Guys, the other day I clicked on this click bait article aboutwomen and mid-life crises, expecting to read about how my future has a hot 20 year old guy and a fun new car in it and instead it was an article all about money.

I mean – 90% money – but I was shocked by this article about Gen X women in their 40s all freaking out primarily about money and the fact that it’s causing them such stress it’s like a epidemic.

Especially this woman:

“I have a million dollars in my retirement account,” says a 49-year-old New York City–based biotech executive, “and I’m still worried. Our kids are going to have to take out loans for school. Then, there are the retirement calculators on the internet. All of the information is: ‘Lady, you better save money because no one else will take charge of your financial future!’ I was incredibly frugal my whole life. I’ve been working my ass off. Since I was 10 years old, babysitting. And still I am stressed out about money.”

I mean, I don’t think I’ll be a biotech millionaire in my 40s, but she definitely reminded me a little of me.

Do I have a financially related meltdown coming my way in a decade?

Also, as a side note, can I point out one thing I love about Gen X articles – I feel like they are less emotionally sensationalized. I feel like as soon as something says Boomer or Millennial, there’s just a bazillion stereotypes I’m reading over and over again, but this article was just like:

• Here are the shitty economic facts.
• Here is what is happening.
• It is not good.

But anyway, I’ve been wondering a lot about burnout lately and why it seems disproportionate to other generations and I’m really staring to believe it’s because work is the epicenter of so many of our lives.

I mean, it seems to me, my grandfather went to work for about 40 hours each week, but then his life happened everywhere else. There was golfing and card nights and family dinner on the weekends. It seems so balanced.

To me, life is what I manage to cram in around work and there doesn’t seem to be much of it.

It seems like with that old balance, even if you hated what you did, you still had all these other great things to fill most of the time.

I have another theory that our phones and 24/7 accessibility culture is really a major, major culprit here and that we should really be fighting back against it.

I suppose this is a mostly rambling post on my mostly rambling search for contentment and happiness, but maybe if I keep rambling long enough, something will click someday.

Or maybe someone out there will read this who has already found that path and enlighten us all in the comments section!