Need Advice. Top of my career. Making less than I did in 2009. Might have to declare bankruptcy.
I read a tone deaf post on Blind that sent me down a rabbit hole: "3.5M golden handcuffs here at Meta (Tech Industry)"
https://www.teamblind.com/us/s/jmbrahsu
I’m the Head of Services/CISO/Head of Support for a struggling SaaS company. My wife is a gate agent for a national airline.
After years of layoffs in SaaS, months of unemployment, and eventually getting hired back at lower salaries, I realized something recently that I can’t stop thinking about:
Adjusted for inflation, I make less money today than I did in 2009.
And now I think we may have to declare bankruptcy. I’m genuinely worried about losing the house we bought for $290k in 2009.
I’m 17 years further into my career. I have dramatically more responsibility. On paper, my wife and I have respectable, solid jobs.
And somehow we are less financially secure than we were almost two decades ago.
I don’t even know what the lesson is here. I think I’m just exhausted by the feeling that I spent my entire adult life climbing a ladder only to discover the ladder was slowly sinking into the ground.
I can’t be the only one struggling with this.
Edit: I feel like it’s worth mentioning, though I mentioned layoffs earlier in the post that I’ve been laid off twice in the last six years or so both resulting in 1+ year unemployment stretches that have significantly added to my debt load and then when I did get employment, they’d be at lower salaries and so my ability to cover expenses and pay down the debt of an extremely hampered. So very fair point to look at spending, but it’s a snowball effect with the debt.