She wants to pay off debt

Dear Amy: I am in my late 20s. I live with my parents. They paid for my college education, and they are paying off the corresponding loans.

My father is not in the best shape, but he is working a lot of overtime to get everything paid off before retiring.

They have not asked for any help with these bills, but I would like to offer without offending anyone.

There are two loans in my name, and I’d like to offer to take over one of them.

This would give me the ability to continue saving for a place of my own yet relieve them of some of the burden.

I am looking for the best way to approach this. Overburdened

Dear Overburdened: If you have two loans in your name, you should be paying off not one but both of these loans.

You are the person who should be working overtime to make these loan payments, not your father. Postpone your plans to move out and double up on your own work to retire this debt.

You should ask your parents to have a family meeting. Thank them for all they’ve done for you. Tell them you have figured out how to pay off your loans; ask them for the paperwork and then make the payments.

If they refuse to let you contribute, then take the money you make from your own overtime, sock it into an account, and present them with the balance when you move out and/or they retire.

Dear Amy: I work in the film industry. As a woman, it has been a long and painful road, but things have improved lately, due to the current focus on hiring women in Hollywood.

As a result, the stressful but low-stakes work I had done previously has ratcheted up, and I am doing higher-caliber projects, have joined a guild and find myself in new environments with higher-ranked people.

There was a moment of elation for working on projects I truly believed in, for being in the guild with others I admire and for accomplishing my goals. But now I am miserable.

The higher ranks in this business seem just like laboring in the slums of Hollywood — there’s just more ego and way more pressure, although not necessarily more money.

I have been fantasizing about running away to do something that matters, but my husband moved to LA so that I could pursue this, and he believes in me wholeheartedly.

I have a number of projects to finish, and if I succeed, I would be pushed into higher Hollywood strata — likely with amazing money and WAY more pressure.

Part of me thinks that I should stick it out for another year and see where I am then, and part of me wants to sell my house and go screaming into the woods. What do you think? Dreams Aren’t Always What They Seem

Dear Dreams: I think you should stick with it for another year — AND go screaming into the woods whenever possible.

You could also take your skill set and qualifications into an ancillary business that wouldn’t require you and your husband to move. You just need to find the right people and projects to work on.

You are overburdened and burned out right now. Find some non-industry-related things to do for fun, stretch creatively outside of work and definitely spend as much time as possible in nature.