Discussion how can i accept that ill be stuck in middle class?

[Leonard_Bangley39]

I'm making 18 dollars an hour at my current job. that's about 37k a year. My rent plus utilities is ~1200 a month. phone is 55 a month. groceries could vary around 50 to 100 a month. if i finally get my license then a cheap used car would be around 400-500 a month. gas if it costs around 25 to fill up and i need to fill up every 2 weeks would be around 50 a month. minimum car insurance would be around 50 a month. in total that leaves me with around 1200 a month left in disposable income to save up. a lot of those numbers are just random guesses based on brief Google searches because I've never owned a car or had to get gas so idk if it would cost more than that or not. But either way, that doesn't leave me with a lot of savings each month, and that's if i just spend every day sitting in my room doing absolutely nothing ever. all it would take is one accident and all my savings would be gone. oh, and that's all before tax.

to live relatively worth free of becoming paycheck to paycheck, of have to make already 25 an hour. but the chances of me finding a job that pays 25 an hour with my skills is zero. i have no degree, i suck at "selling myself" during interviews, i have nothing that would make anyone want to hire me for anything other than some crappy retail wagie job.

and while i could try to go bank into welding, the blue collar industry really isn't that welcoming to beginners than everyone thinks. i suck at welding, and no company will want to employ me long enough to build up my skills and experience. I'm stuck.

How can i come to terms with the fact that I'll most likely be stuck like this?

 

[Seneca65AD]

These are tough questions to answer because what you are experiencing is different than what I see. As an old guy, I see a person who has the greatest asset of all - time. And any advice I give comes strictly from my own paradigm of having lived 60 years on this earth. So, take the following for what it's worth - a good faith attempt to be helpful with the very real possibility that nothing I say actually helps......

My first task would be to find what actually gets me excited about life? If I had to design a life where I was forced to do "something", what would I do that makes me want to get out of bed? Of course secret agent billionaire is a great occupation but they are quite limited in number. For me it would probably be commercial piloting, working for the FBI, even ghost hunting, etc. So, once my list is made, my next evaulation is the education or pre-requisites needed to get into that area. Then I would plan out one full year to be able to enter into training for what I decided to pursue.

Then it comes down to working towards it - spend 1-2 hours daily reading on the topic, make contacts by volunteering if you can, join discussion forums, etc. If it takes you X years to get the needed education, then so what? You have the time to pursue and achieve your goals.

I use the following analogy with my daughter: The most important thing to achieve your goals is to have the end in mind. When we travel to California or Florida for her competions, we do not know every little turn, or exactly what we need to do at mile XXX of the trip. All we know is where we want to go and we adapt accordingly to get there. We really only see the smallest fraction ahead of us when compared to the entire trip - but that is all we need to make it.

Al Pacino's character in Any Given Sunday gives a locker room speech that really resonated with me - football and life are just the 6 inches in front of your face. Those inches are all around us, we just need to keep moving forward.

Also, a cousin of mine works as a welder. He loves it. So, if you liked it, then you can get better at it. I find success usually comes down to simply not giving up - my history is based on that. But then again, I'm posting on a suicide message board so take what I say with the proverbial grain of salt. Good luck - I'm pulling for you no matter what you decide.

Edited for spelling - actually I can spell - apparently I can't type....

 

[F@#$]

Welcome to the world. They've got us right where they want us.