I suppose it's sort of like survivor's guilt. So many people are suffering with so much right now - disease, unemployment, having to home school their kids, having summer camp cancelled, struggling to keep their businesses afloat, and more.
Meanwhile, here we are with me still fully employed earning my normal income. My wife is very happily quarantined and almost couldn't care if things open up again or not. Our daughter is unemployed but fortunately not suffering financially as a result (though it has been hard mentally - she can't wait to get back to work). We do have a couple of friends who have been quite sick from COVID but thankfully haven't lost anyone close to us.
As I've shared before, our spending is actually down by about $1,000/month largely due to COVID. There's nowhere to go and nothing to do that involves spending money. So ultimately, we're going to come out of this whole mess better than when it started. So many millions of people can't say the same.
Not to say, of course, that it hasn't been a challenge. For weeks, the stress level at my job was sky high, the worst I've ever experienced in my 30 years as a doctor. Things were changing daily and we just didn't know what was going to happen, what we were supposed to be doing, how best to protect ourselves. Patient volume plummeted making us all concerned if we would maintain our jobs, especially as we heard more and more stories of healthcare layoffs.
Fortunately, we seem to be past the worst of it now and things have settled down. Work isn't so stressful anymore and we've adjusted to the new procedures. Volume is starting to pick back up also so I think our jobs are safe at this point. Now we're just dreading the fall when we have seasonal flu AND COVID to deal with. That certainly won't be fun.
Anyway, it's just been a little awkward or uncomfortable when we're talking with friends who have it way worse than we do. We're very thankful not to be financially impacted, not to have little kids to deal with, not to have had COVID strike too close to home.
Anyone else feeling a bit guilty about doing well right now?
May 30th, 2020 at 03:25 pm
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I also realize that being a front line healthcare worker, I've certainly been involved in helping those impacted by illness and injury during this time and people have been particularly appreciative lately.
We didn't qualify for stimulus money so didn't have to deal with that. Had we gotten it, we probably would have done as many others have and donated most or all of it to those who really need it.
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And so we are spending money we probably don't need to. I don't need a cleaner weekly, but she only has 2 other families since the rest don't want her back. We leave the house while she cleans. I paid her over 2 months of not working and she started coming back in May and doing it weekly.
I don't need my yard guy to do some much work but he appears to need the money. So we just say yes when he asks to come. Sounds stupid but I guess we feel like we're employed so we should keep supporting people to work.
We gifted our kids teachers $500 for working from home. We donated $1k to the food bank. I hired a tutor for the kids an hour a day. We aren't eating out because I'm doing the whole 30 but we are trying here and there to spend money. We are still spending on stuff, but heck no new shoes for the kids but they need it. I need to get DK1 new shorts I ordered a few online and she doesn't like the fit. So now I'm stuck. Usually it's to the store and it's easier like shoes. But now what?
Now there are massive riots very close to where we live. So we are hiding in our homes as well.