So I think I need to lay out some background here:
My fiancé, (30f) and I (34m), live in the US in a relatively low COL area. We both have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety but up until recently, we both have been able to keep jobs and function reasonably well for most of our lives. Both of us have college degrees and decent earning potential. We live together and split rent and utilities.
Life has been really hard on us the past three years or so with the pandemic and family and work issues. A couple years ago we were both so burned out by our jobs and life that we both essentially gave up our full-time workloads and wages in favor of more flexible part-time work options for mental health reasons.
She worked in healthcare and was being overworked like crazy during the pandemic, so she switched to part-time PRN. I worked in aviation and traveled a lot with a terrible schedule and, after a plane crash killed a friend and coworker, I took a part-time office gig at my company that pays 1/3rd less than what I used to make but allows me to work from home most of the time.
We each work between 15-20 hours a week so together we pull in between 30-40 hours of labor. Fortunately we both have decent hourly rates, mine is $25/hr hers is $37/hr. So we make enough to cover rent and utilities and groceries, but that’s about it. Like I said earlier, we live in a relatively low COL city in the Midwest. Together with our combined income, we pull in between $50-60k before taxes. Which is about what we each used to make on our own before moving part-time. Seems like a lot, but split between two people, things can get pretty tight.
We have worked very hard until this point in our lives and we recognize that we have been very lucky that we were able to find these sorts of work accommodations for our mental burnout. But now, having this much schedule flexibility and free time is so amazing that at this point, neither of us can even imagine going back to work mandatory 40+ hours at our old jobs.
Not everything is roses though. We pay out of pocket for mediocre government health insurance and we are barely saving anything for retirement so I don’t know if we will ever be able to do that. We also cannot ever see ourselves in a financial situation where we can comfortably afford a home or have kids. So in effect, we are coming to terms with the fact that we will likely live a very limited/stunted life compared to our parents generation.
I was thinking about this today and I have a feeling that in our generation in the US (millennials) we are not alone.
So my question is, I’ve heard about double income no kids or “DINKS”, but are there any other folks, like us, who are underemployed or have dropped out of the full-time work force and cohabitated to survive due to mental health reasons? Should there be a name for this group? Like UMUS – Underemployed Mentally Unwell Split. Or MUPTS – Mentally Unwell Part-Time Split or something?
What do you guys think? Would love to hear about others in similar situations and what you think we should be called?