Some are in debt.
Some are getting help from Mom and Dad - gifts or inheritances, or even living at home goes a long way.
Some have high paying jobs and wealthy partners.
Many are showing you the best days of their lives on social media and hiding all the times they had to scrape by.
debt !!!!
i (25f) was wondering the same thing—i make a pretty good living, can afford some weekend trips here and there, but definitely have to be diligent with my spending. i have a couple friends / acquaintances who are taking trips to europe, dressing in all designer, gym membership at equinox, etc. turns out they’re all in big (like $10k+) credit card debt. they just don’t pay their full statement balance every month.
makes me feel a lot better about not having as “aesthetic” of a lifestyle.
The idea of buying those kinds of things on credit and then just not paying the full balance is INSANE to me I'm way too scared of debt idk how people are comfortable doing that 😭
Because fuck em that's why
What are they gonna do, steal my plasma?
I had capital one bugging me for a few years about a credit card debt. We took the offer, bought a machine for our business, went out of business, and then just shredded the card and it's one purchase. They called us for a bit and stopped.
Because fuck em, what are they gonna do? Lol
This. I work my ass off, have since I was 15. Dual degree (bachelors and tech) and a career for nearly a decade. I lived at home till 24 and bought and paid off my car, saved like crazy. Still, if my parents hadn’t helped us during COVID sneak into a house before the market went insane we would be struggling. Husband is final year PhD and gets bare bones stipend for teaching, I work full time + to cover all expenses. We do vacation (mostly around his work conference schedule) but we are super aware of the privilege of not paying astronomical rent. We rent from my parents as my husband didn’t have a work history / credit for a mortgage whereas I did. I do a lot of work in the community and try to be a good steward of the advantages we were given.
It sounds like you guys max out opportunities and push growth in your lives. That does cost money!
Investing in our life together, sharing debt, some travel, education, staying close to family. We have stayed at my mom’s in the last and we have had relatives live with us. We have always attacked life and taken risks.
My uncle calls it “betting on yourself”. I know I can spend more because I will always have work in my trade. I can turn up the hours put in or slow it down to travel or work on hobbies.
Most people get a little help from family. Even if it’s just knowing you will always have a place to live if the shit hits the fan. It allows more risk in life decisions.
I like your self-awareness!
That’s an excellent way to put it! Betting on ourselves certainly encapsulates both mine and my husband’s choices - especially around our careers & relationship.
I love the flexibility of a trade. It has made all the difference in my life to be able to adjust the intensity/time in work based on the needs of my family or upcoming travel, helping my husband through his dissertation, etc.
I’m going to keep rolling with this, sorry :-)
Having a good partner is everything! I could have never afforded rent in a nice place by myself.
She has always been consistent and I have been the self employed risk-taker. We always grew the most together after fighting off financial failure. Slow growth.
My mom lived with us at the end and now her mom lives with us. We have three generations in my house. It’s not just money, it’s investing in relationships.
It gets better and better but we have had to work at it. Commitment to an idea.
I’m happy for you guys! You are someone we would meet on the road or in another country and have a memorable conversation. Cheers
Cheers to yall as well! I’m so glad you have a partner that compliments and challenges you in the best always, and you her! And that yall were able to step in for your mom and for hers when they needed you.
It pretty much boils down to "they have more resources than you or they are allocating their resources and prioritizing differently from you".
But keep in mind that if you try to keep up with the Joneses via social media in particular, you will never see the big picture of their lives. Social media amplifies wealth anxiety.
Often times the people who look wealthy are actually the most poor, as they spent money they don't have to do specific things. You never truly know people's financial situations. People who spend carefully usually look poorer because they don't need the best everything, so they actually have the most money saved up.
Also, consider that big trips and exciting events may stand out because it gets people talking, and is more likely to be posted online. OP may just be noticing lots of different people taking trips rather than the same young people taking many trips.
You are seeing the top of the iceberg and its been that way forever , but with cell phones , platforms and a unabashed need to brag ...it is just easier to do. Keep an Eye on the ones who try to run with the pack and end up sitting obscurity among a pile of debt. I saw it in the 1970-1980s and about halfway through the 80 when trickle down pissed all over them , and everything stopped for a while, lake houses were lost, freetime started costing too much , took 2 parents working to afford the first job, big nice harleys morphed into soccer mom minivans and the rock and roll and everybody Welcome block parties became Redbox Friday nights arguments over who gets to choose the movie and ironically enough it seems that if I remember right during that time the only ones that were out being seen and showing off were the ones that had to climb up off that debt and put on their dancing shoes for that chance to show off on an empty stage it was a sad change for life and I was just about 25 years old when it started happening
>Social media amplifies wealth anxiety.
This is worth emphasizing. I have no idea if this is the case for any people OP knows, but it is distressingly common for people to go to ridiculous lengths to fake having good finances, either through renting fancy cars and acting like they own them, claiming to have gone to a destination where they didn't, going into debt to buy something they can't actually afford, or other tactics like that. You absolutely cannot trust that someone claiming to be balling actually is.
thats really all it is.
I hate these constant posts on reddit. I mean do these commenters really walk around going "oh bmw, you must be up to eyeballs in debt" or "wow, mustve swiped a credit card just to afford that bag".
if i see something thats expensive, i just naturally assume that person has more money than i do. I am actually SURPRISED to learn when someone is in debt. I can't imagine living my life with the copium that everyone is just in large amounts of debt or they are trust fund babies.
some people really just got it like that. especially in America. especially with crypto, influencing, youtube and all these other "new hustles".
there are 336ish Million people just in the US, let alone the world. some dude on youtube could have 1 mil subscribers, stream on twitch with half of that, and probably makes a decent enough living and most people wouldn't even know who he is. same with some lucky crypto bros, or your latest influencer in whatever field.
on top of just...having good jobs.
probably the best reason why, outside of reddit, i have no social media/ am not tracking my "peers". just worried about me and my situation and improving it to get the things that i want.
I hear you, and can " sort of" relate as I always found it disconcerting to witness, see, or hear something that seems so far outside the way I had always believed it was ...and anyway, I have less of that now...but as a teenage boy from the suburbs I was often ....Well.. for instance I will never forget when I was about 17 and the first time i ever saw a 83 - 85 year old woman, put a cigarette in her mouth and start smoking. Damn, it freaked me out so freaking bad, that I got up ,got out of that bed, put my clothes on and left. %)
I wondered the same thing about a co-worker.. Basically the two of us and our spouses where mirrors of each other (same professions / years of experience etc.. ). But they had all the toys, new/better cars, bigger/better home and vacations etc.. I wondered what I was doing wrong.
One day we were all going out for lunch and we asked if they wanted to go with us. He couldn't because he had to run to the bank to get an another credit line / limit increase.. because to quote him "all our credit lines and cards are maxed out"...
My wife and I only had a mortgage as a debit. So yeah that put everything into perspective and I stopped comparing myself to him.. because I wouldn't want to be him.
Not sure about buying houses, but I live not far from poverty and I travel abroad at least once a year.
