I grew up poor and was used to bringing my own sandwich to eat pretty much everywhere, which is now against the rules in many places. Or I would glue my shoes together when the sole came off.
I got yelled at one time for trying to use another person's conference badge to enter a trade show by the events team when I was at a large tech company. It didn't even occur to me that it would be problematic, having done it so many times in startups—poor man's mentality. LOL.
Doing these things brands you as poor and not Ivy League material, which I quickly recognized and started buying expensive lunches, more shoes, and paying for my own conference pass.
The social pressure to appear wealthy is immense, especially for those who are not. But I still have never used Doordash or Uber Eats, and I love to bring peanut butter and jelly on every bike ride. Some habits die hard. Thanks for sharing this.
How much of this is just straight up housing/inflation? From a CPI standpoint, $250k today is roughly equivalent to $200k in 2020. If we adjust this to the 2015-2020 window, the number is $231k. So basically we experienced so much more inflation than we were accustomed to.
For the post Covid homeowners, I kind of get it. If you grew your income by 75%, you’re basically able to afford the same house you could’ve bought in 2019 on that income. I know, I know…so many people have it worse. But inflation sucks and even the absurdly wealthy hate feeling ripped off.
Yeah inflation wrecked expectations. My husband and I don’t make 250k but still good money. We save and give away a lot. We’re very lucky and I don’t feel poor by any means.
It still absolutely sucks that all of the time and effort put into career development in the past 5 years has resulted in us having extremely similar purchasing power. Things we expected to be able to do when my husband got to this stage of his career are well out of reach.
Nothing in here is particularly wrong, and a lot right and well said, but telling people how they should feel about their own lives is kind of silly, no? And, personally I need enough entrepreneurs in the economy who feel they need top .01% outcomes to build the companies that can afford to pay the $250k salaries we’re even talking about here
IDK we told a bunch of people they were "fine as they are" and so they never exercise or at well either and so we have an obesity crisis (it's at least part of the reason why). Having some societal norms is good.
Never surprised that the same people who think every individual has the power to make lots of money even though one look at society proves that is untrue also believe people can control their weight at will when every study ever done shows that 95-99 percent of dieters will eventually regain the weight.
There is so much pressure to be thin and rich that most people are doing their utmost to become so but are failing.
Both these things are effortless for some and practically impossible for others.
We now have GLP meds that make weight loss possible for most people, proving that for many folks it was never about effort or willpower but something biological. (If I could lose 65 pounds without changing my already-good diet, the problem wasn’t me, right?)
I wish there were a financial shot that would allow me to profit from my work. There isn’t.
People are absolutely not doing their utmost to be thin or rich. Both require small consistent sacrifices of short-term pleasure for long-term benefit.
The keys to staying thin are eating properly (whole foods, moderation, etc) and regular exercise. Most people do neither of those. Well it is true that losing weight you've gained is not easy to do and hard to do permanently doesn't excuse people gaining weight in the first place.
The keys to being rich are working hard, saving consistently, and living below your means.
The fact that most people eat large amounts of junk/processed foods, go days or weeks without exercising, and regularly spend money on goods they don't need, trips they can't afford, or luxuries like eating out does not point to "people doing their utmost".
I’m not intending to be rude, but I just don’t believe that you’ve consistently saved money responsibly and eaten healthily consistently over your life then.
It is certainly possible to do that most of the time, but to have your slippages create substantial and real debts that are hard to crawl out of.
But, for example, if you had saved $500 a month over your working life and put it in an index fund, you would retire with $1.4m at 65 (conservatively).
Saving $500 a month is not hard. I have done it at every stage of my life, including when I was single and made $31k a year. It’s a choice that nearly every person of average intelligence could make.
You are being QUITE rude, actually. And your privilege is off the charts.
Roughly half of Americans can't possibly save $500 per month. Are you out of your mind? I've never had one year in my life when I would have been able to save $500 every month.
In what year were you making $31K? Are we talking 1985 or 2015? Big difference. You say you were single. Were you raising children?
