, and people who are poor just want to be poor. Bootstraps and all, and they think they are giving sound and reasonable advice.
“Just spend thousands of dollars on for profit education, for profit health-care and for profit real-estate, and you’ll be back on your feet in no time! Here’s a 20% interest loan to get ya started”.
I think this is a completely wrong take on my reply, not sure why you’d see that giving practical advice on what OP can do about their situation and also how to deal with the stress is telling them to pull themselves by the bootstraps and me saying the system is ok, we all know the system is rigged and pretty much RNG. Most good jobs are gotten through networking by knowing the right people, not merit-based so I’m just trying to give OP some options based on how I’ve dealt with being broke.
I think just complaining about the system won’t achieve much, unless it’s an actual collective action that does elicit meaningful change.
You suggested he spend thousands of dollars moving, or thousands of dollars getting a shrink. I spoke of the system but that’s not why I think your advice is out of touch.
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You can try for customer support, legal assistant, virtual receptionist, virtual assistant, scheduler, appointment setter, or just go into sales if you are good at that, all of those pretty normally don’t require any experience at all.
If you have some good tech skills you can also go for help desk or it technician.
Btw school would be ideal to learn something but it’s not the only way to learn, you can try Udemy or just YouTube to learn a lot of stuff that could help you land a new job.
Lots of ways to educate yourself for a new job. You could take night classes at the local junior college if you have some money, or you can find free things online that would relate more directly to the sort of work you want to apply to. E.g. learning the basics of Excel at night for a month.
Post questions here if you’re looking for specific resources. You’d be surprised what you can find online for free!
Other comment has great recommendations for the sorts of jobs you could do with minimal experience.