Reply To: “I’m Angry About My Future Financial Situation”

LW here, for added context: we both work in the natural sciences/conservation biology type of work. He works for the federal government (technically at $15/hr but I fudged his number by a dollar bc I was nervous about posting publicly initially) and I work for the state. People keep telling us about “amazing government benefits” but honestly they suck. We both got our degrees from the same school, a state college (ends in SU). I moved through four different states getting experience in my field, and I’ve moved through 3 different jobs already. My starting fulltime pay in 2020 was $12 an hour. At my most recent job I just moved laterally into a new role that’s less physically demanding four months ago. My field is both competitive and specific so I do have a good resume but job hopping too much looks bad & I’ve already done so much & moved through so many states. I think I’d have to go back to school to switch fields to something that pays well, and I simply don’t have the money to do that without student loans that all my current coworkers already have and I see them suffering under.