https://www.hamiltonproject.org/publication/post/major-decisions-what-graduates-earn-over-their-lifetimes/

• For the median bachelor’s degree graduate, cumulative lifetime earnings for workers across majors range from $770,000 (early childhood education) to $2.28 million (aerospace engineering). This is a slightly larger range than in the original analysis, driven by gains in aerospace engineering.

• It is still true that majors that emphasize quantitative reasoning tend to have graduates with the highest lifetime earnings. The five highest-earning majors (at the median) are all in engineering fields: aerospace, followed by energy and extraction, chemical and biological, computer, and electrical.

My mom did well but was modest and didn't have a huge house and never spent money on things we didn't need. She was frugal with spending and showed how to stack coupons. We used to get 500$ worth of clothes for like 180$.

Tj Maxx and Marshall's were my shit!!!! You could find the coolest stuff on the clearance rack.

I didn't grow up super poor but we didn't live like stereotypical rich people either.

Like half of the stem majors are foreign born rich kids. Just look at the tuition charged.

That's kind of what happened to me. At first it was great, pay was not too bad, I was teaching myself new things, it was really pretty good. Then a decade later, it's just work to why am I even doing this.

I think the last three years I've been working solo, had a co-worker briefly but he needed something more consistent.

So from going back 6 years ago, having three co-workers and going to just me by myself, it started to feel like solitary confinement and I slowly started to hate it. The base pay didn't change; I've been not paid and ripped off too many times, customers suck but at least I shut down a few businesses that way. Then came the complaints about, I would charge $150 for a trip charge and $100 an hour after that. Which is actually reasonable because of all the work before hand, billing, ordering parts, driving, vehicle wear and fuel (I'd have to charge $250 for a trip now because of the all the expenses), tools, etc. And well the decade of experience. Not to mention fixing shit in a restaurant is a crappy work environment and the restaurant owners are the most annoying, entitled, cry babies. So I stopped doing service calls. And just did the $30 an hour, 1099, at the shop for whoever wants to bring their stuff in to get fixed.

I liked the work that I did but not the rest of it and the constant nagging from my ex-friend/boss (learned why you don't work with friends). It's like the whole business was set up around me and it just felt worse and worse. So yeah I recently quit and I'm hoping to get a job at a pet store while being a career college student. It makes me happy that there was maybe 10K of lost sales. A family member died, I got sick from the lettuce fun, and then I was told I'm a lazy drunk, get out of bed and go to work, and the kicker "was she really that important to you." So I just said fuck it, I'm done.

When I worked in retail, it wasn't bad. I was surrounded by pretty girls... some of which I dated, and well some that I had to smack away with a fly swatter. They let me do whatever I wanted there so it was good, got a 50% raise in a year and a position created just for me that paid as much as a supervisor. Interacted with all sorts of people, it was nice. I'll tell you, I have to get reacquainted with society. The last three-four years of only seeing an average of two people a day messed me up. I struggle going to the grocery store for longer than ten minutes.

Sorry for the long rant, but I just figured I'd share that I get what you mean.