I'm in my late 20s and working for a nonprofit that pays me about 38k a year. I don't have any debt and about 30k in savings plus 10k tied up in 401k/Roth IRA, but I'm having a lot of trouble accepting where I am. Basically, I wish I made more money, but working in the nonprofit field means I will probably never make enough to feel super comfortable. (EDIT: I live in a large city that has a high cost of living. Yeah, I realize I could choose to move, but I love this place and can't imagine being happy anywhere else.)
It's important to me that I have a fulfilling job, which I do, but sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't just go back to school for something I feel lukewarm about that may give me a better salary in the long run. I want so badly to be able to BUY things. And although I feel like I have decent spending/saving habits and I'm proud of how much I've been able to build up in the 5 years I've been working, it really just hit me how far I am from ever being able to buy something "big." I don't see how I'll ever have enough money on hand to own a house or buy my own car, let alone start a family, if I want to also keep a good chunk of savings on hand and not live paycheck-to-paycheck. I want to own my own place so badly... I'm so tired of renting, dealing with crappy landlords, and living with roommates, just to keep costs down--but the bottom line is that my salary is too low for me to ever make the jump and feel good about it.
I'm sure I'll make slightly more money in the future, if the company is successful and good to me (this year's raise was 2%, sigh), but nonprofits notoriously do not pay well, and that's all I'm trained for. Breaking 40k would be amazing to me. I can't even begin to imagine what I would do with my money if I made 50k; at this point that would be miraculous.
Apologies if this isn't the right forum for it, but I see a lot of people in similar situations here and thought it'd be worth it to ask this less practical question: Any tips on how to feel better about where you are in life, financially?
Submitted February 11, 2017 at 12:36PM by locksee http://ift.tt/2l18R75
