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You save more than the standard 10% to 15% that is recommended. In short, most people need to shun the standard middle class lifestyle (for a period of time, anyway) if they want to do well financially. Or at the very least, they have to be at least somewhat out of step with their peer group. If most people are broke (and they are--at every income level), then you have to be the one willing to be the oddball if you want to be financially comfortable / rich.
Indeed. Nobody gets rich following the status quo, mainstream advice that gets peddled out there. That's all fed to the masses because it's either justification to themselves for why they are still working at 65, or the reason why the wealthy are able to stay wealthy off the labor of wage slaves (who think their living "the American Dream"), which is another way of saying "suckers who think they need to work 40-50 years for someone else in order to retire at a level that would be seen as acceptable to their peers". So many have been indoctrinated into this consumerism lifestyle that they literally think there is no other option, and they look at anyone who does things differently like they're the ones who are crazy.
Buhahaha! OP making ~$150k per year asks why some people don't have money saved while he/she does. LOL just LOL!
For the record, I have made some serious financial mistakes in my life. I completely missed one of the biggest bull markets in history from 2008-2017 because I had an irrational fear of the markets. Now, I have lost $225,000 of potential gains. Despite this I still have savings.
Most people are smarter than me financially, or at least that is what is claimed... they invest their savings, contribute to their 401k etc.
Even if someone invested $1000 monthly in the DJIA since 2008 they would have $165,000 right now!!! How hard is it to save $1000 a month for a professional with a college degree?
Yes, if you are poor or low income I understand but this was not the target of this post, it was those that had a decent job with zero savings, people making $50-60k+, not necessarily $100k+. You CAN save $1000/mo., you just need to stop squandering your money.
If you do not have any savings in this type of a market that is skyrocketing to new heights every day it is your own damn fault.
People are wildly irresponsible, spend their money on ridiculous ****, squander all their money then blame everyone else but themselves for their misfortune.
For the record, I have made some serious financial mistakes in my life. I completely missed one of the biggest bull markets in history from 2008-2017 because I had an irrational fear of the markets. Now, I have lost $225,000 of potential gains. Despite this I still have savings.
Most people are smarter than me financially, or at least that is what is claimed... they invest their savings, contribute to their 401k etc.
Even if someone invested $1000 monthly in the DJIA since 2008 they would have $165,000 right now!!! How hard is it to save $1000 a month for a professional with a college degree?
Yes, if you are poor or low income I understand but this was not the target of this post, it was those that had a decent job with zero savings, people making $50-60k+, not necessarily $100k+. You CAN save $1000/mo., you just need to stop squandering your money.
If you do not have any savings in this type of a market that is skyrocketing to new heights every day it is your own damn fault.
People are wildly irresponsible, spend their money on ridiculous ****, squander all their money then blame everyone else but themselves for their misfortune.
I haven't read all 20 pgs of this, but where do you live? I know NYC the best and I can guarantee you that people making 60k are just getting by and are NOT in a position to save 12k/yr.
Just go through the thought exercise. 60k - after fed, state, SS, city taxes + health insurance -- you're not bringing home more than 75% of your paycheck. Let's be generous and say it's 80% -- so that's 48k/yr or $4000/month. Then you need someplace to live. An old, decidedly not fancy, non doorman building in a safe location in Manhattan will cost you $1800. Then many/most younger people have student loans - say that's another $500. Utilities all in with cell phone etc. - say that's $200 which is hard to pull off in NYC. You need to commute to work bc I doubt your apartment will be down the block from your work -- an unlimited subway card is $120. So with just those bare necessities, you have $1380 left. You still need to eat and I suspect you want to buy shampoo, soap and other necessities every so often -- that's no less than $100/wk or $400/month. And you're down to $980/month. Every so often you will have other costs pop up -- a $30 doctor copay here, a $30 prescription there, or a $40 Uber ride bc the subway was so screwed up one night that there was no other way to get home. So now it's $880/month. Now tell me, where is the waste? Notice how no clothing or entertainment was purchased at all.