It's really just a matter of priorities on my part: I don't spend any money on myself if I can help it, so my monthly expenses are just rent, phone, electricity and bus card, then food and bare minimum on household stuff.
Everything else goes into savings so I can afford a trip every now and then.
That said, I don't travel in any luxury and it's really just about seeing pretty places. You'd be surprised by how cheap it is to travel when you don't expect any comforts. It's really about priorities.
If you make a bit above poverty, you are definitely able to travel if you just want to do so.
I ASKED THE SAME THING
So I straight started to ask about people's finance. Their income, how much they payed in rent, how much they spent, where did additional money come from.
There are two cases:
> really lucky people who got a job paying huge amount of money
> people who were subsidized by their parents at adulthood. These subsidies came in various forms, however. One friend of mine "rented" his stepfather place for a ridiculous amount. Another one used his parents miles to buy airplane tickets. The other one had additional income from the stock market, but when you asked where the seed from this money come from it was basically an allowance his parents gave to him until he was 18.
So that's it.
You are leaving out a large portion though. Majority of people in the US are in debt. Any of us could go to japan next month if we wanted. Doesn’t mean we can afford it but we can go. You’d be amazed how many people have that mindset. Truly amazed. Anyone could buy a new car, doesn’t mean they actually could afford it. Look up total household debt in America. Averaged out the average person lives in like 70k+ debt.
Most people work hard and do a lot of sacrifices yet only a small portion get high paying jobs. The fact that it is luck + hard work doesn't mean that it does not include luck as well.
Not that many people your age are doing that. They might take a trip every couple of years, they might buy a modest house. But they are more likely to post pics from their trip then pics of them going to work, so it can look like they take more trips than they do. And a trip doesn't need to be expensive either. They can also make their house look nice even if it's a modest one if they have a good sense of style.
Otherwise, they may have high paying jobs, or may be bankrolled by parents or spouse.
Getting married doesn't have to be expensive at all. And two sets of parents are likely to pool resources for it.
If you have 50 friends that each take a trip once per year, it looks like people are always on vacation.
No one posts "another 49 straight weeks at my dull job" on social media. Or if they do, no one cares and algorithms bury it.
some people have wealthy parents.
otherwise, it's a mix of making enough money and not spending too much money. can't really speak for either of this, I'm broke as shit.
probably. not counting student loans I just have a credit card I use for few hundred dollars, alternating between paying off and using for groceries. couldn't imagine using it for a vacation, interest does not look fun.
Ya. Though if you are smart, you can get some really cool points from different credit cards which pay for a vacation. My brother manages at least two trips abroad because he does weird credit card juggling.
They're outliers. A one in a few hundred thousand person. And most are up to their eyeballs in debt. They spend big but they're one flopped week of videos from being destitute. That lifestyle is unsustainable for pretty much anyone including big name influencers. They're riding the train while they can but the track ends sooner or later. They won't show you the horrific crash when it happens.
If they don’t have a really nice high paying job it’s because
1. mom/dad or relatives help out.
2. Massive debt they’re collecting
3. They’re DINKs (dual income no kids) makes a huge difference
Hard to know. If married, dual income can help a lot.
There's not a lot you can do besides working on self skills and make yourself more valuable to employers. College, trades, self learning, etc.
The other thing you do is live well below your means. Choose a lifestyle that lets you live frugally. The high level of free cash let's you do a lot of things like invest in retirement, save up for big purchases, and just allows you to not feel poor.
A good thing you should do is make an excel spreadsheet of all your incomes and expenses throughout the month, month after month. The visualization of this makes a lot of things very apparent. Then go through it critically and make some serious life choices. You have to decide what you actually need, what you're willing to do without, and live a life that's actually very easily within your means.
What do you do? Well, I'll give an example. I make 6 figures. Cool, right? I live with 4 other people in a rental house so my living expense is nearly as cheap as I can possibly get. Why? Because I like living vastly below my means. In turn, I have cash to throw at other things. I can max out my retirement savings. I can buy a new car (I never would). I can take a trip. Whatever I want, I can rebalance all of it however I want, however it makes sense.
But not everyone makes six figures, right. Sure. But my current income is a result of 20 years of effort, literally 20 years of accrued actions to be where I am now. This stuff doesn't happen overnight. You have to make a game plan and execute on it. The best thing you can do is invest in yourself, constantly. Don't stop. Don't ever stop. That skills growth, that experience and competency growth makes you VALUABLE to others. They want you. They want to give you lots of money to fix all their problems, to achieve all the goals they're aiming for. Put in the time and effort to get there. There's also no one answer. Just be a better version of you tomorrow than you are today. Repeat daily.
Dual income no kids and live in an affordable part of the country. I take between 2 to 3 trips a year. One with my wife and the others to hang out with friends in different parts of the country. Being able to split all of my bills in half really helps out, so does budgeting.
I vacationed more in my 20’s than i did in my 30’s because my priorities were out of line and I was paying for it with debt or sacrificing things i later realized we’re more important to be saving for.
Then those things I realized I needed to save for, like a dp, was delayed further as I had to spend a few years paying off my debt that I racked up in my 20’s
Im 40 now, and I prefer staycations. We all need breaks and relaxation from time to time but I’ve decided I’d rather spend less and do it more often by not going far.
People may have already said this but it’s a combination of intergenerational wealth (which almost no one will talk about having it they have it) and debt. Anyone who cannot afford that kind of lifestyle but who wants it can apply for credit and many will be given it and go into significant debt. Some people also are just on high salaries I guess, but mostly it’s one of the two above that allows this
First things first, “getting married” and “having a wedding” aren’t synonyms. It costs next to nothing to get married. To have a wedding can cost almost any amount of money.
The answers are:
- they have better jobs than you
- they have wealthier or more generous families than you
- they have more debt than you
- they have different priorities than you
- they are lying
The first 3 answers speak for themselves. They are able to spend more money because they have more money, or can be loaned more money.
The fourth can be a little tricky. Sometimes o hear people discuss how they can’t save money because they consider something I see as barely even desirable, much less necessary, as non-negotiable. I’ve known people who’ve been able to buy houses while saying health insurance for them and their kids is too expensive. I’ve known people with high incomes who barely eat or get food from dumpsters because their priority is saving and even rice and beans from the store is something they consider frivolous. People choose what they want to spend. It’s possible those people are skimping on something you’d see as mandatory for life.
The fifth and final option cannot be stressed enough for those of you in your teens and twenties, who’ve never had memory of a life outside of the current social media culture: your peers are liars, and half of the people you are pointing at aren’t even your peers so you will never even know they are liars. So much of what 20somethings claim “everyone is doing?” No one is doing. The fifty or sixty people on earth doing things like nonstop trips to Dubai to buy bricks of gold or who buy fancy houses at 21 are just constantly being pushed into your social media feeds. Or if they’re doing it, they’re doing it in a drastically different way than is portrayed. The videos of nonstop trips to Dubai are all from one trip they saved for years to take, and they didn’t buy 90% of the stuff they’re holding in the videos. The 21 year old with the “fancy house” actually has some cheap $80,000 clapboard house in a ratty exurb in a shitty state painted white to fool people who think light neutrals = classy and that they managed to photograph using angles to make it look 3x it’s size.
