The $76K Project: Reboot

The mountain vacation I'd been planning and looking forward to for months and months was a total bust. The hotel -- which has received rave reviews in the past -- turned out to be a dump with paper-thin walls, a broken mirror, holes in the ceiling, and dead bugs in random places. The forest was closed due to fire restrictions, so we couldn't hike; even if it had been open, it rained the entire time.  We came home three days early. The hotel refunded $250 of the $1400 we paid when we reserved our suite. I'm still coming to terms with the fact that we threw >$1K down the drain. I went to see my doctor, whom I have known for more than five years, about irregular bleeding that was freaking me out. She spoke with me for 30 seconds and then dumped me on her trainee, a dude who looked to be approximately 25 years old. He asked me some questions about my period and then ordered some blood tests; this would have been okay (albeit better as a telehealth visit) except that neither

Everything's expensive right now: Food. Gas. Rent.  The stock market's looking slumpy. We're apparently on the verge of a recession/possibly already in a recession. Given these circumstances, we probably won't be able to max out our retirement accounts or fully pay off the student loan this year. They seemed like reasonable goals a few months ago; now, not so much. To help prepare for possible economic turbulence, we've been making some adjustments to our finances: 1. I reduced my retirement contributions by about half. I'll still get the employee match and I'm still putting in a decent chunk of my salary (20%), but we need more liquidity at the moment.  2. We're bolstering our savings account. We still have an emergency fund, but we hacked out a pretty big piece of it to bring the student loan balance down to ~$10K. I'd like to have a little more cash on hand in case of layoffs at my company (since my industry will definitely feel the effects of an

Lately I've been feeling pretty unhappy at work: bored, unfulfilled, disengaged, and disconnected. Like the stereotypical cog in the giant wheel of capitalism.  Those of you who've been around for a while are probably rolling your eyes like, AGAIN?!? Again with the job issues?! Don't get me wrong: I'm not going anywhere; I'm certainly not quitting. But I wouldn't say that I'm satisfied. This situation has led me to think about the challenges I faced and the choices I made that helped land me in this role. After all, content management was never a career I aspired to. I just somehow... ended up here. Ten years ago, I was certain I was destined to be a scientist, which was a solid assumption given that I was enrolled in a Ph.D. engineering program at a reputable school. I was making acceptable progress toward my degree, presenting at conferences, and winning research grants. My goal for most of my time in grad school was to become a tenure track professor at a