<prompt> Human: Forgive me if this is more of an rpovertyfinance post or if it makes more sense here. Basically Ive been getting by on about 21.5k a year for a while now and I just accepted an offer which I probably shouldve negotiated higher for an IT support job at 58k. The emotional difference thats going to make when I have those regular paychecks is going to be phenomenal. I may even finally be able to live on my own! Whats starting to creep in, now that the initial shock of such a huge jump in income, is how do I make that adjustment from poverty economics mindset to middle class mindset? How do I not treat every paycheck as a windfall of sorts or maybe thats okay to pay off stuff pretty quickly for a while. For reference, I have horrible credit, my credit lines are mostly maxed out, student loans on defferment, in total my combined debt is 15000 which should be able to be eliminated within the next few years. My parents and most of my family are horrible with money so reddit, you creative and smart denizens, please help.  <response>: After taxes, you used to make 20k per year, now you make 48k per year. This is 2.300 dolars more per month.You can be debt free and have a small emergency fund by the end of this year.You can max out your 20182019 Roth IRA andor start contributing to your 401k and have a fully funded emergency fund by the end of next year. 