On Savings

As a young student, perhaps in middle school or high school I remember the question of what I wanted to DO with my life coming up. Do I want to be a doctor? An engineer? A police officer? I remember having vague ideas of what these careers earn. But no, I wanted to be an artist. I would be fine with little $. What they don't tell you though is it isn't just you! Soon you're 36, and your parents are old and they didn't save properly and you have a mentally unstable serial birther sister draining their finances and you have no idea how you're going to keep EVERYONE from the streets when no one dissuaded you from idiotically going into the arts. So you have to hide out on the other side of the world and never discuss money so everyone assumes you're poor or else you'll have to support them.

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Self compassion

Nov 19, 2019 at 5:19pm

You chose something you loved. You don’t have to move to the other side of the world to avoid them. If they are a caring family they will know that you are not solely responsible for them. You can still change your career path and there are government supports for your parents too. However, if they were abusive or negligent you can consider less of a role or no role in caretaking them. You might be able to use your skills in your current field to work towards something. 36 is young, in the scheme of things. I’m the same age and I know they life can be tough but I’m sending you my love and encouragement. Ignore the haters.

Who Told You

Nov 19, 2019 at 5:31pm

That you are responsible and have to spend your life working for the choices of others, and paying for someone who probably doesn't give a F about you?

@Who Told You

Nov 19, 2019 at 6:30pm

Those of us who are not Corporatists Assholes recognize family is natural, "society" is a cheap fake.

When you are 85, do you want to be in a Government facility or with your family?

How quaint

Nov 19, 2019 at 9:49pm

When you're 85, your family will have long since put you into some sort of retirement facility.
Because you'll need more supervision and medical intervention than they can provide, from people who are not so vulnerable to your tantrums and manipulation.
And that's assuming they don't stop or reverse aging by then. Which is very likely, on current trend.
So pick it up and start making some bank. At 36 you have no excuse.
My father changed careers in his 50s, in the US. And that's much harder to do there. Now he's long past retirement age, still working full-time (on contract) at one of the largest aerospace companies in the world, and has clearances coming out of everywhere.
You'll run out of money long before you run out of lifespan. The bad choices of your adolescence are done and over with. Long past time for adulting.
You're over 35. Grow the f up.

OP

Nov 19, 2019 at 10:55pm

'How quaint' I didn't write @Who Told You. But the horse you rode in on and all that?

Anonymous

Nov 19, 2019 at 11:44pm

Tantrums and manipulation is all they've got. They'll never grow up. Even 40 years old act like entitled babies these days holding onto their toys. Being coddled and having everything handed on a silver platter will do that to you.

How quaint

Nov 20, 2019 at 12:17am

You're missing my point.
And reading self-righteousness into what is instead a dire sense of urgency.
You can easily change your career, and may have to do it several times over. So get going. No one wants to take care of anybody anymore. Not even the state.
Do you really want to rely on the financial support of others? Seeing as they can just as easily lose it. And by "it", I mean their sh*t, and also their own support.
Choose work that pays, and bank more than you spend. Preferably in at least two different banks, or maybe even different countries. If you get robbed, you'll still have some left.
Support yourself. The sooner you start, the easier the rest of your life will become.
And loyal, dependable companions are very hard to come by.
Hell is other people, as Sartre implied in No Exit. Don't count on them.

17 6Rating: +11

Anonymous

Nov 20, 2019 at 1:46am

@Anonymous Nov 19, 2019 at 11:44pm

Even 40 years old act like entitled babies these days holding onto their toys? Every Babyboomer I know behaves like that. They're oversized children.

7 20Rating: -13

Anonymous

Nov 20, 2019 at 2:14am

Real artists have no families.

OP

Nov 20, 2019 at 5:39am

I don't know about silver platters or coddling (or tantrums or manipulation). But I can admit to one bourgeois extravagance: I have slept on a bed since Jan 2019. The last time I did that at all consistently was back in 2011. Maybe you're imagining someone else.

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