I never made $30K per year until my kids were nearly grown. I remember I had a goal to break $30 by the time I was 40. I didn't manage it. In fact, except for a fluke viral article that earned me extra money in 2024, I never made more than $40K per year in my life. I made that in 2009-2014. In all other years except last year I made much less than that.
I am super frugal. My car is 20 years old. I hang up my laundry to dry. I do dishes by hand. I cook nearly all our food from scratch, including our whole wheat bread. We eat a lot of vegetables, beans, lentils, nuts, eggs and a bit of dairy. Sometimes some fish. I rarely eat meat.
I am a very, very careful steward of everything under my control.
Instead of bragging that you are able to save a large amount of money, why don't you instead express thanks that you were able to do so? You don't mention whether you have kids or what you do for a living, but I have two children and I have done some kind of writing my whole life. For most of my career I worked as a newspaper journalist. I was good at it but it doesn't pay well, obviously. My best-paid years were when I was the editor of a small daily newspaper, working around 60 hours per week and carrying the responsibility for the daily print product and the 24/7 website. It was a lot of work and responsibility for not much money but I loved it and did a lot of good for my community. But extra money? Ha, no.
I'm really proud of myself, because I've accomplished a lot with a little.
Sure, norms are good. People should probably eat less and exercise more, and consume less, save and invest more. But that’s not how people generally work, and scolding them about it isn’t really going to change that. Live and let live, and don’t ask me for a bailout.
Sorry. I get touchy whenever I read a piece by somebody with a bit of financial privilege that is critical of people who are struggling -- and implies it's their fault.
People are essentially born in debt these days and it seems like this country's main industry now is figuring out new ways to separate people from their money or get them to spend beyond their means. So while I agree that there is a problem with financial literacy and impulse control in these people, they are just responding to the incentives (which benefit those at the top of the pyramid) set before them. If people stop spending their money, our economy collapses.
While the tone deafness is infuriating there is a lesson to be learned here, and it's not about individual failing.
It's about the economy - from our consumer culture to our entertainment to our healthcare, all driven by our ADVERTISING - being basically designed to suck all your money out of you.
Between my wife and I we make about $180k a year (medium-high COL area - coastal northeast, not a major metro). I would never dare complain about being "poor," and frankly I think my life, house, etc is pretty awesome, but, like, when you consider what a lot of families live on, we ought to be socking away like $100k+ a year, right? But no. We're on a knife's edge all the time.
It's by design - and so is our blaming ourselves for it. Remember that these petite bourgeoise have a LOT more in common with you than they do with the plutocrats. By about 5 orders of magnitude.
My parents always lived either at their means or below it and that was the greatest teacher for me. Your example of the secretary who died never spending the wealth she amassed is a great example of the other extreme. Largely though, I agree that fiscal literacy is a massive issue. You are underscoring a version that exists in the professional class. It’s actually much worse with many who are making 50k or less a year and buying Hellcats that get repossessed.
That’s both my sons right now. It’s not easy and they work their asses off. We also talk about money often. They struggle but are also frugal AF. They certainly won’t be buying new Hellcats.
My son is frugal to a toxic degree thanks to growing up in my household. He put off buying new jeans, socks and T-shirts for 6 months last year although he isn’t poor. “It’s really hard to spend money” was his explanation.
That’s the unfortunate result of me never having enough money when he was growing up.
Ironically it could also end up being his superpower financially. It’s not the ideal way to grow up but I know so many people who grew up with ample means and they just don’t have a clue about managing money. I think the foundation is remove the taboo of talking about it amongst family. Unless you go to school and learn how to manage money, the only way it’s learned is through family or self
The only reason my son is doing so well is because he's a born minimalist and miser and -- importantly -- has no partner or children. That, and I invited him to move back home so he could put almost every penny he earned into paying off his student and car loan, to save up an emergency fund and a new furniture fund before moving out again.
I should add he's not stingy. He will freely give money to anyone who needs and requests it. He paid for a friend's daily soda and school bus pass when they were in high school, and also bought him an iPod when he was buying one for himself because he knew his friend (who was living with us because his family lost their house) couldn't afford one. He's that kid.
