I work for a medium-sized engineering firm, I make about $100k USD a year before taxes as a middle manager/team lead engineer, this is enough for a lower middle class perpetual renters lifestyle in the city where I live. I paid off my student loans last year (much cheaper here than in the US). I get PTO and sick leave and support myself and my partner who is suffering heavily from burnout after a very abusive work culture she had to endure for many years and so only works part time.
I would consider my lifestyle to be the bare minimum dignified lifestyle a working person should expect – I am not rich, I pay $2400 a month in rent (on the cheap end in my city), and after bills and expenses it means I can save a little for our future and we can take the odd domestic vacation. I could feasibly do this until I'm too old to work and maybe even retire in my 80s with a modest lifestlye if we don't have kids which we do not want to.
The thing is… I don't want to do this. My job is insanely stressful, we are perpetually understaffed, our turnover is huge and my industry is very niche so it seems like we just never have the staff to cover all our bases and I'm constantly having to clean up after what amounts in my view to an unsustainable business model that relies on middle managers like myself to constantly go above and beyond our duties. I work crazy hours and I have a huge amount of responsibility. I find the work to be interesting but not fulfilling in any way. I did everything “right” – I studied hard, I sacrificed relationships and even my health to get my degree and build my career, I was flat broke until I got my first engineering gig at 25 and even now I feel like I'm just barely getting by comfortably on a low end six figure salary. This is not the life I was promised, and I think a lot of us feel this way.
I believe that I can't really quit – I don't think chasing an extra 10k a year will make a material difference, and my company for all its flaws is a good place to work, the team is great and they really do support us as much as they can. I feel like I gave up some of the best years of my life to get ahead and instead I've just found myself getting by. My parents were doing better than me at my age on the single income of my dad as a roof tiler.
I guess I'm just sick of feeling this way. I'm grateful for the comfort I have but I feel like I have pushed as hard as I can and am standing still. I don't think I'll ever own a home or really feel stability. I don't know what to do and I guess I'm wondering what the folks here do to get by day-to-day. I see a psychiatrist, but for all the great work they do they can't really change the material conditions of the end of history.
Sorry for the rant and TIA.