Reality of living in America as a young person right now:
-The deck is 100% stacked in my favor. I am a suburban white girl from a "good family". College educated parents, so we never struggled too hard financially. There are many challenges I have avoided simply because of my upbringing.
-College degree, with academic honors and a minor
-2-3 years of job experience in my field.
~10 years job experience overall
- Lost my previous corporate job in a layoff of 65 people.
-Currently have a full time job RELATED (but not exactly) to my field of study, but it's also a retail position.
-It's a sales position. I have sales numbers I need to hit. (And can be penalized for not hitting them)
-I've done around $400,000 in sales my first year without being fully trained to sell large projects.
-I do not get commission.
-MONTHS and hundreds of job applications return almost nothing.
-Companies will post the same position over and over again with no intention of hiring.
-I cannot pay my rent in full. Haven't been able to in months.
- I use a flex pay service. It allows me to split my rent into two payments, BUT there is a fee for the transactions, and a monthly "membership" fee. So I pay MORE than my rent because I can't afford it up front. And I know that's bad, but I literally cannot pay it all at once with my other bills.
-Student loan repayment just got started up again, so I now have to make an additional payment I cannot afford. Or they could garnish my wages.
-I just signed up for a service that allows me to sell my blood/plasma. It's "donating" but you get paid. I'm selling my blood to be able to eat. And I might not even qualify for it.
-They have TONS of ads. Are you getting married? SELL YOUR BLOOD TO PAY FOR IT. Are you in college and need books? SELL YOUR BLOOD TO PAY FOR IT. Tax season is coming up, are you stressed? SELL YOUR BLOOD IT WILL HELP.
-Its for a good cause AND you get paid. BUT it's so fucked up that you can literally sell your blood and its seen as a good side hustle.
-Stopped going to the dentist a year or so ago because they stopped accepting my insurance and I cannot afford appointments.
-Have skipped Doctors appointments because I cannot afford them, even with insurance.
-If I get sick, I have to go to work because I cannot afford to miss days. I only have 1 paid sick day available right now. So if I'm sick for 3 days, I will only get paid for 1. And the other 2 that I was expecting on the paycheck will not be there.
-I "earn" 4 hours of paid sick time a month.
-I budget every dollar I have. Don't go out to eat, only buy secondhand clothes, generic everything.
-Right now I have $6 until Thursday. ($16 now because I sold a plant cutting)
-I'm TRYING to save money, but 90% of my income goes to bills BEFORE I pay for food.
-Oh yeah, also the fascism.
germansingergirl
jacobvanloon
pixelskylines
