/biz/ - Business & Finance

I put 60k in leaf dollars into mortgage pre-payments for my mother's home after realizing how fucked we were if one of us lost our jobs due to a recession. Though I'm grateful now that we owe very little on our mortgage and both myself and my mother still have jobs. But deep down, I could've put that money into BTC, Gold or even a downpayment into a condo and I would've gotten a much better return now too. DCAing was a complete meme since my vanguard etf returns hit rock bottom since March 2020. Now I'm just buying PMs and putting more of my income into BTC in hopes that I would get a much better return. I feel like I've lost 4 years of my life and watched my friends become more wealthier and happier while I'm forced to "live within my means" as the FIRE movement would call it. I'm so out of it right now that I just wished I had spent more time hanging out with some friends and even go on a vacation instead of taking on more hours at work. Tightening that belt helped in a pinch but I feel poorer than I was before. I'm just at a loss and feel drained.

No matter how many ounces of silver I collect. I would still feel its not enough. When will it ever be enough? I feel like I should invest more of my money towards index ETFs or put more money towards my Savings account. But putting money into stocks would be suicidal now compared to 4 years ago and the best savings rate I can get from my Credit Union is literally rock-bottom. What do you guys do?