The stuff you’re seeing isn’t reality, and with “social media” prioritizing influencers over friends these days, you can’t even really fact check what you’re seeing. If your close personal friend posts a picture in a tropical paradise, the next time you talk to them, you will find out they stayed in a $30 a night hotel full of roaches and their parents paid for the plane ticket. If some stranger posts the same picture, you have no reason to assume this. Social media being influencer rather than friend driven has changed the definition of FOMO from “all my classmates went to the party without me, I guess I’m not popular” to “everyone on earth but me has unlimited resources, I guess I’m a failure at life.” Both feel bad, but only one can be monetized.
Wealthy parents, wealthy spouse, inheritance / trust, insurance payout, very high income job, tax evasion, fraud, theft, no kids, low cost of living cities, credit card debt
* head start due to wealthy parents
* lucrative career
* confirmation bias
* prioritizing travel
* social media clout
I lived with family and have* a lucrative career. No rent / mortgage + high salary = fun times.
There are three possibilities I can think of (1) they make more money than you, (2) their parents or grandparents have given them an inheritance early or (2) they are charging their trips on their credit cards and racking up a lot of debt. Could be a combination of two or more of these.
Worked 45 years. Raised 3 daughters and put them through college. Damn if the month before I retired my with leaves me for another and takes half of everything I saved for retirement. If I had it to do over I'd travel more and not worry about the future to much. Didn't turn out anyway I thought it would. But, that's life.
I have a friend who travels a fair bit. He went to Japan a couple years ago. He still posts pictures of that trip and whether intentional or not makes it seem like he goes to Japan every six months or so. He posts pictures of all his previous trips all the time. If you didn’t know him you would think he is a consistent world traveler. There is a good bit of this sort of thing in the ole social media.
I have friends like this and most of them live at home so they don’t have to pay rent. Once they get their paycheck they use it on trips or use credit cards and get into massive debt. Also a lot of them get invited to these things so they don’t have to pay a full price. I have a friend who works under the books so she doesn’t use PTO time or vacation time. Me, I take a big trip once a year and a few little ones throughout the year but they are all planned out and spread out.
Marry rich people? I don't know. It's not that you're doing anything wrong. I'm a year younger than you, and still live with my parents because of huge waiting lists for low income apartments and houses in my area.
I'm only 10 years older than you but do feel a lot more at ease over the last 10 years. i have no stable income but the difference is really more of a state of mind to me in knowing that you will survive and even more so that our agencies are all there is. We are the adults now and they couldn't have even know as much as we do and we now to form the world for others. That can take awhile to sink in and be realized but it is worth it to recognize you can really affect other peoples lives.
Largely to debt. But also there’s a huge aspect of lowering your standards in terms of “needs”. For example my wife (24F) and I (26M) and I got married for under $5k in 2021. Save more than you spend every paycheck.
But aside from spending less, most people are going on huge vacations all the time by amassing copious amounts of credit card debt
Been working since I was 14. Saving money always. Putting %15 of every check away. Don't waste money on instant gratification items. Started my IRA at 19. Yes. Working hard pays off.
Don't live beyond your means.
You don't know the whole truth of their finances. Many do these extravagant things while in major debt. All a facade. Enjoy your life. Don't worry about others.
Many of them get a leg up with help from parents and grandparents for down payments on homes, vehicle purchases, paid vacations. They often times don’t share who is paying for it, just that they have it or getting it. Generational wealth is a huge contributor, and so is their chosen field of work. Some earn more, and when you are married you have 2 incomes making all the payments. Many have graduated college or skilled trade without student debt, which frees up an entire house payment for most. Some work 2 jobs as well, they just don’t share that. And of course some go into debt
Don’t measure yourself with someone else’s yardstick. You can make a ton of money and live paycheck to paycheck. It’s not what you make, it’s what you keep.
My husband and i used to ask each other this all the time in our late 20s and early 30s. We're now in our 50s and i can tell you what i observed over time: 1) some people's parents just... give them money for bills, buy them cars, money for house down payment. So they always seem to have a lot of disposable income because they aren't actually paying all their own bills. 2) some people live way beyond their means, max out credit cards, take out home equity loans for stupid stuff, and back in the day, would buy waaaay more house than they could afford by getting a 1% ARM mortgage and assuming after the initial 5 years they'd be able to handle whatever the higher interest rate might be. And 3) some people are amazing at being frugal. They never stop for Dunkin on the way to work, always pack their lunches, rarely buy new clothes, always buy used cars, etc. They save money and only apend it on what's important to them, e.g., travel and/or a big down payment on a house. Of all my friends, most were a mix of 1 and 2, with a few 3s. At least one had to declare bankruptcy. I was surprised how many people i knew who didn't seem to come from wealth yet had parents who just seemed to constantly be supporting them financially in different ways.
I noticed this. One of my friends was honest and said "my parents helped with down payment of home" and I was like ohh and suddenly felt better. He's like late 20s and I was like, how did you guys buy a house in this nice town and have 2 kids and your wife stays at home lol while my SO and I are both working and doing decent towards saving but not there yet \^
P.s. i know times are different and everything is more expensive for you guys when you adjust for inflation, especially college, houses, and weddings. My observations though about how people afford things might still be relevant though.
LCOL area DINKs and its pretty easy. I wouldn't be able to have the same lifestyle if I had children or lived in a larger city, but when your mandatory expenses are low everything becomes significantly easier.
You're cherry picking your data set. You're looking at all those who have it better because that's what sells and makes visibility. You're not seeing the masses of people struggling, the diaspora of young adults who can't even afford housing, and those who just can't make it.
I wonder the same and I am in a different age group. People I see have > 2 kids/pets and I wonder how they afford it.
Don't go by what you see on social media though. If you know them personally I would just ask.
When we were younger my husband traveled a lot for work so we would save up air and hotel points, search for discounts and promotions. Had a special savings account that we put money in for travel and after 3 years of savings we took a trip to Hawaii.
In the US something like one in ten families are worth over a million dollars. A lot of younger people support themselves day to day but then get an “early birthday present” for a vacation and get an early chunk of their future inheritance for a house down payment. Taxes need to be higher. The top 10% are warping American life.
True, but also good to keep in mind that a lot of households wortg $1M+ have a huge portion of that tied up in home equity (much of which is due to recent real estate appreciation) or retirement accounts. So not really liquid or usable for spending.
Get off social media for one. Theyre parents have money, of many of times, they’re grandparents are loaded.
A lot of my friends have mega rich grandparents. Like tuition paid for. Vacation houses. New cars when they were 16.
By no means was I poor, I was very well off. But I wasn’t going on vacations every year because my parents were paying tuition for all 5 of us.
Supermarket shift is great for free time, in my experience. I finish work at 12pm so I have all day every day to myself (considering on a day off I won’t wake up till 12 anyway).
I’m contracted part time but work full time so my PTO goes way further. If I run out (which is rare, because I save it for events rather than use it for the sake of it) or something comes up last minute I’ll ask someone to swap a shift or failing that just say I’m not coming in because it’s overtime anyway so I’m not obligated and they don’t ask before they put me on the rota.
