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I was doing well in my "first career", but at 31, I went back to graduate school and am now in something completely different.
If you are 29 and feel like you are floundering, don't fear. Most people, once they get to 40, would say that they never really "found themselves" until their 30s. 30 is still VERY young in the working world and even in your 30s, you might completely change careers and still have a good 30+ years in that field (which is rare anymore, anyway).
Your generation suffers from "Facebook syndrome" where you see your friends on social media posting all about the great promotions they got and the cool things they're doing, but you have to realize that these are careful Image Crafting and that the majority of their life, they are doing mundane stuff and likely feel as aimless and wonder what they're doing as anybody else. I may be wrong in making this assumption about you, but it's a general tendency among folks your age that you think everybody else is more successful than you are, at a given age, when actually you're only seeing the "highlight reel" for everyone else, while you see your whole film, "outtakes" and all.
Forgive me if I am putting words into your mouth or motivations into your post, but the bottom line is, if you asked a bunch of 45-year-olds what they were doing at 29, a large portion of them are not even in the same field as they are at 45--never mind 55 and 65. Nobody gets "locked into" a lifetime career anymore, for the most part. That is a good thing but also takes away a safety net that previous generations had.
You bring up a very good point, I'm not on facebook and havn't been for years, for a number of reasons but this is also a very good one. I have so many friends down on themselves like look at Tims profile, hes in the Bahamas, he's got a beamer, I'm working at Target.
Your exactly right, most peoples facebook profiles they are purposely showing the flashy parts of highlightes of their life, not them grocery shopping or working in the office until 9pm to finish a project. Heck many people take pictures with cars and stuff that don't even belong to them.
I was getting down on myself a while back not work related but social life related I was like man look at shows like friends or how I met your mother, then I realized not everyone has a group of 8 or 10 friends who all get along and have no work or obliations and can sit around and do nothing all day or sit in a bar drinking every work night.
Heck just last night I was watching tv with my gf and she was kind of jokingly saying how does that girl drive that car. The girl was working in a coffee shop and having to borrow money and couldn't pay bills yet she's driving a vintage Fiat in great shape that would cost like 30k. Then another rguy is driving sum Triumph roadster and he's supposed to be a struggling artist. Most peoples lives are not nearly as glamorous as they may seem. heck even rappers and people supposedly flying g5's and all this nonsense lease all the cars for their videos.
At 29 I was disillusioned with my teaching career and the sorry state of education thanks to politicians who only care about themselves, sick of long days and too many meetings, sick of low pay that got lower every year, sick of the unsupportive parents and public, sick of increasing demands from the school district with no assistance to get it all done, so I quit. Went back to school to get my nursing degree. Best. Decision. Ever. I spent every penny of the $30,000 I had saved (from living with parents, teaching didn't pay well!), plus $10,000 more I had to borrow. So I'm 31 and 1 month into the new job and expect to make $10,000 more a year than I did teaching, so it will pay off sooner rather than later. Plus, I'm loving this only working 3 days a week thing. It's way better than summers off.
Age 29 was one of my lowest years ever: I was in graduate school and my research was going nowhere. I had no girlfriend and hardly any money, but I did have big student loans from my undergrad days.
At 29, I was an engineer for a gas company, flying the private corporate jet to and from Houston. Company car, gas card, office on 8th floor with two windows, a door that I could shut, and an assistant to file and send correspondence for me.
Office closed less than one year later.
Then I was a corporate I/T grunt, working 60 hours a week in a cubicle almost literally miles away from any sort of natural light. No corporate jet. No company car. Still pretty much living/working this way.
Yep, I really moved up, all right. . .
I'm a half year away from 29, but I made slightly more at 23.
Fortunately I saved the vast majority of what I made between 19 and 23, from living in a barracks and in a couple shipping containers out in the giant sand box (zero expenses at that time). I had a couple apartments between deployments and after the last one, but in NC they were in the mid-$400 range.
I went to college for awhile and did extremely well academically (I was surprised being a C student in community college at 18 and a B student in high school), but stagnated financially, not depleting but not really adding to my savings. I had great credit and more than enough savings, but never enough income to qualify for a home loan right after the real estate crash (thanks boomers!) and it angered and depressed the hell out of me, so much so that I would sit in parking lots and consider killing myself on dozens of occasions and so much so that I forced a wonderful woman out of my life. Renting sucked that bad (for me) because I came back home at a time prices were skyrocketing and I had terrible neighbors in the semi-ghetto who shaped a lot of my views about some cultures in the US. I just no longer felt like I was gaining any ground and slipping little bits at a time.
Nowadays I work an honest trade and am incredibly happy with it (after graduating college). At 20 I was full of myself. At 28 I am quite humbled. Somehow all the experiences up until now, including that early divorce, were very much necessary toward becoming...me.
Things are getting better again, but it's tough for folks our age. The work that I do is wonderful even if it doesn't pay much at the moment, in time it gets far better. Still looking for that house, and might just find one, but I'm not going to rush into something unless I'm 100% with it. It's taken all these years to understand what I'm actually looking for (and to appreciate it all).
Yeah, don't do this to yourself. I guarantee you that you don't know how good or bad you have it at this point unless you're either already a multi-millionaire or downright destitute. Nobody does. If you're gainfully employed at a job you like (or can at least tolerate) and can put a few bucks away while still enjoying life a little, you're doing just fine.
If like to know that at the cusp of entering the 30s what was your situation like?
How much in savings did you have
How many years into your career were you and how satisfied with the pay/personal life.
I got out of grad school at 28 with a masters, and honestly my life was kind of a mess. I hated school by that point and had no intention of ever going back, and just wanted to start my career already. To this day I still wish I started working in the corporate world sooner thinking maybe I would be further ahead now, but that kind of thinking simply isn't productive. What is productive is to regularly evaluate where you are vs where you want to be. I recently decided to apply for an internal position after 6 years of working at the same company, and I finally was able to make a move. Just know that opportunities are everywhere, just keep a lookout for them.
$2,000 in a checking account, and occasionally got laid. That was 29, and I am 32 now. Lived with two other guys, and basically made enough to pay my bills. I had no debt and still don't. All I have learned in my time on this planet is owe nobody nothing. Considering paying cash for a camper and moving on my land. I seriously never want to pay rent ever again.
29 when I finished residency and got my first real job.
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