my life is pretty great. I love it.

What i don’t love, however, is inviting people into my life only for them to tell me how crappy it is because it’s not the life they want. I don’t really socialize anymore because I am so sick of people telling me how wrong my life is because I don’t enjoy what they enjoy or want what they want. fore example, i drive a 10 year old hatchback, and almost everyone new I meet, when they learn this, lectures me no how I should drive a ‘better’ car, and it should be a BMW SUV or something like that, and all it is them projecting their desires onto me. and if i dare say something like ‘I’m good with what I have’ I get a lecture about how I must be mentally ill or stupid. How could I possible be happy with my ‘crap’ car? my job, my home, my dog, etc.

I used to have lots of friends, but the past 5-10 years it’s dwindled to like 3 people. Because I shut people like this out of my life once they start talking to me like this. And it’s prevented me from making any new friends. I am so SICK of inviting people over to my place only to get this full on lecture about how ‘offended’ they are I don’t live in a million dollar luxury apartment, because my place is ‘shithole’ if it doesn’t have $5000 luxury appliances or something stupid like that.

I keep trying to meet new people, keep trying to date, etc, but this is the massive roadblock I keep running into. I am so sick of it and it makes me unhappy, so I basically don’t socialize much anymore. Because I like being happy and not interacting with twats who think I need a therapist if my salary isn’t 500K.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I’m at a 2.3.

I’m probably older than most here, in my late 40s. Haven’t had a date or even had the guts to ask anyone for 20 years. I have hobbies but I’ve reached the limit for what I can justify putting in to the financially and over time the enjoyment of them has dropped.

Overall I’m dissatisfied with almost everything about my professional life. At work I’m surrounded by (at best) unthinking people and at worst, out-and-out [rule 6 no US politics] - one of whom I’m (very closely) related to. I cannot find a suitable replacement (or an even worse, but happier in life) job to replace it with. My workplace refuses to provide me with health insurance and thanks to the [rule 6 no us politics] and their cronies I’ve lost access to the healthcare I’ve had in previous years, (ACA) because the cost through it has more than quadrupled. Haven’t had dental coverage for my entire adult life, and they’re bad. At this point if I COULD afford to go to the dentist I already know the response. “They’ve got to go, we’ll fit you for dentures” is the answer I’d hear.

Now on the weekends, or days off? I can forget about enough of the week to feel like more of a 5 to 7. I’m lonely but can do what I want, when I want, like OP said. Admittedly I have a fairly ok amount of money, a moderate amount of savings, and relative financial freedom, but a year or more unemployed and I’d be back to poverty.

My real life friends from school either left me behind, had kids and I can’t relate to their lives, (not that it would matter, they have no time) or moved away, went bonkers, [rule 6 no us politics, but you know] and in some cases have died. The best friends I have, (A whopping 2 of them) I have never met in real life. One half-way across the country and one 2/3 of the way across the country. (US)
At this point I’m considering asking one of those 2 friends if I can leave this all behind, cram all the most important possestions I have in to the car, and pay them rent for a while, to just leave all of this behind.

I have no idea what they’d say if I asked.

Probably about a 7. I need more time, space, and security and there are some choices that I made that were correct but cost me things I did value, but overall I have a happy marriage, good friends, a nice community, a decent career that I haven’t fucked up too badly, and I don’t think I’ve really fucked up in any of the major important choices in my life.

2024 was a particularly difficult year for me, and even then I was satisfied with a lot of my life, just struggling against it being difficult at the time.

When I have a permanent job and ideally own a small house or condo it’ll probably bump up a point or two

Quite happy. I’ve made some bad decisions, like hanging myself, but I wouldn’t be who I am today if I hadn’t, so I don’t regret them. I’m just happy to have learned, and come out OK. If I hadn’t done that I’d have graduated university a year earlier, gotten a different job than the one I have now, never met the woman I’m married to, etc. My life might have been better, but it would certainly have been different. And I very much like the life I have now, so even though I’ve made some objectively bad decisions I don’t regret them. I cannot change the past, and doing so would not be worth the cost, so I have no regrets. I am content.

Not at all

If reincarnation real , want choice in the matter , be reborn as “living” doll thing can still like move around and shit but experiences neither (life|death)

Just want to exist effortlessly

4/10. Feels like I’m about 10 years behind where I should be.

29, living with my folks, just started being able to save some money last year. I have a 2 year degree and a half decent job but it’s by no means a career. Trying to move to another state soon to be with long distance SO but can’t manage to move to the next town over at the moment.

I’ve got great friends, good health, the present day-to-day ain’t that bad, but trying to get my future in order has proven to be quite the bitch. Just felt stuck for a long time.

I’m in a very pleasant phase of my life. I’ve had a rollercoaster life with some deep lows in my twenties and thirties. But ever since I hit 40 my life has been much better. Stable job, stable relationship, stable home, in good health. Solid 8. But with very clear career and relationship goals, so ask me again in 10 years.

3 or 4. Used to be around 1 last year.

There was a wave of bad events and bad decisions screwed up my life and career. I see some signs of improvement but not enough to say it has passed.

Can elaborate if anyone is interested

4/10 - I am lucky to have the things I have, but my motivation is nonexistent, everything feels pointless and empty and I only watch as the world decays more day by day. Our next generation probably has either a nuclear end or an AI dystopia to inherit.

I’d like a refund.

7/10. Good job, good family. Just frustrating that it took a lot of stress and worry to get here, especially financially. Finally doing well but all of that is tempered by saving as much as possible due to basically having been poor up until about a decade ago, so even though we’re doing ok it’s kinda hard to enjoy because all of it goes to catching up for not having money for so long. Really sobering to understand that most people will never have the chance to “catch up.”

Less than I should be. I’m honestly blessed. I won the generic and familial lottery. I’m tall, and despite being pretty lazy, in fairly good shape. While not super loaded, my family is solid upper middle class. Like I didn’t go to a private school, but if I’m hurting they will usually bail me out. I inherited property after graduating college. I have a fairly successful, if not inconsistent, business.

But I’m still sad most days. That might be because of the current US administration’s bullshit.

Objectively, I’m a solid 9/10. But I feel like 5/6 on most days in terms of happiness.

If I had been asked this fifteen years ago, I’d have said 0/10. I was a time bomb. I quite literally wanted to die and take everyone with me. I was in a marriage with a spouse who was emotionally, physically, and sexually abusive. We had two kids I couldn’t summon the ability to be a good father to because my mental health was in the toilet. I had the career I thought I had always wanted but I dreaded going to work because I was surrounded by hostility by absolutely everyone I served. And I was not earning enough to make any of this bearable. I slogged through my waking hours filled with a rage and hate that was getting harder and harder to keep bottled up.

Eventually I did implode, and it was extremely ugly, and I ended up involuntarily institutionalized for a couple years. Spouse made it all about her and managed to convince everyone in her circle that she was the hero and I was the villain and turned everyone against me, including my kids.

I was in pretty intense therapy for a few years, and during that time I learned a lot not only about myself, but about the people in my life, and what they actually were. I put that knowledge to work once I was in a position to put my life back together.

Today I have a new home, new job, and new friends and family connections that include almost no one from my past. The hardest part is living with the regret of the damage I did to people who didn’t deserve it at the time. But today I have a new son, and while I wish I could have made my relationship with his mom work, at least we still get along and coparent well. New job is demanding of my time but I’m good at it, am respected by my coworkers, and enjoy the work. I give it a solid 7/10 and improving slowly. But man I low-crawled though Hell to get here.

Remeber folks, happiness is a journey, not a destination.