I told him he can probably afford to retire quite young depending on whether the world blows up in the next few years.
But if he marries and has children, his financial picture will change dramatically.
It sounds like you’re trying to discourage your son from forming a family. Are you one of those weird single moms who tries to keep her only son under her wing forever? Do you want to never have grandchildren?
But, small tangential point that will make me sound like a permabear (even though I’m not really): Gold has outperformed the S&P500 (ie beating the main index funds) in the 21st century (since the year 2000)
My wife and I have one kid and live on about $200k per year. Kid is in public school. We live in a large-ish one bedroom in brooklyn. We spend a LOT of time at public parks. We have saved about $12k. I can’t tell if we are the bad ones in this scenario or the good ones lol
People need more of this. It is hard to get ahead but it can be done. You have to attack the narrative. Learn to cook better than the restaurant and really try to enjoy doing it. Get hobbies that don’t blow up your pay check. Hardest thing is you have to find a way into six figures, I don’t know if you can get ahead making less than that.
Of course more is better..usually but it is worth appreciating what you have. From my own experience you tend to spend what you make, lifestyle creep I believe you called it. Immediately saving a fixed percentage, even 5% is solid advice I did not always follow. Later in my career I started maintaining my income and putting raises into savings. Now nearing the end I'm using the raises to manage increases in the cost of living.
One thing I will have to do is ease down the spending to match my retirement income while I still have a job so it isn't a big shock.
No burrito's coiffured to my house but when I grocery shop I buy what I want without stress, that's wealth in this world.
If I ever start complaining about money I can quickly save up to $10K a year by spending less time racing motorcycles and more time running, I'm fortunate to have such a choice.
The recipe for financial wellbeing is the same as always: be curious, learn as much as you can, become really good at something, work hard, save money, invest in index funds and wait 20 years. But most people don't want to hear that. They want the Instagram lifestyle and the forever home, and they want it now. Unfortunately, that's not how life works.
Definitely luck plays a part, both good and bad. But I think you still need to be prepared and have the right mindset.
An example of good luck may be to start your investment journey at the beginning of a long-term bull market, like those who started their professional lives around 1990.
However, the period between 1990 and today, often heralded as the biggest bull market in history, has been sparkled with several of the biggest market crashes ever: the emerging markets bubble in 1997, the dot com bubble in 1999, September 11 in 2001, the great financial crisis in 2007-2008 and then Covid in 2020.
Somebody with a short-term mindset would have liquidated positions during any of those events and miss the rebound. That's why having a long-term horizon (at least 20 years) helps smoothen out the bumps.
Another example where luck plays a part but is still less relevant than having the right habits and mindsets are lottery winners: you probably won't find any other event where luck gets better than that, just by looking at the odds. However, it's common for lottery winners to end up broke after just a few years, because they haven't developed good habits.
Furthermore, though genuine bad luck certainly exists (like when someone suddenly becomes gravely ill due to genetics or another cause beyond their control) some people tend to dismiss as bad luck events that are really the second order consequences of their bad decisions.
I was painfully aware during the late 1990s that I was missing a great opportunity to invest. For example, the newspaper where I worked was running these big expensive display advertisements with 8 percent CD rates! I’d see that and wish I had even a little money left after paying the most basic living expenses but I didn’t.
I could afford to put a little money into a CD now but that would be nuts.
I know one of those 250k+ couples here in Michigan. They live in the affluent part of a very much not affluent area. They have no children at home or dependent. And they are always ‘broke’, regardless of their enormous investments and savings.
Of course, they blow money like there is no tomorrow. Eat out all the time, pay a woman to clean, pay for lawn care, pay for simple house and car maintenance. Lose $10,000 in Las Vegas, oh, well.
And then (angrily): “You shouldnt even have union healthcare. If the unions would stop, we could have free medical. I have to pay $600 dollars a month out of pocket for medical.”
