Did 21 years in the Army, multiple combat tours, got badly jacked up on the last one and medically retired. Not to mention the multiple helicopter crashes, three to be exact, that I've "lived" through. So I get my Army retirement, Social Security and VA pay. We aren't doing too bad. The downside to all of that pay is that as a 41 year old guy, I only have about two "good" days a week. When doc's have to dig into your gray matter to fix shit, it can have life long effects. Long string of health issues due to TBI from Iraq and then the brain surgery. Then an F4 tornado hit my house with me in it. Fucked up my biscuit even worse. Spent over eight months in hospitals after the tornado, only five after coming back from Iraq the last time.
I have a daughter in college we are helping with and my son is in high school. My wife works for her brother making OK money, $18 an hour, and we disciplined ourselves after a few years of hard living to pay off credit cards back in our late 20's.
So I make mod money from sitting around in pain and not being able to sleep a whole lot due to PTSD. The drugs I'm on make me sick as hell some days as well. But I also make mod money during the summer by cutting my neighbors grass. One guy pays me $75 a week, the other is $50. My son usually ends up getting half of that if I'm not able to do it all myself on those two days per week I feel decent enough to get out and do it. I also build and repair computers for various people. I used to write tech articles for online computer review sites, but that shit got boring real quick. I do volunteer work on people's cars, rarely charge anything cause most of them are down on their luck folks sent to me by our Church. However, I do have a lot of friends around here from having done that the last few years, so I feel quite rich. When I need something from an electrician or plumber and such, usually I've done something for them or someone they know, I get a great price on it.
It's frustrating as hell to have a solid work ethic like the OP and others who have posted here yet not be able to do all the things I used to do. But I do well enough. Hell, I've managed to drop $2500 on my car since I bought it, so I can't complain.