7 months employed: an honest NEET “success” story

I was a NEET for almost 2 and a half years, and about 7 months ago I finally got a full-time job. So I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to say that things got better, but honestly, I still feel like a NEET. I just have money now. I still live with my mother, and while my salary is enough to contribute to the household, buy groceries, pay some bills and have a little money left for myself, moving out would basically mean spending my entire salary on rent, food and bills and living paycheck to paycheck with almost no possibility of saving anything. So in that sense, I don't feel like I've really moved that far from where I was before.

The biggest difference is probably that people judge me less now because I'm at least “doing something.” I'm outside the house for 8 hours every day, I have a job, I get paid at the end of the month and I'm contributing to the household. And honestly, it does feel good. Being able to buy groceries, help with the bills or occasionally buy something for my mother gives me a sense of accomplishment that I didn't really have when I was unemployed. At least I feel like I'm contributing and earning my place in the house rather than just existing there.

But I think what surprised me the most is that I expected getting a job to be the beginning of a progression: get a job → save money → move out → become independent → improve your life. Instead, it feels more like getting a job → bills increase → food gets more expensive → rent gets more expensive → salary goes up 5% every six months if you're lucky → repeat. I thought working would allow me to start “unlocking” the next stages of life, but so far it mostly feels like I've gained some stability without actually being able to move forward financially.

And working has made me realize how common this situation actually is. I see people at work who can barely survive on their salary, people in their 20s and 30s still living with their parents, people living with their partners because neither of them could realistically afford to live alone if they broke up, and people who technically live independently but only because they found extremely cheap rent in neighborhoods where they don't necessarily feel safe. It made me realize that maybe my situation isn't simply some personal failure that can be solved by “just getting a job.” A job definitely changed some things for me, but it didn't magically make independence affordable.

So yeah, I guess this is my NEET success story. After almost 2.5 years, I got a full-time job, I have money now, I contribute to my household and I have somewhere to be every morning. That's objectively progress, and I'm glad I managed to get here. But I'm still living with my mother, I'm not financially independent, and moving out would probably mean struggling just to make it to the end of every month. I don't feel like I escaped stagnation as much as I escaped one form of it and entered another, slightly more comfortable one. Maybe that's just adulthood: you can be doing everything you're “supposed” to do and still feel like you're standing in roughly the same place.

So… success story? I don't know... you tell me