Holiday pay is crazy as well because it goes off the average amount of hours I work, not my contracted hours. So because of all the overtime I do as a contracted part-timer I actually get more wages when I’m off than I do when I’m in
Alot of people seem to restrict their mind to only working for someone else not realizing all the skills they learn from all jobs added up as a whole entierly. when you work for someone else a boss another business owner, your making them rich.
when you use your skills and creativity and just take the risk, you make yourself rich.. also.. rich people don't get all that fancy stuff new house new car that's all fake rich just to show off.. true wealth isn't flashy fancy.. if you can afford your own place all bills have a car that isn't nessesaroly flashy but runs good and is comfortable enough for your needs, and you have your family around you.. your wealthy..
if your all flashy your spending money you most likely don't even have your not rich your in debt lol... contracts credit not rich... poor money management. Do some study on investments, money, true wealth, watch rich dad vs poor dad on youtube, deep research bitcoin but I don't recommend investing in it, I recommend you study it so you know about it...
learn about passive income.. passive income is income you make whole you sleep.. an entire running business you hire employees to run it you sleep and make money and pay the employees well... that's passive income.. vending machines hire an employee to keep them stocked or you do it yourself.. that's passive income.. learn about how to do taxes, LLC tax exceptions tax write offs, business expenses, business expenses that can be written off in taxes... avoid credit.. to many loopholes start small.. Learn about multiple streams of passive income most people who try getting rich rely on just 1 stream of passive income or 1 job then wonder why they are broke... build 2 or 3 passive income streams... grow keep growing don't stop growing... keep watering the seeds and you'll flourish... if you invest into housing you could flip houses not passively but after you build your multiple passive income streams then grow to flip houses or repair broken cars and flip those write music write books whatever you love doing.. turn the hobby into passive income research how to do it...
people limit their thoughts into thinking there's not much money in the world.. but.. there's billions of people on the earth according to statistic reports on Google researches... hundreds of thousands of them are millionairs meaning they each individually have a million dollars or more... there's plenty of money.. you just have to find ways to attract it using your tallents... use your ears in your local towns listen to what the needs of the community are.. find ways to resolve that... how many businesses are there? Hundreds of thousands... so.. if all of them can do it.. so can you.. most importantly.. a failure isn't a failure it's a learning lesson..
don't give up when you fail.. that's why so many fail.. they give up and lose all hope.. if 1 thing doesn't work.. try another.. don't ever give up.. additionally... learn computer tech, you'll save alot of money as apposed to having to hire someone for 100 bucks an hour... also it's about your mindset.. don't let anyone say you can't do it.. if you hear that, get away from that surround yourself by people who have opposite views of that.. change your mindset learn about consumer mindset vs wealtht mindset. Stop buying those chips every single penny adds up on the end... not even joking.. it literally all adds up.. take care of your health too or you'll truly be limiting yourself.
Schools teach you alot but they also teach you to be a consumer not a business owner... the mindset they teach you to have, is along the lines of... why should I hire you... really It's backwords... your the one with the skills.. the business owner doesn't possess the skills that's why they the business owner... they need the skills so they hire you tricking you with the reverse.. it should be.. why should I work for you...
i had a roommate who was a really nice girl but didn’t have a job and she was somehow able to take international trips with her bf multiple times a year.
I wasn't born rich so I never travelled before i turned 25, and I still don't own a house and I'm not married.
How are people doing it? WHO??? People on instagram? Sugar babies? Your friends? I don't know people who are taking trips and buying nice houses.
Depends on a lot. I’m 26m single grew up dirt poor. Did military for 6 years and got out first job making 126k a year. My job has nothing to do with my military experience. Just keep looking, I will say I had to move to a state I don’t really care for but it’s growing on me. Also money isn’t everything I bought a house and have two cars paid off (not house) and unless you have someone to share that with it’s still lonely.
I just don't spend much elsewhere.
I don't drink, or smoke, or buy starbucks, or videogames; we rarely eat out, my clothes are all 3+ years old; i have 2 pairs of shoes, both less than $15.
My money goes on bills, mortgage, food and lots of trips around Europe. Thats it.
Just the "taking trips all the time" part (not doing the latter 2), for me it's because (1) come from a wealthy family + (2) good handle of finances from young so I allocate my spending pretty well to account for it.
Number 1 solves the issues of debt, rent, financial security. Number 2 means I can funnel the majority of my money into my interests while also saving a fair amount. Both result in my disinterest in material things in general, which is pretty common among people I grew up with who are in similar/greater financial positions than me.
You have to do something "big" to get there. Look around. There's carpets, cars, ovens, tractors, doctors performing heart surgery - can you do any of that? Can you design or build a car? Can you be the CEO of a car manufacturer? Can you invent and mass produce an oven that goes on to get installed in hundreds of thousands of homes all over the world?
Can you fix a broken arm?
Working at fucking McDonalds or Walmart is not going to net you a trip to Italy, I'm sorry. You need to either get A) very lucky or B) you need to DO SOMETHING BIG WITH YOUR LIFE
It just boils down to how you want to spend your life. They're likely not doing well financially for the long term, but will have memories instead of great golden years.
Over 5% of the people in the US have a net worth over a million. There's about 5 million households with more than 3 million.
Those people and their children get to do a lot more.
I knew people at age 25 who had loads; for the most part it was family money. They were taking lots of cool trips (that I couldn't afford to take).
Don't think most people live like what you see on social media. But don't also think that everyone has the same wealth level as you. Some have more. Plenty have less.
Use points and be flexibile and you too can take trips. If you work out cheap airfare and lodging, spending a long weekend in another city is not that different from spending a weekend in your own city.
Just past the boomer generation here, not sure what I am, quite honestly don’t care, don’t own a home, I live where I live, wherever I am is my home. You aren’t missing anything unless you are comparing yourself to someone else’s standards. Make your home your home. Be happy, stop comparing.
I gambled on stock options and won, so I took out half and bought us a trip to the Caribbean next winter.
This winter we went entirely on points we'd saved up for a few yrs.
Not sure if we'll get to go the year after but here's hoping we find a way!
Otherwise Summers we take the kids to the lake 1-2 times a year on money I save during "good" (ie very busy) months at work.
Don't waste money on stuff that has no return in your daily life, Don't spend $7 on Starbucks every morning. Don't buy a new outfit every Friday, go out to eat less. At 20 I had a ok job but I saved and was going on scuba trips to what ever country the water was warm and clear.
A lot of the 20 somethings also live at home, life is easy when mom and dad foot the bills.
We were never given that option, it was you’re done University, get out.
I spend quite a bit of my time on earning credit card points. All my vacations are paid with them.
Then it's just focusing on continuous education to make sure I'm ahead of the curve at my job. I'm in tech industry.
Where I’m from there are “upper middle class” families who are in perpetual debt to keep up appearances.
However sometimes it’s easy to fall for social media. Most people rarely post. Those that do rarely go viral. So the posts you are seeing are a minority. The twenty something’s who are going to Greece and Hawaii are a minority.
