Mostly this is just a rant, but Friday 2/11/2022 is the day I officially became a non-believer and 100% mercenary. It's the day I looked at my finances and my life and my age and realized that, barring some sort of miracle, I was NEVER going to retire to more than bare bones subsistence level. No more games about “experience” or “future potential” or “team player” or whatever they want to say. At this point it's really simple, I will put forth “X” time on the job for “Y” amount of money and THATS IT.
I'm fortunate that I have at least managed to build a decent short-term buffer and have almost no debit but at this point I'd burn it all to the ground and be homeless before I'll keep playing the game this way.