I'm fed up with this system, and I'm sure you are as well. I'm here to tell you certain ways to make it slightly less horrible. It's also just a reminder for my own sake, to be honest.

• #1. Resist to urge to buy unnecessary shit. This is the most important thing you can do and I can't stress this enough. You don't need new clothes, new gaming equipment, new accessories to put in your car, new this, new that. You don't. You're only contributing to the big Corporations by fueling these desires. Learn to buy things out of absolute necessity instead. That doesn't mean you can't occasionally treat yourself. You're not a monk. Buy yourself something nice every once in a while, but let yourself want it long enough to feel like you earned it. You'll be infinitely more grateful for the wait than for the rush of instant gratification. And credit card companies absolutely hate that. :)

• #2. Live for yourself. Here's a post I saw on Tumblr by user tordenvejr : " there is no audience to perform for, there is no approval, no admiration to attain. there is no role worth playing, there is no one to convince. let it go" and I couldn't agree more. It's okay if you don't have the nicest car, the nicest furniture, the nicest phone or whatever. It doesn't matter. There is no one to impress. Everyone is already so worried about impressing others that they don't even care about what you have to offer. It truly doesn't matter.

• #3. Work hard in your own way. If for you, working hard is doing the bare minimum for your shitty job in order to get the paycheck and go home, DO IT. Working hard means doing your best and if your personal best is getting up in the morning and dragging yourself to your work, that is already all you need to do. Get the job done and that's it. You don't owe these companies shit. Work hard on your hobbies. Work hard on what doesn't make you ultimately earn money.

• #4. Save your money to pay your debts. I'm not an expert on the matter of debt at all, but I do know certain things. Don't pay off your debt with the payments that the credit card company will grant you. Try to pay good amounts of money at a time if you can. Use the money that you can save to pay off these debts instead. I know that means a lot of sacrifice. It means being able to save money, which can be very difficult, but these payments are a guaranteed way to ensure that you stay in debt. Speaking of...

• #5. Avoid payments. I think that the paycheck to paycheck lifestyle is partially due to how much people use payments rather than paying in full right away for various things. Companies make sure that you can afford things that you can't actually afford by offering you to pay through monthly or weekly payments. They reduce the real cost of an expensive thing into easily digestible chunks to purposefully make it more appealing and enticing to you. 200$ for a new desk becomes 50$ for 4 months, which is suddenly way more affordable in the moment. But it's not your first purchase like this and it's not going to be your last. They know it. That's how they get you. When budgeting, look at your monthly bills. What is your current phone plan? Are you paying for any streaming services? Do you, god forbid, have cable? What do your insurance cost? Are you paying off any loan for a car or furniture? Now that you can clearly establish your monthly payments, look at what you earn from your paychecks. Do the math. How much do you have left for the essentials? Your monthly bills are what you should attack first. Look into a cheaper phone plan or a cheaper insurance company. If you notice that you're paying for a ton of different things around the house through payments, definitely don't add more to the list. Pay them off and wait until they are completely paid off to buy something else (but remember advice #1). It's very easy to lose track of how much you're actually paying every month.

I think that's it for now. I know all of this is easier said than done. I'm definitely not a financial advisor. Please, feel free to make any sort of correction or addition to this. I hope I didn't sound too condescending and that you found it somewhat helpful/comforting. There is an end to this, I swear.