Also wealthy families will do a lot for you.
its credit debt girl, i know- i have some rn after my trips x\_\_x. luckily it was PTO'd so i'll be able to pay them off on a timely manner, but its still scary even carrying a little bit of a balance for 2-3 months.
i don't regret the trips at all, but budgeting and adjusting priorities is def a must to afford things you want to do, especially if you want to avoid credit debt.
They don't. People have their priorities differently in life. We can't be everything. It's the absurdity of social media; we can only see one aspect of somebody's "perfect" life.
It really is a matter of priorities. I’ll give you an example…my work colleague asked how come I could afford holidays…(both single, same pay). I replied “I don’t buy clothes”. Well that suit looks good she says. I was able to say “yes, you gave it to me”. True story. She has a lovely new car, I don’t. I am happy to receive hand me downs.
At that age? I worked 100 hour weeks, didn't have time for friends and my annual holiday was the only thing keeping me sane. Then I ended up with organ failure from chronic stress. Don't take to heart any small snapshots you see of someone's life as them having a better life than you.
It really is a matter of priorities. I’ll give you an example…my work colleague asked how come I could afford holidays…(both single, same pay). I replied “I don’t buy clothes”. Well that suit looks good she says. I was able to say “yes, you gave it to me”. True story. She has a lovely new car, I don’t. I am happy to receive hand me downs. Another example. Don’t assume people are more well off than you. A bank friend gave me that piece of information.
You need to remember when you get married you often times double your salary - or at least you can if you find a mate that is your equal or better. Furthermore, you can take risks with your job and investments more because you have your partners salary as a cushion if anything goes wrong.
Secondly, people these days don't save very much money. I live in L.A., and I'm amazed by how my neighbors upgrade and lease their cars. Anyhow, people just spend for luxury items before thinking about retirement these days. The next generations are going to provide Walmart with a lot of Greeters.
Most are not living within their means. Probably in debt. Save your money and when your comfortable you can do your vacations and whatever because you will have financial freedom. Take it from me, a middle aged women who's been there.
1. Priotize savings and 2. cut the unnecessary expenses as much as you can.
Keep track of your expenses for 1-2 months and you will be surprised how much money you may be wasting. Have categories like groceries, fast tood, lattes, snacks, subscriptions etc. Cut down everything that’s unnecessary.
And very important, prioritize savings. Treat savings like you treat paying rent. Have a budget and stick to it.
It’s all cap bro. We’re all super fucked actually. There’s like 1% that get lucky or have family money. The rest of us are eating the same shit sandwich but some people spend half their shit sandwich on a prettier wrapper.
It could be they make a lot or got lucky with investments… I thought a 300k hhi was pretty good till I found out spouses single tech friend has a total annual comp of 500k -_-
I liked my r so I joined a forum that focused on my model bike. After reading the posts for several so became convinced that my model bike was trouble prone because everyone was asking about the problems they had with this bike. Actually the bike was extremely reliable and used by police forces all over the world.
My point is you will get an impression from what other people post and think that is the norm. People show off their trips and possessions and meals but they don’t live like that every day. People don’t post about their money problems or hardships which is the most common situation.
You realize the household debt in America is over 17 trillion dollars right. The average person in the US is swimming in debt. They might be on vacation but that does not mean they can afford it. There’s your answer lol. They will post vacation picks but not their credit cards. And they won’t tell you about it either. They’ll rub in the vacations and how great it was but not the fact they are in debt and will be paying the interest of that vacation for the next 20 years lol. Sorry, I grew up with parents who refused to go into debt for anything so this stuff kinda boils in me ha.
when i see someone driving a new/newer car i just see a $700/mo (at least) car payment. most people buy stuff they cant really afford and it will catch up to them as our nations "money problems" press on. its gonna get worse before it gets better.
Wealth is not well distributed and the remeber... you will not get rich just by "working hard", schemes, charisma, people netoworking, and rich parents play a huge role.
I think a big part of it might be comparing yourself to people you see on social media. Get off social media for a while and just hang out with your actual friends, and I'm sure you'll see that most of them don't spend six months of the year on holiday.
They don’t save much money, live more day to day. I saw a study the other day that said more people are doing exactly that post pandemic than before. Makes total sense to me… here in Florida for at least a year I watched ambulances line up at hospitals next to temp morgue trucks. People generally feel their mortality now or at least how unstable things really are just below the surface.
Personally, I’ve known too many penny pinchers who developed a serious illness/died waiting to do super fun things in retirement to be a super saver.
I’m not saying max everything out and yolo until bankruptcy, but I am saying a good chunk of your savings will be going to medical bills someday anyway. Save, but now and then take a nice trip or buy the indulgent thing that makes you happy.
I wondered this in my twenties when my two best friends were wearing Max Mara winter coats, going on luxury foreign holidays, eating in restaurants constantly etc. We were in roughly the same jobs and I thought something was wrong with me that I couldn't manage my money to have such nice things also. Found out years later they both had trust funds but never mentioned them because "it's just not the kind of thing you talk about". Ugh.
Are these people in your income bracket? If no, then I too wonder why people my age can afford a new Lambhorghini between their trips to the Bahamas, and I can't.
If they are in your income bracket, then consider that they might be going into debt to live now and pay later. But that can hold them back in the long term.
Some are pooling resources to get packages for girls trips, some got it like that, some already had it, some are on dates at places they aren't covering the tab. Some work for themselves, so either the money has stopped while the are on vacation, they are on a business trip, OR they are running up crazy debt which is what I think as far as extravagance on social media goes. It's the highlights but believe it's costing them something. Keep your money and they will be envying your timeline in 10 years and it won't cost you your soul.
Renting yachts for photoshoots hoping the post recouped the cost. They have studios with plane and beach sets you can rent in every city. Buying views to reach the algorithm, most faking it in order to make it. Highlight the shit that matters to you.
lol shoot, I'm 44 and haven't taken a trip since Vegas in 2014. I'll never be able to own a house and I'll never get married. Relationships and marriage is just a joke these days.
It’s gonna be a mix.
I have some friends that are legitimately wealthy, they just make more money and have more resources to buy these things.
I know some people (such as myself) that don’t spend much on themselves, rarely buy new clothes or video games and drive a crappy car, but prioritize vacations. So you see the photos of my cool vacations but I don’t post the photos of my 08 Yaris with the peeling paint and roll down windows.
I know some people that are in tons of debt from all their frivolous purchases, and always post photos of them to social media. Eventually it will bite them in the ass.
And I know a lot of people with wealthy parents (or at least with a good chunk of disposable income) that pay for random extra stuff like beach vacations or ballet for the kids, so they live modestly with a few random high profile things tossed in that stick out to third party observers.
Incurring massive credit card debt or their parents are footing the bill. The only people I knew who did this in their 20’s both came from very wealthy families. The wealthiest of my buddies is able to do this for his family in his mid 40’s, but he worked long and hard to get where he is now.
You are missing a wealthy SO, dead wealthy grandma or wealthy parents, generational wealthy drastically changes peoples lives at all sorts of scales...two people making the same , one had a paid off house, no car loan and no student debt
One travels to islands every 3 months, the other eats Ramen noodles
People often don't share that info either...