Yeah. He suddenly can’t afford 5% of his salary going to medical, but he can go to Vegas a couple times a year. And drive a Maserati. And he’s ‘broke’.
They’re all the same. Ignore them. They’d have starved a century ago.
I basically agree with this. But I’m curious if you make a partial exception or have some nuance for people who have a lot of debt and are committed to paying it off aggressively.
I was laid off from a federal contracting gig in March (thanks Elon) and made just over six figures. As a single mother who had to use credit cards to cover the gap for many years of self or under employment - I barely made it on this salary and still had shortfall every month. I lived in a house that was renting well under market value, only got a new (used) when I was in an accident and my car was totaled and do not live extravagantly by any measure. While I agree with you on the 250k in base principle, lumping in anyone over 6 figures is a little simplistic. Without debt that figure would have been far more than enough. But with debt? I would need to make quite a bit more to truly get ahead. Saving is something that’s felt like a pipe dream.
I am sorry you're going through difficult time, and yes mostly what inspired this story was the people making 250K complaining. Things will get better...
Absolutely! I truly trust that this is an important redirect in my life. I just wanted to comment to share that it’s not as cut and dried as the income number, especially for single income households or those who lived for an extended time under difficult circumstances or lower incomes. On the rest I’m in total agreement.
I grew up poor and was used to bringing my own sandwich to eat pretty much everywhere, which is now against the rules in many places. Or I would glue my shoes together when the sole came off.
I got yelled at one time for trying to use another person's conference badge to enter a trade show by the events team when I was at a large tech company. It didn't even occur to me that it would be problematic, having done it so many times in startups—poor man's mentality. LOL.
Doing these things brands you as poor and not Ivy League material, which I quickly recognized and started buying expensive lunches, more shoes, and paying for my own conference pass.
The social pressure to appear wealthy is immense, especially for those who are not. But I still have never used Doordash or Uber Eats, and I love to bring peanut butter and jelly on every bike ride. Some habits die hard. Thanks for sharing this.
In what world is it not allowed to bring your own lunch somewhere?
Disneyland? The movies? Mall food courts. Wineries in Napa will let you though. Being rich has perks.
How much of this is just straight up housing/inflation? From a CPI standpoint, $250k today is roughly equivalent to $200k in 2020. If we adjust this to the 2015-2020 window, the number is $231k. So basically we experienced so much more inflation than we were accustomed to.
For the post Covid homeowners, I kind of get it. If you grew your income by 75%, you’re basically able to afford the same house you could’ve bought in 2019 on that income. I know, I know…so many people have it worse. But inflation sucks and even the absurdly wealthy hate feeling ripped off.
Yeah inflation wrecked expectations. My husband and I don’t make 250k but still good money. We save and give away a lot. We’re very lucky and I don’t feel poor by any means.
It still absolutely sucks that all of the time and effort put into career development in the past 5 years has resulted in us having extremely similar purchasing power. Things we expected to be able to do when my husband got to this stage of his career are well out of reach.
I overall agree with this article though.
Of all the human vices, envy is likely the worst. It destroys everything it touches, from the host to the envied and the broader society at large.
Nothing in here is particularly wrong, and a lot right and well said, but telling people how they should feel about their own lives is kind of silly, no? And, personally I need enough entrepreneurs in the economy who feel they need top .01% outcomes to build the companies that can afford to pay the $250k salaries we’re even talking about here
IDK we told a bunch of people they were "fine as they are" and so they never exercise or at well either and so we have an obesity crisis (it's at least part of the reason why). Having some societal norms is good.
Never surprised that the same people who think every individual has the power to make lots of money even though one look at society proves that is untrue also believe people can control their weight at will when every study ever done shows that 95-99 percent of dieters will eventually regain the weight.
There is so much pressure to be thin and rich that most people are doing their utmost to become so but are failing.
Both these things are effortless for some and practically impossible for others.
We now have GLP meds that make weight loss possible for most people, proving that for many folks it was never about effort or willpower but something biological. (If I could lose 65 pounds without changing my already-good diet, the problem wasn’t me, right?)
