It’s hard to think about your budget when everything in your life feels tenuous and conditional; it’s hard to resist small pleasures, like a burger or a fancy coffee, when you feel like life’s bigger pleasures (love, stability, a sense of possibility) will remain out of reach forever. “If only they’d stop buying $5 lattes” is, of course, a common argument for the reason millennials can’t get ahead in life. And on top of the random expenses and very limited cash flow, I was way too generous.