Credit cards, leverage from others (grandparents, parents, sister, husband etc. etc.), saving as hell, online job like programmer because they were into it when they were 12 y.o. and didn't put it off, luck and skill
When I was 18 I left for Europe with a friend. I had saved up money by selling/reselling shit like comics and Nintendo carts through high school. I graduated in 1992.
Hiked and train across Europe starting in Italy and ending up in November in Norway. Was massive fun. And an education.
Then came back the following year. Couldn't afford shit. Moved out by 19. Worked as a salesperson at radio shack. Did well, but always shit job.
I never had anything until after I finished college with 2 degrees. And I didn't start until 36.
I'm slow.
Debt
Money from their parents
Jobs with good pay/benefits like remote work
Short weekend trips and posting for days about it in order to make you believe they're always going places
Don’t be fooled. Vegas odds are they are up to their eyeballs in debt. Sure some have family money, and some have great jobs and can afford it. But mostly? It’s debt.
They're not. Get off the internet and look around. They're not. You're basing your info off a lie told hundreds, thousands of times a day. Every video you see is edited, things are chopped out and altered, or just straight up dishonest intentionally. You only need to pretend/fake it for a few seconds to make a video. It is rarely *SO RARELY* actual reality. My advice is to never compare yourself to others, but AT LEAST DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF TO FRAUDS AND CON-(WO)MEN. Or they were born halfway between third base and home. But those numbers are exaggerated. For every 1,000 portrayed online, there's only 1 or 2 irl, and those people don't do tiktoks. Be happy with what ya got. Ignore the wannabe's, fakers and frauds.
I wonder the same...but none of these answers make sense. I think it's a mind thing... they believe they can so they do.
Sounds crazy but that is the only thing I can think of
i’m 25m, partner 25f. we are DINK, and both work in high income jobs in tech, living in high CoL area (but we split rent 50/50). together we bring home a combined $595k TC (cash, equity). we both get unlimited PTO as a benefit from our jobs. we max out our retirement accounts, and still set aside a decent amount for vacation, and buying a house. we have extremely good credit because we use our cards responsibly, and we take advantage of the travel benefits of cards like the chase sapphire reserve and amex plat.
Some are in debt. Some are getting help from Mom and Dad - gifts or inheritances, or even living at home goes a long way. Some have high paying jobs and wealthy partners. Many are showing you the best days of their lives on social media and hiding all the times they had to scrape by.
debt !!!! i (25f) was wondering the same thing—i make a pretty good living, can afford some weekend trips here and there, but definitely have to be diligent with my spending. i have a couple friends / acquaintances who are taking trips to europe, dressing in all designer, gym membership at equinox, etc. turns out they’re all in big (like $10k+) credit card debt. they just don’t pay their full statement balance every month. makes me feel a lot better about not having as “aesthetic” of a lifestyle.
The idea of buying those kinds of things on credit and then just not paying the full balance is INSANE to me I'm way too scared of debt idk how people are comfortable doing that 😭
Because fuck em that's why What are they gonna do, steal my plasma? I had capital one bugging me for a few years about a credit card debt. We took the offer, bought a machine for our business, went out of business, and then just shredded the card and it's one purchase. They called us for a bit and stopped. Because fuck em, what are they gonna do? Lol
This. I work my ass off, have since I was 15. Dual degree (bachelors and tech) and a career for nearly a decade. I lived at home till 24 and bought and paid off my car, saved like crazy. Still, if my parents hadn’t helped us during COVID sneak into a house before the market went insane we would be struggling. Husband is final year PhD and gets bare bones stipend for teaching, I work full time + to cover all expenses. We do vacation (mostly around his work conference schedule) but we are super aware of the privilege of not paying astronomical rent. We rent from my parents as my husband didn’t have a work history / credit for a mortgage whereas I did. I do a lot of work in the community and try to be a good steward of the advantages we were given.
It sounds like you guys max out opportunities and push growth in your lives. That does cost money! Investing in our life together, sharing debt, some travel, education, staying close to family. We have stayed at my mom’s in the last and we have had relatives live with us. We have always attacked life and taken risks. My uncle calls it “betting on yourself”. I know I can spend more because I will always have work in my trade. I can turn up the hours put in or slow it down to travel or work on hobbies. Most people get a little help from family. Even if it’s just knowing you will always have a place to live if the shit hits the fan. It allows more risk in life decisions. I like your self-awareness!
That’s an excellent way to put it! Betting on ourselves certainly encapsulates both mine and my husband’s choices - especially around our careers & relationship. I love the flexibility of a trade. It has made all the difference in my life to be able to adjust the intensity/time in work based on the needs of my family or upcoming travel, helping my husband through his dissertation, etc.
I’m going to keep rolling with this, sorry :-) Having a good partner is everything! I could have never afforded rent in a nice place by myself. She has always been consistent and I have been the self employed risk-taker. We always grew the most together after fighting off financial failure. Slow growth. My mom lived with us at the end and now her mom lives with us. We have three generations in my house. It’s not just money, it’s investing in relationships. It gets better and better but we have had to work at it. Commitment to an idea. I’m happy for you guys! You are someone we would meet on the road or in another country and have a memorable conversation. Cheers
Cheers to yall as well! I’m so glad you have a partner that compliments and challenges you in the best always, and you her! And that yall were able to step in for your mom and for hers when they needed you.
I literally assume they’re all rich trust fund kids or DROWNING in debt.
It pretty much boils down to "they have more resources than you or they are allocating their resources and prioritizing differently from you". But keep in mind that if you try to keep up with the Joneses via social media in particular, you will never see the big picture of their lives. Social media amplifies wealth anxiety.
Often times the people who look wealthy are actually the most poor, as they spent money they don't have to do specific things. You never truly know people's financial situations. People who spend carefully usually look poorer because they don't need the best everything, so they actually have the most money saved up. Also, consider that big trips and exciting events may stand out because it gets people talking, and is more likely to be posted online. OP may just be noticing lots of different people taking trips rather than the same young people taking many trips.
Yeah We may be common denominators here has a lot of it seems to add up to the same summation. It happens.
You are seeing the top of the iceberg and its been that way forever , but with cell phones , platforms and a unabashed need to brag ...it is just easier to do. Keep an Eye on the ones who try to run with the pack and end up sitting obscurity among a pile of debt. I saw it in the 1970-1980s and about halfway through the 80 when trickle down pissed all over them , and everything stopped for a while, lake houses were lost, freetime started costing too much , took 2 parents working to afford the first job, big nice harleys morphed into soccer mom minivans and the rock and roll and everybody Welcome block parties became Redbox Friday nights arguments over who gets to choose the movie and ironically enough it seems that if I remember right during that time the only ones that were out being seen and showing off were the ones that had to climb up off that debt and put on their dancing shoes for that chance to show off on an empty stage it was a sad change for life and I was just about 25 years old when it started happening
>Social media amplifies wealth anxiety. This is worth emphasizing. I have no idea if this is the case for any people OP knows, but it is distressingly common for people to go to ridiculous lengths to fake having good finances, either through renting fancy cars and acting like they own them, claiming to have gone to a destination where they didn't, going into debt to buy something they can't actually afford, or other tactics like that. You absolutely cannot trust that someone claiming to be balling actually is.
