I pretty much traded my 20s for a better future and while the path I’m on will be one without much financial stress (as compared to your average person), I do feel like life is passing me by.

I’m 34 now, at 21 I finished school, got a job unrelated to my degree (bookkeeper for a scaffolding contractor in a refinery) worked 7 days a week 13 hr days for like 4 years (with a few weeks off 2-3 times per year between contracts) averaging 60k. Then got a job as a tugboat dispatcher (7on7off) salaried at 45k. Then got a job as a train dispatcher (new schedule every Friday, couldn’t make plans more than a week in advance) averaged 90k.

Got laid off and then worked $13/hr hanging billboards for a year until the job I’d been gunning for finally came through as an air traffic controller. I break $200k regularly now because of overtime (base is around $155k) and my wife makes about $90k so money is like barely a factor. But I work 6 days a week because staffing is abysmal.

So I don’t now nor have I ever really had that perfect work life balance. My day off is nice, my wife had made our home super comfortable. I legit would rather stay home than do anything. I guess my point is just that chasing money cost me a lot of life. I guess it’s worth it idk. I do feel a void in my soul, because I can’t live near my friends/fam and make this money, so I rarely see them.

You only live once though, my 20s are fuckin gone and I barely lived em. If I had to do it again idk what I’d do. Maybe I’d take an average paying job near people I love