I wish there were a financial shot that would allow me to profit from my work. There isn’t.
People are absolutely not doing their utmost to be thin or rich. Both require small consistent sacrifices of short-term pleasure for long-term benefit.
The keys to staying thin are eating properly (whole foods, moderation, etc) and regular exercise. Most people do neither of those. Well it is true that losing weight you've gained is not easy to do and hard to do permanently doesn't excuse people gaining weight in the first place.
The keys to being rich are working hard, saving consistently, and living below your means.
The fact that most people eat large amounts of junk/processed foods, go days or weeks without exercising, and regularly spend money on goods they don't need, trips they can't afford, or luxuries like eating out does not point to "people doing their utmost".
Bullshit.
By your definition, I should be skinny and rich. Spoiler: I am neither.
I’m not intending to be rude, but I just don’t believe that you’ve consistently saved money responsibly and eaten healthily consistently over your life then.
It is certainly possible to do that most of the time, but to have your slippages create substantial and real debts that are hard to crawl out of.
But, for example, if you had saved $500 a month over your working life and put it in an index fund, you would retire with $1.4m at 65 (conservatively).
Saving $500 a month is not hard. I have done it at every stage of my life, including when I was single and made $31k a year. It’s a choice that nearly every person of average intelligence could make.
You are being QUITE rude, actually. And your privilege is off the charts.
Roughly half of Americans can't possibly save $500 per month. Are you out of your mind? I've never had one year in my life when I would have been able to save $500 every month.
In what year were you making $31K? Are we talking 1985 or 2015? Big difference. You say you were single. Were you raising children?
I never made $30K per year until my kids were nearly grown. I remember I had a goal to break $30 by the time I was 40. I didn't manage it. In fact, except for a fluke viral article that earned me extra money in 2024, I never made more than $40K per year in my life. I made that in 2009-2014. In all other years except last year I made much less than that.
I am super frugal. My car is 20 years old. I hang up my laundry to dry. I do dishes by hand. I cook nearly all our food from scratch, including our whole wheat bread. We eat a lot of vegetables, beans, lentils, nuts, eggs and a bit of dairy. Sometimes some fish. I rarely eat meat.
I am a very, very careful steward of everything under my control.
Instead of bragging that you are able to save a large amount of money, why don't you instead express thanks that you were able to do so? You don't mention whether you have kids or what you do for a living, but I have two children and I have done some kind of writing my whole life. For most of my career I worked as a newspaper journalist. I was good at it but it doesn't pay well, obviously. My best-paid years were when I was the editor of a small daily newspaper, working around 60 hours per week and carrying the responsibility for the daily print product and the 24/7 website. It was a lot of work and responsibility for not much money but I loved it and did a lot of good for my community. But extra money? Ha, no.
I'm really proud of myself, because I've accomplished a lot with a little.
Sure, norms are good. People should probably eat less and exercise more, and consume less, save and invest more. But that’s not how people generally work, and scolding them about it isn’t really going to change that. Live and let live, and don’t ask me for a bailout.
Agree no more bailouts let failing institutions fail so we can rebuild better not parade around corpses
We tried that in the early 1930s and turned a depression into the Great Depression.
And there's still arguments that rescuing Bear Stearns would have lessened the Great Recession.
Let's start by discouraging monopolies and behemoths. Then we can let them fail without rescue.
Where t-shirt “Stop comparing yourself to others and buy index funds”?
haha banger idea
You want people to spend $ performatively on a shirt?
it's just a comment, I thought it fun
Sorry. I get touchy whenever I read a piece by somebody with a bit of financial privilege that is critical of people who are struggling -- and implies it's their fault.
No, Michelle.
You want some kid to see there's a market for that tshirts and start selling them.
People are essentially born in debt these days and it seems like this country's main industry now is figuring out new ways to separate people from their money or get them to spend beyond their means. So while I agree that there is a problem with financial literacy and impulse control in these people, they are just responding to the incentives (which benefit those at the top of the pyramid) set before them. If people stop spending their money, our economy collapses.