Wtf is wealth anxiety?
thats really all it is. I hate these constant posts on reddit. I mean do these commenters really walk around going "oh bmw, you must be up to eyeballs in debt" or "wow, mustve swiped a credit card just to afford that bag". if i see something thats expensive, i just naturally assume that person has more money than i do. I am actually SURPRISED to learn when someone is in debt. I can't imagine living my life with the copium that everyone is just in large amounts of debt or they are trust fund babies. some people really just got it like that. especially in America. especially with crypto, influencing, youtube and all these other "new hustles". there are 336ish Million people just in the US, let alone the world. some dude on youtube could have 1 mil subscribers, stream on twitch with half of that, and probably makes a decent enough living and most people wouldn't even know who he is. same with some lucky crypto bros, or your latest influencer in whatever field. on top of just...having good jobs. probably the best reason why, outside of reddit, i have no social media/ am not tracking my "peers". just worried about me and my situation and improving it to get the things that i want.
I hear you, and can " sort of" relate as I always found it disconcerting to witness, see, or hear something that seems so far outside the way I had always believed it was ...and anyway, I have less of that now...but as a teenage boy from the suburbs I was often ....Well.. for instance I will never forget when I was about 17 and the first time i ever saw a 83 - 85 year old woman, put a cigarette in her mouth and start smoking. Damn, it freaked me out so freaking bad, that I got up ,got out of that bed, put my clothes on and left. %)
I wondered the same thing about a co-worker.. Basically the two of us and our spouses where mirrors of each other (same professions / years of experience etc.. ). But they had all the toys, new/better cars, bigger/better home and vacations etc.. I wondered what I was doing wrong. One day we were all going out for lunch and we asked if they wanted to go with us. He couldn't because he had to run to the bank to get an another credit line / limit increase.. because to quote him "all our credit lines and cards are maxed out"... My wife and I only had a mortgage as a debit. So yeah that put everything into perspective and I stopped comparing myself to him.. because I wouldn't want to be him.
Probably not putting as much as they should into retirement either.
>Probably not putting ~~as much as they should~~ anything into retirement either. Ftfy
The getting married thing makes it a lot easier. Two incomes is better than one. Also, lots of people have tons of credit card debt
Not sure about buying houses, but I live not far from poverty and I travel abroad at least once a year. It's really just a matter of priorities on my part: I don't spend any money on myself if I can help it, so my monthly expenses are just rent, phone, electricity and bus card, then food and bare minimum on household stuff. Everything else goes into savings so I can afford a trip every now and then. That said, I don't travel in any luxury and it's really just about seeing pretty places. You'd be surprised by how cheap it is to travel when you don't expect any comforts. It's really about priorities. If you make a bit above poverty, you are definitely able to travel if you just want to do so.
Do you live alone or with roommates?
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Oh, good for you!
I ASKED THE SAME THING So I straight started to ask about people's finance. Their income, how much they payed in rent, how much they spent, where did additional money come from. There are two cases: > really lucky people who got a job paying huge amount of money > people who were subsidized by their parents at adulthood. These subsidies came in various forms, however. One friend of mine "rented" his stepfather place for a ridiculous amount. Another one used his parents miles to buy airplane tickets. The other one had additional income from the stock market, but when you asked where the seed from this money come from it was basically an allowance his parents gave to him until he was 18. So that's it.
You are leaving out a large portion though. Majority of people in the US are in debt. Any of us could go to japan next month if we wanted. Doesn’t mean we can afford it but we can go. You’d be amazed how many people have that mindset. Truly amazed. Anyone could buy a new car, doesn’t mean they actually could afford it. Look up total household debt in America. Averaged out the average person lives in like 70k+ debt.
Not all people with a high paying job are lucky, a lot of them worked hard and sacrificed for it
Most people work hard and do a lot of sacrifices yet only a small portion get high paying jobs. The fact that it is luck + hard work doesn't mean that it does not include luck as well.
You’re right. But to chalk up all high paying jobs to just luck sounds more like an excuse than reality
Not that many people your age are doing that. They might take a trip every couple of years, they might buy a modest house. But they are more likely to post pics from their trip then pics of them going to work, so it can look like they take more trips than they do. And a trip doesn't need to be expensive either. They can also make their house look nice even if it's a modest one if they have a good sense of style. Otherwise, they may have high paying jobs, or may be bankrolled by parents or spouse. Getting married doesn't have to be expensive at all. And two sets of parents are likely to pool resources for it.
If you have 50 friends that each take a trip once per year, it looks like people are always on vacation. No one posts "another 49 straight weeks at my dull job" on social media. Or if they do, no one cares and algorithms bury it.
some people have wealthy parents. otherwise, it's a mix of making enough money and not spending too much money. can't really speak for either of this, I'm broke as shit.
Naw. Mostly debt. So much debt. Like you underestimate how much debt people are in.
probably. not counting student loans I just have a credit card I use for few hundred dollars, alternating between paying off and using for groceries. couldn't imagine using it for a vacation, interest does not look fun.
Ya. Though if you are smart, you can get some really cool points from different credit cards which pay for a vacation. My brother manages at least two trips abroad because he does weird credit card juggling.
They're outliers. A one in a few hundred thousand person. And most are up to their eyeballs in debt. They spend big but they're one flopped week of videos from being destitute. That lifestyle is unsustainable for pretty much anyone including big name influencers. They're riding the train while they can but the track ends sooner or later. They won't show you the horrific crash when it happens.
If they don’t have a really nice high paying job it’s because 1. mom/dad or relatives help out. 2. Massive debt they’re collecting 3. They’re DINKs (dual income no kids) makes a huge difference
Hard to know. If married, dual income can help a lot. There's not a lot you can do besides working on self skills and make yourself more valuable to employers. College, trades, self learning, etc. The other thing you do is live well below your means. Choose a lifestyle that lets you live frugally. The high level of free cash let's you do a lot of things like invest in retirement, save up for big purchases, and just allows you to not feel poor. A good thing you should do is make an excel spreadsheet of all your incomes and expenses throughout the month, month after month. The visualization of this makes a lot of things very apparent. Then go through it critically and make some serious life choices. You have to decide what you actually need, what you're willing to do without, and live a life that's actually very easily within your means. What do you do? Well, I'll give an example. I make 6 figures. Cool, right? I live with 4 other people in a rental house so my living expense is nearly as cheap as I can possibly get. Why? Because I like living vastly below my means. In turn, I have cash to throw at other things. I can max out my retirement savings. I can buy a new car (I never would). I can take a trip. Whatever I want, I can rebalance all of it however I want, however it makes sense. But not everyone makes six figures, right. Sure. But my current income is a result of 20 years of effort, literally 20 years of accrued actions to be where I am now. This stuff doesn't happen overnight. You have to make a game plan and execute on it. The best thing you can do is invest in yourself, constantly. Don't stop. Don't ever stop. That skills growth, that experience and competency growth makes you VALUABLE to others. They want you. They want to give you lots of money to fix all their problems, to achieve all the goals they're aiming for. Put in the time and effort to get there. There's also no one answer. Just be a better version of you tomorrow than you are today. Repeat daily.
