Oh. That is sad. Yes, you sound a lot like me. But it was the years before I was married when I pretty much sacrificed much of my youth for a better future, and now I regret sacrificing so much. I went through university with no books, for goodness sake! But then life was hell at home, so it was hard. I really just needed a job that paid more than £30 a week to give me some options! I was trapped at home with a dad who was horrible to me.

After I got married I started to have holidays, not fancy, but enjoyable. We still have the original kitchen too! My computers were usually cast offs from work, which lasted 10 years until they were throwing out better ones. Then 4 years ago, I finally bought one for actual money because I wanted to take a laptop caravanning for a writing job. It was the first computer I'd ever bought. I was 44. 😂 On the upside, we paid off the mortgage in 6 years. And because of that, I'm able to do the job I want. I'm interviewing a woman about raising baby flamingoes in 2 days time! 😁

But your story is sadder because you never got to do the things you'd hoped to do when you'd ensured you had security first.

My husband and I had planned to get passports and start travelling in 2020. I wanted to visit Arizona and the Amazon. But he's vulnerable and we don't want covid, so I'm not sure if we'll ever make it now. I may later regret not doing that earlier in life. He's 61 so we were going to make the next 10 years count before he gets too old to want to travel too much!