While the tone deafness is infuriating there is a lesson to be learned here, and it's not about individual failing.
It's about the economy - from our consumer culture to our entertainment to our healthcare, all driven by our ADVERTISING - being basically designed to suck all your money out of you.
Between my wife and I we make about $180k a year (medium-high COL area - coastal northeast, not a major metro). I would never dare complain about being "poor," and frankly I think my life, house, etc is pretty awesome, but, like, when you consider what a lot of families live on, we ought to be socking away like $100k+ a year, right? But no. We're on a knife's edge all the time.
It's by design - and so is our blaming ourselves for it. Remember that these petite bourgeoise have a LOT more in common with you than they do with the plutocrats. By about 5 orders of magnitude.
My parents always lived either at their means or below it and that was the greatest teacher for me. Your example of the secretary who died never spending the wealth she amassed is a great example of the other extreme. Largely though, I agree that fiscal literacy is a massive issue. You are underscoring a version that exists in the professional class. It’s actually much worse with many who are making 50k or less a year and buying Hellcats that get repossessed.
It’s the literacy issue of our time
Ok, but what’s your answer for people making less than $50K driving 20-year-old cars and eating beans and rice while working their fucking asses off?
Asking for millions of friends.
That’s both my sons right now. It’s not easy and they work their asses off. We also talk about money often. They struggle but are also frugal AF. They certainly won’t be buying new Hellcats.
My son is frugal to a toxic degree thanks to growing up in my household. He put off buying new jeans, socks and T-shirts for 6 months last year although he isn’t poor. “It’s really hard to spend money” was his explanation.
That’s the unfortunate result of me never having enough money when he was growing up.
Ironically it could also end up being his superpower financially. It’s not the ideal way to grow up but I know so many people who grew up with ample means and they just don’t have a clue about managing money. I think the foundation is remove the taboo of talking about it amongst family. Unless you go to school and learn how to manage money, the only way it’s learned is through family or self
No taboo in my family. We talk about it a lot.
The only reason my son is doing so well is because he's a born minimalist and miser and -- importantly -- has no partner or children. That, and I invited him to move back home so he could put almost every penny he earned into paying off his student and car loan, to save up an emergency fund and a new furniture fund before moving out again.
I should add he's not stingy. He will freely give money to anyone who needs and requests it. He paid for a friend's daily soda and school bus pass when they were in high school, and also bought him an iPod when he was buying one for himself because he knew his friend (who was living with us because his family lost their house) couldn't afford one. He's that kid.
I told him he can probably afford to retire quite young depending on whether the world blows up in the next few years.
But if he marries and has children, his financial picture will change dramatically.
I am living that dream! 🙂
It sounds like you’re trying to discourage your son from forming a family. Are you one of those weird single moms who tries to keep her only son under her wing forever? Do you want to never have grandchildren?
I agree with your thesis here, completely.
But, small tangential point that will make me sound like a permabear (even though I’m not really): Gold has outperformed the S&P500 (ie beating the main index funds) in the 21st century (since the year 2000)
Gold is for sure much better than sitting in cash (doesn't generate dividends or produce anything for us, but gov isn't devaluing it)
No third party counter risk either.
My wife and I have one kid and live on about $200k per year. Kid is in public school. We live in a large-ish one bedroom in brooklyn. We spend a LOT of time at public parks. We have saved about $12k. I can’t tell if we are the bad ones in this scenario or the good ones lol
People need more of this. It is hard to get ahead but it can be done. You have to attack the narrative. Learn to cook better than the restaurant and really try to enjoy doing it. Get hobbies that don’t blow up your pay check. Hardest thing is you have to find a way into six figures, I don’t know if you can get ahead making less than that.
Of course more is better..usually but it is worth appreciating what you have. From my own experience you tend to spend what you make, lifestyle creep I believe you called it. Immediately saving a fixed percentage, even 5% is solid advice I did not always follow. Later in my career I started maintaining my income and putting raises into savings. Now nearing the end I'm using the raises to manage increases in the cost of living.
