They Set the Price. You Just Try to Live With It.

At some point in the last two years, something clicked.

I’ve always been “good with money.” Paid down debt. Stayed below my means.
Budgeted. Skipped the splurges. Tried to do everything “right.” But no matter how well I played the game, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was losing. 

Because the truth is: I don’t control the scoreboard.

Someone else does.

Someone else gets to decide when or if I get a raise.
Someone else gets to determine what my skills are worth.
Someone else gets to say, “This is the market rate,” even if it’s insulting. Even if it’s less than I made five years ago. Even if their competitors are paying double. 

And what do I get?

A check that barely stretches.
A salary that looks nice on paper but disappears the moment it lands. Because the water company doesn’t care. The rent doesn’t care.
The car note, the trash pickup, the internet, the dentist, the daycare, the vacation fund, none of them care how you feel about your income.

They just want to be paid. On time. In full.

So you save. And save. And save again. You budget for the car, and the car eats your savings. You finally take the trip, and the trip devours your account. You do the responsible thing, and the money is still gone.
Only now you have to start over again, from the slow, pitiful grind of a salary someone else decided you “deserved.”

Here’s the revelation:

If you’re not building something for yourself, something that earns, multiplies, or appreciates, you will always be broke.

Not paycheck-to-paycheck broke.
Control broke. And there’s a difference. You can be high-income and still feel trapped. Because if the money’s always going out… If you have to start over every time you spend… If someone else is always holding the lever to your raise, your bonus, your time off… Then what are you really working for?

I’m learning to have patience with myself. Because this isn’t about personal finance. It’s about personal freedom. And budgeting won’t get you there.

Building will.