I’m 33 and my wife is 35. We both went to college and are still paying down student loans. Admittedly I chose a degree in economics which has proved to not be very practical. We both work and live in Denver and we live in a 4 bedroom house with 5
people in it including me and the wife. During Covid my company decided it was necessary to cut health insurance benefits so we could “stay competitive in uncertain times”. The same year they reported record profits and always kept this attitude that they were struggling and had no money for cost of living pay increases. I had to get my health insurance off the marketplace and it costs roughly $415 a month.
I have bipolar type 1 with acute psychosis and an anxiety disorder. I had a severe manic episode that lead to my Hospitalization for almost a month in 2021. I had the foresight to make sure I went to an in-network hospital. I was not really capable of making rational healthcare decisions for myself. I took what they gave me. I saw the specialists they recommended. I did what I was told to get better. I ended up finding out afterwards that though my hospital was in-network, none of my doctors were. The medicine I was prescribed did not fit my insurance’s formulary, whatever that it. I was charged over $2500 a day after what I considered “premium insurance” refused to pay for a large portion of my stay. 75k of debt later i am working for a delivery service in my spare time. I feel that I have been completely looked over for any career advancement in my job since my hospitalization. I have been told in my performance reviews that I am “unreliable”. I have never missed a day of work outside my Hospitial stay, I show up early and often stay late and even come in on the weekends sometimes. I feel like we have done everything that we were supposed to do. At least as far as what my parents told me about the world. But we are constantly struggling to stay above water.
The money we were saving to get our own place went to my medical bills. I feel immense guilt about this. My wife feels a ton of pressure to have kids before it’s “too late” but I don’t want to bring children into such a financially unstable environment. I don’t want my kids to have to worry if there will be food on the table or have to live in a house with random other adults. Maybe my standards are too high, I just didn’t expect life to be like this. Sometimes I feel like giving up.
All I hear about is how millennials are lazy and don’t want to work. This is completely untrue among my group of
friends.
I wonder if boomers know that their greed has created a situation where my generation can’t afford kids. Boomers will end up alone with no one to care for them and only a big pile of money for comfort. Idk if this is the place to talk about this but I feel better getting it off my chest.