<prompt> Human: Hello Reddit. Let me try to make this as short and as sweet as possible while still trying to give you all the full details of my life. This is not a pity party so I apologize if it sounds like Im complaining but I promise, I do know my situation is not as bad as it could be.So I come from a middle class family, parents got divorced when I was 6, mother is deceased, father remarried my step mother and they just got divorced, family lives all over the states. I am 29 years old and about to turn 30 in May. My family has successfully owned and ran a convenience storerepair shop for the last 18 years. We did well for our selves, we were making just enough to be comfortable and not have too much financial worry. The plan was since I was young, I would put my time in and work for my family at the store managing it and one day when they were ready, it would be handed down to me. Now unfortunately for me, I put too much faith in this plan, and thought that this was it and I wanted to focus everything into it. I took it very seriously, I loved my job, I loved being able to run a business. My father and step mother got divorced last year, court forced the sale of the business and fast forward to now, I am making minimum wage working for the new owners as just a cashier. I have a girlfriend of 10 years whom I love very much and would love to be able to marry.I am not happy here, and their is no room for growth. I have no college, and no other work experience. I am not looking for a miracle here but I am out of ideas. I am slowly starting to feel like a loser and beginning to worry about my financial future. I am fortunate enough to be living in my girlfriend in law setup basically rent free. Although I do contribute to the bills they have. I have about 3,000 saved up and have zero debt. So basically my mindset is I am starting fresh out of high school except being 18 I am 30.I have toyed around with the idea of going back to school but with working full time for the new owners I work Monday - Friday 5am-5pm I accumulate a ton of hours during the week which is helping me stay afloat but also killing my self.I have basic IT skills, and I do side work for a company that will allow me to put them on my resume however I do not feel confident enough to actually apply for a real position.I need helpideas of which direction to go in. I know this will require work and s major effort on my part but I am willing to change my life. I am no longer happy at the job I once cared so deeply for, its very hard being at the low end of the totem pole for a boss way younger than I am when I used to run the place while he was still learning to talk. They are nice people, but my time has come to move on.Please any helpsuggestions would be more than appreciated and obviously if you need more information please dont hesitate to ask! My name is Gene.  <response>: Presumably you have some solid convince store management experience. So first why not go apply at some competing C-stores for management positions instead of being a minimum wage cashier. The hours would still be long, but could be making twice as much per hour at least.Then you can start saving up as much as possible while you decide on your next step. Either higher education or if you have a really good understanding of how to run a profitable C-Store then start working up business plans and studying up on government backed SBA loans with the goal of owning your own C-Store business. 