The financial struggle just to exist is exhausting. My wife died over 8 years ago and I raied our two children who are in college. The politics around my job are horrible and getting worse thanks to some very misguided individuals at the state level. I have tried to find another job but the competitition is stiff and most employers want a younger person.
Thanks to the greed on wall street, corporations outsourcing Asmerican jobs, the governments huge deficiets and low interest rates our IRAS and 401K’s have tanked several times over the past 15 years leaving it with being no where close to retire on. Combining this with a possible layoff, decrease in home values and what is the point of continuing this struggle?
It seems that my family would be better off with a term life insurance policy that is to expire in the next few years. It would at least let them pay off student loans. And my day to day struggle to exist would be over.
2 comments
I hear you and I sympathize immensely. We all have our problems and issues and being here on this website I see there are many who have money issues. Personally I do not, so it is hard to relate.
What I can say though, from a lifetime of moving around and having to restart, now that your kids are in college, is it possible they can look after themselves a little bit more? How much support do they still need? I know the US is a major headache with college fees etc. The reason I ask is have you thought of just jacking it all in, moving away, to a new country, just traveling, and just bumming around and experiencing other things away from all the corporate crap.
It is my strategy (if I do not kill myself). It may seem a little pie in the sky and difficult, and I am struggling even with the freedom I have to do that, to actually do it. But have you thought about that?
Who knows, in a few years, 5 or 10, maybe you want to pick up life again and start with something else.
I am not as old as you, I’m probably closer to your kids ages as I graduated college a few years ago – but money has always been the be all and end all in my life. It was minor when I was a kid. As I got older, we nearly lost the house. My dad had to sell the car just to cover the mortgage, etc. I had to work a job I hated for a year, and another job I hated for a year and a half part time, just to put myself through college. Now I am a graduate with no job, because my undergrad degree is not enough on its own to secure employment, and I have no money left to do a post-grad or masters. I can’t see any real future for myself, I have absolutely no money to my name, and I don’t see how anything in my life will ever be defined by anything but money.
So while I can’t quite empathize yet, I can see myself being you in another twenty or thirty years. And in that capacity, I absolutely sympathize. It’s an incredibly unfair struggle. I really hope though, that you find some kind of breakthrough. It sounds like you really deserve it.