Sure you can bicker that you don't need $400 for food/personal products, but that really depends on where you live. If you're in a LCOL city with Costco and Walmart and the like, you can shave that number down. In HCOL cities, there are fewer stores, you don't have the luxury of comparison shopping bc there are no Walmarts or Targets in big cities (nor is it worth the $50 cab ride to get to one) and local stores charge $1-2 more for EVERY item.
Sure you can argue that there's no need to live in Manhattan, DC, Boston or SF - but people go where the jobs are so if you can't secure yourself a job in Richmond or Cleveland or wherever, it's off to the big city you go.
Save what you save, why be so smug about it and assume everyone else not saving 12k/yr is squandering money away?
why take NYC as an example? That is at the extreme end of COL... take Chicago for example, earning $60k is easy and the COL reasonable.
So you're going to pick and choose where it's easy to save 12k/yr and then your theory is that one should ONLY live in those cities and if you don't live there and thus don't save 1k/month, you're dumb? What if you can't get a job in Chicago? The above doesn't just apply to NYC - also true in NJ, Boston, DC, definitely true in SF - so all of those cities should be off the list bc your theory doesn't work?
So you're going to pick and choose where it's easy to save 12k/yr
Not pick and choose dude... i'm taking averages and you are taking extremes. NYC is not the norm, it's one of the most expensive cities in the world in probably the 95th percentile of COL. You are the one who is picking and choosing the most expensive. We are discussing the average median case here. In NYC people will also not earn $60k, they will probably earn correspondingly higher such as $80-100k/yr for a college professional. Nobody is stupid enough to live in the center of Manhattan with a $60k/yr job.
The example I gave was a MAJOR city like Chicago not some rural outback in Nebraska. It applies to many other major cities as well and excludes probably only NYC, SFO, LA and Boston. But as I said in these cities people earn at least 10-20% higher.
Not pick and choose dude... i'm taking averages and you are taking extremes. NYC is not the norm, it's one of the most expensive cities in the world in probably the 95th percentile of COL. You are the one who is picking and choosing the most expensive. We are discussing the average median case here. In NYC people will also not earn $60k, they will probably earn correspondingly higher such as $80-100k/yr for a college professional. Nobody is stupid enough to live in the center of Manhattan with a $60k/yr job.
The example I gave was a MAJOR city like Chicago not some rural outback in Nebraska. It applies to many other major cities as well and excludes probably only NYC, SFO, LA and Boston. But as I said in these cities people earn at least 10-20% higher.
Have you lived in any of these cities? No it is not true that jobs will pay 10-20% more. Having done mgmt consulting and being an attorney at a large law firm - I guarantee you that my firms were NOT paying 20% more to the NYC associates; the fact that you made the same salary in DC and NYC meant the DC associates could save more. My firms were not anomalous in any way - this was true across the board at competing law and consulting firms.
And you acknowledge yourself - it isn't JUST NYC. It's NYC, SF, LA, Boston -- DC is in there too now. So what if Chicago and places like Dallas serve your theory -- there are lot more US cities with a LOT of entry level professional jobs that do NOT. Those are smaller cities and tougher job markets bc they are smaller.
What do you want here - just acknowledgment that you're a freaking genius and everyone else is a moron?
For the record, I have made some serious financial mistakes in my life. I completely missed one of the biggest bull markets in history from 2008-2017 because I had an irrational fear of the markets. Now, I have lost $225,000 of potential gains. Despite this I still have savings.
Most people are smarter than me financially, or at least that is what is claimed... they invest their savings, contribute to their 401k etc.
Even if someone invested $1000 monthly in the DJIA since 2008 they would have $165,000 right now!!! How hard is it to save $1000 a month for a professional with a college degree?
Yes, if you are poor or low income I understand but this was not the target of this post, it was those that had a decent job with zero savings, people making $50-60k+, not necessarily $100k+. You CAN save $1000/mo., you just need to stop squandering your money.
If you do not have any savings in this type of a market that is skyrocketing to new heights every day it is your own damn fault.
People are wildly irresponsible, spend their money on ridiculous ****, squander all their money then blame everyone else but themselves for their misfortune.
What if the rent is too high and it consumes half your income?
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How hard is it to save $1000 a month for a professional with a college degree?
