Wtf kind of article is this. This is sponsored content for Apple Vacations. Their name is mentioned four times in the article and they paid for this survey to show that Americans need more vacation

“pulling yourself up by the bootstraps” has always been this: an instruction by the ruling class “for the weed to weed out itself by the roots”.

You know what happens when a tree pulls itself up by the roots? It starts walking, dancing even. It dies.

After surviving multiple rounds of layoffs and working 80+ hour weeks (as a salaried employee without overtime), I had my first vacation this year for a week between Christmas and New Years…and got sick Christmas morning. Just feeling better now, in time for work tomorrow!

one of the first signs of burnout is lowered empathy. Family care in this case is purely mechanical maintenance.

The better you are at capitalism the less you relate to other people, makes a whole lot of sense doesn’t it.

Extremely unheard of advice: Quit. You can give two weeks notice, that is best for re entering the workforce later. But the most important thing about everything is YOU. Here’s where it gets tough. Close out your retirement. This takes a month from last day of employment so you need to make sure you can survive the month and 7-14 days(usually 7days) before you get your retirement funds. Pay off all debt that you can that will still leave you with enough money for 1yr, biggest considerations should be car and credit cards, maybe even rebalancing credit cards to a lower interest so if you have a large amount you can reduce your over head without paying them off, this helps your credit. if you follow the next steps and have a set rent/mortgage then you can get monthly costs to a few hundred above rent. With meal costs for around $1-$2 per person. Rent increases are the killer, rent a basement, rent a room in a home, but do it from a private home owner not someone like black rock because the small time home owners are afraid of losing you and are unlikely to increase rent unless there is a cost increase to them like property tax increase. Plus you are likely to get access to a yard and can have dogs. Plus plus if you can find the right place you might get a whole basement for $1200 or less. This is where it gets easier: Stop eating out, cook or have prepared meals for everything you eat - only buy sale food and buy as many as the sale allows - buy a large freezer and start freezing all of the excess food from the sales. Buy as little items as possible that aren’t on sale. Anytime an item goes on sale that you like, or use a lot, buy as much as you can, most sale items are limited to 5, but when they aren’t - buy 20. Cancel as many reoccurring services as possible- for instance I canceled all streaming services and setup a jellyfin server with my considerable DVD/bluray/4k uhd collection of shows and movies and now I hunt cheap movies in thrift stores instead of paying for streaming services and literally save over $100 from when I was working at my slave class job. Pay for car insurance for 6months at a time, they offer a decent discount for this. Stay ahead of maintenance on your car, if your car is expensive to maintain, and you are unable to do it yourself - sell it and get a reliable, boring 4 door Toyota, or Honda sedan that gets great mileage and will last until the doors rust off, and has very low insurance premiums, this is easier if your current car is worth more than you owe, sell your current car an invest in an old honda accord, or Toyota corolla, it does not have to be new, you only need a car less than 10yrs old if you are taking out a loan, If you can buy a 95 honda accord and pay it off, it’s going to last you longer than that new Tesla, Ford, Chevy, or Volkswagen, and it’s going to do it for a fraction of the cost of those vehicles most cost efficient platform, just learn about the repairs it might need, and stay ahead of them, you can do this easily by taking the car to a manufacturer dealership and asking for a checkup. With the entire funds from your retirement you can likely reduce your cost of living, improve your quality of life, and if you want, go back to college under education grants to get a new career where maybe they won’t take you for granted like this one does. Or maybe you can finally make that invention you’ve dreamt about, or start fix and flipping houses, or start a doggie daycare, or whatever your hearts desire so long as it’s a service people will pay for. Do the math. I did. With $35k I got from retirement I’ve survived comfortably for almost a year, and have 2 inventions I completed, that I’m working on patents for so I can sell them. They think it’s impossible, but it’s just impossible for the 1%.

This is me.