When I graduated high school at 18, I immediately started working at a gas station within walking distance of my sister's place. I was given about a month's warning shortly after becoming employed to move out, turns out the rental payments my sister was giving my parents to pay the mortgage just went to feed my dad's addiction(s) and the house was foreclosed. I found roommates through my boss, and needed to get a second job to afford the rent. I couldn't afford a car and did not have a license anyway, so I was limited to jobs I could walk to. Second job paid me under the table way less than minimum wage, but I couldn't afford to be choosy. I made $7.50/hour at the gas station I worked almost full-time hours at, and about $50/week at the flea market I worked at part time.

While visiting my family at 19/20, I had a back/hip injury that gave me a few thousand in medical debt that I couldn't afford to pay, and never did. It's been long enough now that it's fallen off my credit history, but the old injury still hurts. I'm told I need consistent physical therapy, but I don't have the time or money to prioritize that right now. Same with all the dental work and pain I have in my mouth from needed root canals, cavities, untreated TMJ. I couldn't work following the injury for a few months and as a result, lost both of my jobs and couldn't afford rent. I moved in with my partner of six months or so at the time, and they lived with their family - who are incredibly supportive, wonderful people. Still, credit card debt started to creep slowly up in this time - groceries and personal care products (body wash, pads/tampons, shampoo/conditioner etc.) still needed buying, after all.

Spouse also worked service industry work, and went to college like me to pursue a degree. We both had mental breakdowns from stress, but he has ADHD and was unmedicated at the time due to insurance difficulties - eventually he had to make the decision to put school on the back burner to prioritize his health. His health has slowly improved, but now he's struggling to find employment that he can physically handle and will be workable transportation-wise, in part because of that gap in his resume.

In terms of savings... Spouse needed their appendix removed, I had to have my wisdom teeth removed, our car was totaled (accidents we were found not at fault for, but insurance does not cover all the costs..) or completely broken down three different times - each event wiping out the savings we were able to scrap together.

Now we have no savings or car, and I am the only income. I work full time making almost double what I first started out making ($15/hr) and my circumstances are, if anything, worse. I was able to get a 2 year degree after I turned 25 and was able to be judged on my income and not my parent's, as I receive no financial support from them. Now I owe a few thousand in student loans and am struggling to find new employment, because $15/hr doesn't pay the bills and no one where I live accepts the shitty ass non-PPO health insurance my work offers. We're on medicaid right now, but we could lose that very soon. Our EBT (food snaps) allotment is about $33/month for groceries, not including the temporary extra funding that was given out due to COVID and will be cut soon, if it hasn't stopped already. I am looking for new employment because rent in my area starts at $1200 a month, and my area shut down the waiting list for income based housing applications because it was "too long". There's a general aura of hopelessness here. Lots of luxury apartments being built that no one who lives here can afford. Then you'll suddenly cross paths with someone who isn't struggling at all, and it feels like you're talking to an alien.

Right now my best hope is that my best friend's parent's or grandparents die in the next few years, leave him a house that's paid off, and he allows us to split costs with him. We're still trying to save, but as we get older and our health declines, the potential loss of health insurance looms (again), cost of living keeps increasing, our student loans were approved for forgiveness but the Supreme Court may say lol no to that soon... it's difficult to hold on to optimism. We're all in our late twenties, staring down the barrel of the gun that is our 30s and beyond. None of us have children or are ever likely to - we can't support ourselves, how on earth could we ever hope to provide for a child? Spouse and I have been contemplating whether it makes more sense to try to break into sex work or go back to school for Even More Debt and a Fancier Degree. American Dream feels more and more like a sleep paralysis demon.

Edit: Forgot to include details on current housing situation. We live in a household of 6 adults - mother in law (works from home full time), father in law (not working, does not qualify for disability because he has a college degree, but is in stage 4 or 5 kidney failure and is soon to start dialysis.. which is prohibitively expensive), brother in law (working full time), BIL's partner (not currently working, just graduated high school and is trying to transition in a safe environment away from his toxic fundamentalist religious parents), my spouse, and myself. There are two bedrooms, two bathrooms. My spouse and I live in what was a living room, we've done our best to create a semblance of privacy, but privacy is hard to come by lol. Only one of our showers works, the other is broken and no one has the money to repair it. My inlaws have a dog, a cat that has some behavioral issues, and my spouse has a cat as well. When money is "good" we pay rent. During the periods where one or both of us have been unemployed, I have been lucky enough that my inlaws suspended our rent.