A Reddit post from a 36-year-old man casually stating he’s deep in debt and totally unfazed about it really resonated with other millennials. The poster admitted he lives paycheck to paycheck, has no savings, and owes more than $100,000 in debt, but also that he’s “perfectly okay with that.”
Burned Out, Not Bothered
The original poster said that a few years ago, this kind of financial mess would have sent him into a panic attack. Now? “I honestly don’t care,” he wrote. “Maybe it’s the state of the world and not knowing what’s going to happen in the next few months let alone years. Or maybe I’ve just grown numb to my situation.”
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He’s not alone. Many commenters mentioned a similar sense of burnout and resignation. “Freaking out isn’t necessary (or particularly helpful),” one person wrote. Another added, “I’m just numb emotionally at this point. I take joy in a few simple pleasures like video games and hobbies. But the state of the world? Totally numb to it.”
For many, the exhaustion isn’t just mental. It’s financial whiplash. One person said every time they got a raise or promotion, costs just went up: “We can never get our heads above the water.”
How Did He Get Here?
The OP said his debt came from a mix of student loans, a car loan and a personal loan he took out because his student loan payments were $1,000 a month. He went to a private university to study archaeology and classics. “Not great majors by any means. But I don’t regret my choices,” he wrote. “I made them and I’m living with them.”
Now working as a traveling contractor in a science-related field, he no longer works in archaeology. But the debt remains.
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Others shared similar trajectories: people who went to college because it felt like the right thing to do, only to end up underpaid and underwater.
“I committed to working 80-hour weeks and drastically cut my expenses,” one commenter wrote. “It wasn’t easy, but the sacrifice paid off, and I’m finally debt-free.” That type of resolve, though, was rare in the thread. Most others didn’t see a way out.
Numb Is The New Normal
A common theme was mental detachment as a survival strategy.
People who once had panic attacks over their financial status now find themselves thinking, “It is what it is.” One person said they feel relieved just to make rent. Another described eating ramen for breakfast and skipping lunch. “There is no winning out here for the honest hardworking people,” another one simply said after describing their family’s tough situation.
Even people with good jobs chimed in. “I have a good-paying job (most I’ve ever made) and gotten annual raises, but I live paycheck to paycheck and have debt,” one said.
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A Broken System
While a few commenters pushed back, urging the OP to make a plan or care more, most agreed that the problem wasn’t laziness, it was the system itself.
Housing, healthcare, education, and food costs have all outpaced wage growth. Several noted that bankruptcy, while damaging to credit, is sometimes the only real reset option.
As one person put it, “Debt doesn’t matter. You take it to the grave or you can go bankrupt and start from scratch.” Another commenter said, “I tell my husband all the time that money isn’t real. It’s just numbers in a computer.”
But for the OP, and many like him, it all comes down to one line that he said: “I should be freaking out, but I just don’t have the energy anymore.”
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Image: Shutterstock
