Hear me out. Grew up broke so I spent the last 10 years through high school and college hustling, trying to figure out my next side gig to pay for tuition, housing, my first car, etc. I tracked everything, saved up for big trips and expenses, and it was a lot of fun
I graduated college this year and started working. Paid off my loans which was satisfying, and then automated everything. I've maxed out my 401K and Roth IRA, hit my emergency fund goal, and its all been so boring. My 401K has gone up 14% in 6 months and I feel nothing.
I'm able to spend money when I want to and nothing seems exciting anymore because I'm not making any expenditures that rock the boat. Juggling finances used to make me excited. For example, I bought my first car a couple of years ago for $7K when I had $30k saved up but had even more in student loans. This was pretty exciting and I planned a lot for this. I just went on a trip (within the country and away from people), spent $3k or so and I didn't even feel it since I've already pre-calculated a trip budget for the year.
On top of this, I feel borderline gross paying for things now. For example, I always wanted to try snowboarding but it's pretty so expensive so I never did. I always joked with my friends how I'm simply not privileged enough for those sorts of things. I got my first private lessons and it immediately made me feel like I'm one of "those" privileged people now.
I am sure the pandemic compounded this as a mental health issue since I haven't been able to enjoy life normally, but is this just life now? How do you deal with this?
Submitted November 26, 2020 at 06:03PM by SensitiveQuail https://ift.tt/3lcOajw
