Currently I'm making around 35,000 and would be in a bad place financially without a lucky rental situation with family. My job is full time essential health care, requires a certification and a keen eye for details. A small mistake can easily end a life, I could probably kill thousands of people in a single day if for whatever reason I made the right errors and it wasn't caught. In the last six months I haven't made a single mistake (mistakes are hopefully always caught by a system of checks). I got about a twenty cent raise yesterday and will not get another until next year, same amount. I am making above average for my profession.
I do overtime every week. I am terrified my dog will get sick. Grocery bills make me want to puke. My car is getting old and becoming less and less reliable. I put nothing into retirement or savings. All I want is a life where I have enough for what I need and can actually put some into retirement. I don't want a fancy new car, I don't want to travel the world, I just want to be able to buy a little house someday and have a garden and afford all my bills without fear.
I found a job opening offering 60,000 to 70,000 a year. It sounds like it's a stressful job with a lot of outside of work hours and I would probably hate every minute of it but I am still so damn hopeful I will get it. I don't care. I never wanted to be the person who sold out for money. When I was younger I always said I would do the job that made me happy but paid little. That's just not the real world. I can be miserable and poor or miserable and less poor and I'll gladly take the second option.