To echo what some people have said, if you haven’t changed jobs in the last year or two; you absolutely should do so.

As you’ve realized, there’s only so much you can do on the cost side to have things balance. Cost of living has risen relentlessly, but thankfully in many areas wages are finally growing too, and new hires usually get the higher rates.

So not changing jobs frequently, especially in the industries you mentioned, is just leaving money on the table.

Aside from that, definitely look into trades, but also look into local government, healthcare (like being a patient scheduler at a hospital), really any industry you are looking to break into as a career.

They really need the help now, especially for entry level positions, and if you do a good job, you could parlay that into a career in an industry you’re excited about.

So spend like 30 minutes each day looking for jobs, and don’t stop until you’re hired. Remember, even if you end up hating it, you can always quit and get rehired immediately in industries you’re more familiar with, because they also desperately need help too.

Going to be USA centric because I don’t need you doxxing yourself, just giving you ideas of what to look for where ever you happen to be.

If you’ve got solid internet access and enough work/life stability that you can start doing research into any government assistance programs and community groups that help navigate the processes that are in the area.

I live in the USA, and my partner and I finally got poor enough that we could get enrolled in Medicaid (Medicare is for the old folks). Partner found that the Medicaid would pay for a pretty serious surgery they’d kinda been needing for years (the final price that the government paid was a bit more than $30,000).

Back when I spent more time in Reddit, there was a post on in r/AntiWork about some USA government assistance in paying for internet (and possibly a cheap smart phone). I looked into it, found we qualified, and the process wasn’t too hard to navigate on my own.

There is a program called LIHEAP (i think that’s the name) that is assistance in paying for energy bills. We didn’t qualify for it last year when I looked into it but my good paying job last year was temporary and now I’m in a job making about 600~800 less as a part-time but permanent employee. I should probably find the website and see if we’re poor(er) enough to qualify for some help paying for electric bills.

Food stamps (WIC, SNAP) for assistance buying groceries. This one can get weird as they tend to be run state by state in the USA and the requirements can often times be super shitty. If you’ve got a stable job, even if its shitty, that might make things easier.

Look around for local food pantries and see how they work. Don’t be surprised if they’re run by churches and you’ve got to sit through a sermon before you get a bag of groceries. You might get lucky and the pantry is funded by a grant and needs part time workers they will be willing to kick a bit of paid work you’re way (assuming you have the time).

Its desperation money, but there is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk program. Piecemeal work online or doing survey’s for a few cents a pop. It can help buy a tank of gas or replace a cheap busted cell phone but I’ve never made much more than that when I spent a whole lot of time on it. When my anxiety about money gets really bad and I need to put the energy somewhere I’ll fire up my account. I’m pretty sure this has an international reach so it won’t be geo blocked. FYI, it doesn’t play will with VPN’s.

I’ve tried a few “do consumer survey’s online for money” websites and the only one that I ever had any “success” with was called InboxDollars. And by success, I mean that a few times over the years, I could spend many hours during a month and scrape together about 30$. Though I think its a USA based company and its geo locked. FYI, it doesn’t play well with VPN’s.

During the pandemic in the USA, i spent most of the time without work of my own (I live on a working farm with my spouse so one of us had an income) and spent about 18 months out the first three years of the COVID pandemic selling blood plasma. If you’ve got two days a week that you can spend hooked up to a machine that drains your blood, separates it, and pumps in back into you (and leaves you feeling pretty crappy for the rest of the day) and can handle lying pretty still with a huge needle in your arm, the pay was kinda okay. I’d get kicked in the summer months when it got too hot for my body to recover well enough between visits but I also have to do outside farm work that you might not need to do. If you do this regularly, it does leave some pretty gnarly scars in your elbow pits, which can lead to some amusingly random conversations with strangers in public.

In the USA, its seems like the US Post Office doesn’t like to post their open jobs outside of their internal job posting database. Though it seems like USPS jobs are either “work crazy hours, where ever we tell you” or “barely work any hours”.

I spent about a year and a half working at a University museum as a museum curation lab technician, no experience needed, didn’t have to be a student or plan on going into the field. Which, maybe it was just me being lucky, but it was a pretty sweet job. Flexible hours, chill work environment, chill coworkers, surprisingly decent pay, got to play with old arrow heads and spear points and pottery sherds and sort through boxes and do paperwork about what was in them… the two negatives were that in my case what I found was a temp job and I spent an whole lot of time alone without human interaction (which I’m super cool with, but not everybody else is). This is another one of those things that probably won’t be posted on public job search websites so you’re going to have to dig around local university/colleges with museum collections and find their internal job posting site.

So yeah, I know in my mind taking advantage of assistance programs feels “wrong” but I’ve had to start getting over it and the things that I’ve managed to figure out how to apply to and qualify for have definitely been worth it.

Do you have roommates? If not that is rather expected as a single guy with no family. Check you budgets but if you’re working a mcjob, likely will not see any real future. Mcjobs are for kids or those that just want some spare cash or don’t need the ‘responsible’ type of job. Job shop as many say here. Just do it. Keep in mind that real career type jobs that can eventually pay higher require you to take a real investment in what you want to do. Pick something that fits you in other words.

Sorry if it is kind of tough love advice. Most other posts have covered your typical suggestions but ultimately it comes down to solely the direction and effort you take.

You may have resources available to you that you’re not even aware of.

How’s your credit? My credit card is basically my emergency fund - it’s not the best plan but it’s way better than getting surprised and having to take an emergency loan. If you’re currently spending about as much as you make, you can build your credit by putting things on the card and paying it back from your bank account and slowly extend that limit or eventually open up a second account - just don’t fall into the trap of spending more than you make, or you’ll wake up one day exactly where you are now but with debt.

