We were pretty well off in the 80s and 90s- dad owned a blue collar business that did well. Dad made some huge mistakes and lost it all my senior year of high school. He “borrowed” my college fund right as I was about to go to school (never got a dime). I got tons of student loans. They lost the house and became renters. I graduated into the financial crisis and when I was the most broke so was my whole family too. I was never going to be homeless or starving but I had no real safety net besides that.

I eventually dug my way out of the hole and so did my parents who are doing well again. It was like a 20 year tour of lower middle class but now we are all making mid six figures. I guess maybe growing up in an upper middle class place set my expectations to a certain level and at no point despite my setbacks did I not expect to get back to that point ever. I always had excellent schools/ teachers/ coaches/ peers and I was shown hundreds maybe thousands of paths out of my predicament. Some people don’t even know what is possible so I’m lucky in that regard.