Most of my commitments are also connected to needing to earn enough money to pay the bills, and hammer away at significant inherited (no fault of my own) debt. At nearly 40, these debts will easily take 20 more years of maximum employment to pay down, even with my good professional income. I work probably 40 hours a week. My husband works 50-60 hours a week at a blue collar job.
We have a financial planner, yadda yadda. We still live paycheck to paycheck, and hope to start saving more than the bare minimum in 4-5 years.
We also have a commitment to a volunteer organization, and a commitment to weekly family gatherings with my parents and sister. Those help keep me/us sane and connected to people outside of work.
We just got married, and we want to try to have a baby. Are we crazy? Will we be able to handle the huge, immense increase in responsibilities and time needed to raise a child, if we are lucky enough to conceive?
I feel almost overcommitted now, and that's primarily work. I just negotiated the biggest raise of my life with my clients (I have my own business), so raising my rates again soon is not likely to succeed. How am I ever going to meet all these debts with a baby?
Just venting. I know "everything will be fine." At times, however, it is stressful to think about the vagaries of life that could set back our plans at any moment. We are happy with what little we have, and don't aspire to home ownership or any such nonessential traps.
I've been doing the PD stuff for about 4-5 years now. Acquiring this massive debt last year was a huge setback (not everyone's family provides an inheritance for their younger members). But, we plod along.
This was my first post on this forum.
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