Are you using social services? Only something like a third of people who qualify for food stamps in America actually use them, depending on the state/country you’re in you could be a couple government forms away from getting a few hundred for groceries every month, and if you put in the effort to use it that’s as good as money in your account. There’s also stuff like food banks - the one I volunteer at doesn’t do anything to verify the identities or qualifications of whoever comes by, you’ll just get handed a box or a couple bags with cereal and canned goods and shit.

Is it possible to upgrade your employment situation? Search for jobs even if you already have one - you’re not on the hook until you sign the piece of paper, and you don’t owe your current workplace a two weeks’ notice either so tell them your availability is “immediate”. A lot of technical jobs especially are willing to train and just want someone with a clean background who will show up on time, and depending on your already-existing education/certifications you might be able to do contract work using a site like field nation to get gigs.

What do you currently do for work? Are you open to changing careers?

I realized that paying rent was like throwing money into a bottomless pit. Obviously buying a house was out of the question so I bought a used RV and moved into that. I added solar panels and all the VanLife type stuff and now my biggest expense is for the storage unit I put all my stuff in. No more rent, no power, water or most other bills. StarLink is expensive but with all the other expenses eliminated it’s not bad at all.

A lot of the good answers are already posted. I’ll share my experience.

A bunch of people I know, including myself, rose out of retail hell through customer service jobs. My first one was making $55k/year (in 2023 dollars. This was a while ago because I’m old) and jumped decently after a year. Plus it was steady work at a desk with insurance. I switched to another company doing the same kind of thing after a year or two, and was able to transfer internally to IT. A couple years later I made the leap to engineering. I don’t have a computer science degree. It was all experience and teaching myself.

A bunch of other friends took similar paths, and now have higher paying jobs.

But this was in new york city, where there are a lot of startups looking to hire people. And because the companies were small, the jobs weren’t a cubicle hell where you read from a script. I got to actually help people troubleshoot when I was doing IT. That first job I could just talk to people like people.

I don’t know how different it is now or in other parts of the country. I’m not sure how much the pandemic and AI hype has changed the market. But getting a first foot in the door is really helpful. You can meet people and get on the job experience.

A lot of job listings might require a college degree, but enough experience can be a substitute. Also knowing people helps a stupid, unfair, amount.

I’m assuming you are in the US. The problem with being broke is it is stressful. Stress impacts decision making, causing a cycle. The US is a capitalist society that educated people to behave as socialists with regards to business, career management, and employment.

The people that REALLY need financial planning advice can’t afford it. Those that can use it to go from rich to richer.

The best thing you can do is get some help going through your expenses to see what you can optimize. Once you start getting a little bit of a breather, you will feel a lot better.

I’ve been following the FIRE community for close to a decade, so if you want, I can probably help you find some fat to trim.

I just cry.

When I had a job that didn’t pay enough, I did side work. For me, for a long time, that was reffing mens hockey.

Another time I was struggling I approached my boss and said I know I’m not your best employee right now, but I want to turn it around and get into a higher paying position. What do you need me to do? Then I did it, and moved up.

5 yrs ago we moved to anew city and I started over in a new thing. I took a job that didn’t really cover our bills, and my wife and I had to make some cuts.

But I wanted certain freedoms like the freedom to do my hobbies or take a vacation, so identified ways to earn additional income through the job I had (in my case it was handling little repairs like replacing smoke detector batteries and light bulbs, installing missing door stops and changing deadbolts). I’ve kept grinding until I took over for my boss, and I continue to handle repairs also. Effectively I work a job and side job at the same time 6 days a week. I work fucking hard, but I had nice vacations with my fam this summer, live in a good house and drive a good vehicle.

So honestly - and while I don’t think this is how it should be - in the system we have, I just grind harder. I am amazed at my ability to do this now in my 30s and now 40s compared to how lazy (in hindsight) I was in my 20s.

By the way! I’m also pretty happy now because my job is (mostly) ok, I don’t dread Mondays or anything most weeks.

What’s your social network look like, OP? For people in your situation, your friends and family will have to be your safety net. Shared resources can also bring expenses down.

You get some space by taking a better job and/or better budgeting

OR

You become numb to the grinding system

You can try to check which expenses could be avoided, look for a better job, study to get a better one in your spare time, get a part time job, do some random tasks in Upwork, etc

You could also legally move to another country and work remotely, earning $1k USD/ month should suffice to have a decent lifestyle almost anywhere, although gentrification is becoming an issue in some places.

Coming back to the stress, you could talk to a therapist and see what could help that situation. Maybe some journaling and life planning could help you identify what’s going on with your life and how you can deal with it.

Ask for a raise. Find another job.

Keep a separate savings account. This won’t increase your income but it’s absolutely vital that you do this. I fully understand that you don’t have money for this, but here’s the idea: if you’re already broke at the end of the month, then what difference does it make if you’re broke one day earlier every month? Let’s say you have a payout of €3000 monthly. That means you have €100 for each day of the month. Put €100 in a savings account and you’ll go broke 1 day earlier, but you now have €100 saved for unexpected shit. Keep it up for a some months and you’ll have enough saved to deal with moving/changing jobs etc. Eventually you’ll adjust your expenses so you don’t get broke even if you set the money aside. You can figure this out. This is how my wife and I saved up for our marriage. By going voluntary broke before it actually happened.

Okay, once you have some “financial security” saved up, do you have a budget account? Keep a budget account so you don’t overspend. Only transfer the excess to your spending account, so you don’t spend money that was supposed to pay for the rent/electricity/internet/food. Whatever is in excess is safe to spend.

If this is not possible, then your financial life isn’t sustainable. Ask for a raise. Find a different job.

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