One thing I will have to do is ease down the spending to match my retirement income while I still have a job so it isn't a big shock.
No burrito's coiffured to my house but when I grocery shop I buy what I want without stress, that's wealth in this world.
If I ever start complaining about money I can quickly save up to $10K a year by spending less time racing motorcycles and more time running, I'm fortunate to have such a choice.
The recipe for financial wellbeing is the same as always: be curious, learn as much as you can, become really good at something, work hard, save money, invest in index funds and wait 20 years. But most people don't want to hear that. They want the Instagram lifestyle and the forever home, and they want it now. Unfortunately, that's not how life works.
You forgot luck.
I exemplify the things you list. Still working class.
Definitely luck plays a part, both good and bad. But I think you still need to be prepared and have the right mindset.
An example of good luck may be to start your investment journey at the beginning of a long-term bull market, like those who started their professional lives around 1990.
However, the period between 1990 and today, often heralded as the biggest bull market in history, has been sparkled with several of the biggest market crashes ever: the emerging markets bubble in 1997, the dot com bubble in 1999, September 11 in 2001, the great financial crisis in 2007-2008 and then Covid in 2020.
Somebody with a short-term mindset would have liquidated positions during any of those events and miss the rebound. That's why having a long-term horizon (at least 20 years) helps smoothen out the bumps.
Another example where luck plays a part but is still less relevant than having the right habits and mindsets are lottery winners: you probably won't find any other event where luck gets better than that, just by looking at the odds. However, it's common for lottery winners to end up broke after just a few years, because they haven't developed good habits.
Furthermore, though genuine bad luck certainly exists (like when someone suddenly becomes gravely ill due to genetics or another cause beyond their control) some people tend to dismiss as bad luck events that are really the second order consequences of their bad decisions.
I was painfully aware during the late 1990s that I was missing a great opportunity to invest. For example, the newspaper where I worked was running these big expensive display advertisements with 8 percent CD rates! I’d see that and wish I had even a little money left after paying the most basic living expenses but I didn’t.
I could afford to put a little money into a CD now but that would be nuts.
I know one of those 250k+ couples here in Michigan. They live in the affluent part of a very much not affluent area. They have no children at home or dependent. And they are always ‘broke’, regardless of their enormous investments and savings.
Of course, they blow money like there is no tomorrow. Eat out all the time, pay a woman to clean, pay for lawn care, pay for simple house and car maintenance. Lose $10,000 in Las Vegas, oh, well.
And then (angrily): “You shouldnt even have union healthcare. If the unions would stop, we could have free medical. I have to pay $600 dollars a month out of pocket for medical.”
Yeah. He suddenly can’t afford 5% of his salary going to medical, but he can go to Vegas a couple times a year. And drive a Maserati. And he’s ‘broke’.
They’re all the same. Ignore them. They’d have starved a century ago.
I basically agree with this. But I’m curious if you make a partial exception or have some nuance for people who have a lot of debt and are committed to paying it off aggressively.
yeah if you are in a bunch of debt for whatever reason gotta take care of that for sure
I was laid off from a federal contracting gig in March (thanks Elon) and made just over six figures. As a single mother who had to use credit cards to cover the gap for many years of self or under employment - I barely made it on this salary and still had shortfall every month. I lived in a house that was renting well under market value, only got a new (used) when I was in an accident and my car was totaled and do not live extravagantly by any measure. While I agree with you on the 250k in base principle, lumping in anyone over 6 figures is a little simplistic. Without debt that figure would have been far more than enough. But with debt? I would need to make quite a bit more to truly get ahead. Saving is something that’s felt like a pipe dream.
I am sorry you're going through difficult time, and yes mostly what inspired this story was the people making 250K complaining. Things will get better...
Absolutely! I truly trust that this is an important redirect in my life. I just wanted to comment to share that it’s not as cut and dried as the income number, especially for single income households or those who lived for an extended time under difficult circumstances or lower incomes. On the rest I’m in total agreement.