[allovera]

>I almost have a guilt that I grew up with any amount of money at all and would be very willing to do anything for others, thinking I owed it to them.

I never, ever resent people for having had a good upbringing. I always feel happy for people who have two functional parents, who had food and clothing and love. It reminds me that such a life is possible, the world isn't always a terrible place, and there's no point in sinking into cynicism and despair.

I think the best thing that you can do for people who are worse off than yourself is live a model life, one in which you treat people decently, have strong personal boundaries, and love your family and friends. When you are older and you have kids, invite your kids' friends over for dinner. I cannot explain how much it meant to me as a kid to see a family that was loving and happy. It gave me hope and made me realize that my situation was not normal and not OK. "Teach a man to fish" and all that -- my friends' parents taught me to have standards for how families should treat each other, which is why I left mine.

I replied to rubberstamp because I want people to know that they should feel no shame in cutting out toxic family and friends if it is what you need to do.

Also, because I like working at Amazon and it gets a metric tonnnn of HN hate :)