Many people in this thread have good advice, I don't, because I came into my opposing situation through a series of unfortunate career events. In terms of advic

Many people in this thread have good advice, I don't, because I came into my opposing situation through a series of unfortunate career events. In terms of advice, @Improvotter has my favorite bit. Here's my meandering and sort of brief story. The situation I've found myself in exactly the opposite of yours, in the sense that money, wealth, and the things that come with it, haven't been motivating aspects of work for years, almost to a problematic extent. I still negotiate numbers for new prospective jobs, but only on principle. I won't let a regular company or startup underpay me. I'm 26 now, but between 19-22 I was exclusively focused on career progression and money. I'd put work before my relationships—romantic and social—and everything I did was framed by how much I was spending or making. The short version of what happened since then, is that I was laid off, then fired, fired, and fired again. After the final time, which was a corporate job I wasn't culturally suited for but offered me the most I've ever made as a developer (~$75000) I was in a position where I now had an apartment and bills to pay for. I was also burnt out and uninspired. Up until that point I had a network that helped me find other positions, but not this time. I had to go through the hellish interviewing process. After many unsuccessful attempts and well over a year of being unemployed, I stopped trying. This was because I realized that I had to make some changes and that I was abusing my time and sanity for companies I didn't care about, but that paid well. I was also in no position to be picky about anything, being out of money and with no prospects. So I focused on my social life, started traveling, living in my car, attending conferences to see what I'd find stronger interests in, etc. Now I only get this weird feeling when I think about money. I look at the amounts new grads can pull in at notable companies and I think something's broken. Why can't I care about this enough to compete for it? These people—and maybe you're one of them—are making literally more money than I will ever make, but it doesn't drive me at all. To get to those positions, I'd have to find a progression of deep interests that I can navigate instead. Anyway, I'm now being paid roughly $30/hour CAD to work on an open data portal based on python for a uni. I'm doing it remotely, so I can travel around the U.S and explore while doing the work. It's interesting and pays me barely enough to get by, but I don't resent what I spend my time on. I'm somewhat actively interviewing with select companies as well. Expectations are low but it's good to stay sharp. It would be nice to have savings, and hopefully one day I'll find myself in a better position in that regard. But right now I've managed to drag myself out of the other end of the unhappy hole. Incidentally it also forced me to take up some miscellaneous low end jobs like Starbucks barista and manual labor which was a nice change. Maybe quitting and exploring other avenues of life while not thinking mainly about work or money is what could spark a change for you.