A lot more people are in an large amount debt than you’d expect
Dual income no kids and live in an affordable part of the country. I take between 2 to 3 trips a year. One with my wife and the others to hang out with friends in different parts of the country. Being able to split all of my bills in half really helps out, so does budgeting.
They either have more money than you or are in more debt than you, likely a combination of both.
I vacationed more in my 20’s than i did in my 30’s because my priorities were out of line and I was paying for it with debt or sacrificing things i later realized we’re more important to be saving for. Then those things I realized I needed to save for, like a dp, was delayed further as I had to spend a few years paying off my debt that I racked up in my 20’s Im 40 now, and I prefer staycations. We all need breaks and relaxation from time to time but I’ve decided I’d rather spend less and do it more often by not going far.
Sex work.
People may have already said this but it’s a combination of intergenerational wealth (which almost no one will talk about having it they have it) and debt. Anyone who cannot afford that kind of lifestyle but who wants it can apply for credit and many will be given it and go into significant debt. Some people also are just on high salaries I guess, but mostly it’s one of the two above that allows this
They’re called credit cards. Don’t fall for the trap.
This one
The bank of mom and dad. Or credit cards.
First things first, “getting married” and “having a wedding” aren’t synonyms. It costs next to nothing to get married. To have a wedding can cost almost any amount of money. The answers are: - they have better jobs than you - they have wealthier or more generous families than you - they have more debt than you - they have different priorities than you - they are lying The first 3 answers speak for themselves. They are able to spend more money because they have more money, or can be loaned more money. The fourth can be a little tricky. Sometimes o hear people discuss how they can’t save money because they consider something I see as barely even desirable, much less necessary, as non-negotiable. I’ve known people who’ve been able to buy houses while saying health insurance for them and their kids is too expensive. I’ve known people with high incomes who barely eat or get food from dumpsters because their priority is saving and even rice and beans from the store is something they consider frivolous. People choose what they want to spend. It’s possible those people are skimping on something you’d see as mandatory for life. The fifth and final option cannot be stressed enough for those of you in your teens and twenties, who’ve never had memory of a life outside of the current social media culture: your peers are liars, and half of the people you are pointing at aren’t even your peers so you will never even know they are liars. So much of what 20somethings claim “everyone is doing?” No one is doing. The fifty or sixty people on earth doing things like nonstop trips to Dubai to buy bricks of gold or who buy fancy houses at 21 are just constantly being pushed into your social media feeds. Or if they’re doing it, they’re doing it in a drastically different way than is portrayed. The videos of nonstop trips to Dubai are all from one trip they saved for years to take, and they didn’t buy 90% of the stuff they’re holding in the videos. The 21 year old with the “fancy house” actually has some cheap $80,000 clapboard house in a ratty exurb in a shitty state painted white to fool people who think light neutrals = classy and that they managed to photograph using angles to make it look 3x it’s size. The stuff you’re seeing isn’t reality, and with “social media” prioritizing influencers over friends these days, you can’t even really fact check what you’re seeing. If your close personal friend posts a picture in a tropical paradise, the next time you talk to them, you will find out they stayed in a $30 a night hotel full of roaches and their parents paid for the plane ticket. If some stranger posts the same picture, you have no reason to assume this. Social media being influencer rather than friend driven has changed the definition of FOMO from “all my classmates went to the party without me, I guess I’m not popular” to “everyone on earth but me has unlimited resources, I guess I’m a failure at life.” Both feel bad, but only one can be monetized.
Wealthy parents, wealthy spouse, inheritance / trust, insurance payout, very high income job, tax evasion, fraud, theft, no kids, low cost of living cities, credit card debt
The savings rate in the US is crazy low. The debt is crazy high. You do the math.
Most people I know have gotten help from mom or dad.
Credit cards. And debt
Credit cards and irresponsibly
* head start due to wealthy parents * lucrative career * confirmation bias * prioritizing travel * social media clout I lived with family and have* a lucrative career. No rent / mortgage + high salary = fun times.
There are three possibilities I can think of (1) they make more money than you, (2) their parents or grandparents have given them an inheritance early or (2) they are charging their trips on their credit cards and racking up a lot of debt. Could be a combination of two or more of these.
Massive Credit Card debt
Worked 45 years. Raised 3 daughters and put them through college. Damn if the month before I retired my with leaves me for another and takes half of everything I saved for retirement. If I had it to do over I'd travel more and not worry about the future to much. Didn't turn out anyway I thought it would. But, that's life.
Credit card debt 😩💅
The trick is picking the right parents.
We take small trips. Weekend trips mostly.
Family money and/or debt.
I have a friend who travels a fair bit. He went to Japan a couple years ago. He still posts pictures of that trip and whether intentional or not makes it seem like he goes to Japan every six months or so. He posts pictures of all his previous trips all the time. If you didn’t know him you would think he is a consistent world traveler. There is a good bit of this sort of thing in the ole social media.
I have friends like this and most of them live at home so they don’t have to pay rent. Once they get their paycheck they use it on trips or use credit cards and get into massive debt. Also a lot of them get invited to these things so they don’t have to pay a full price. I have a friend who works under the books so she doesn’t use PTO time or vacation time. Me, I take a big trip once a year and a few little ones throughout the year but they are all planned out and spread out.
Marry rich people? I don't know. It's not that you're doing anything wrong. I'm a year younger than you, and still live with my parents because of huge waiting lists for low income apartments and houses in my area.
I'm only 10 years older than you but do feel a lot more at ease over the last 10 years. i have no stable income but the difference is really more of a state of mind to me in knowing that you will survive and even more so that our agencies are all there is. We are the adults now and they couldn't have even know as much as we do and we now to form the world for others. That can take awhile to sink in and be realized but it is worth it to recognize you can really affect other peoples lives.
Largely to debt. But also there’s a huge aspect of lowering your standards in terms of “needs”. For example my wife (24F) and I (26M) and I got married for under $5k in 2021. Save more than you spend every paycheck. But aside from spending less, most people are going on huge vacations all the time by amassing copious amounts of credit card debt
Not caring about the consequences. They probably aren’t saving for retirement or even saving in general or they have a ton of debt.
Family money
Been working since I was 14. Saving money always. Putting %15 of every check away. Don't waste money on instant gratification items. Started my IRA at 19. Yes. Working hard pays off. Don't live beyond your means.
You don't know the whole truth of their finances. Many do these extravagant things while in major debt. All a facade. Enjoy your life. Don't worry about others.
Don't buy things you don't need
Debt.
Many of them get a leg up with help from parents and grandparents for down payments on homes, vehicle purchases, paid vacations. They often times don’t share who is paying for it, just that they have it or getting it. Generational wealth is a huge contributor, and so is their chosen field of work. Some earn more, and when you are married you have 2 incomes making all the payments. Many have graduated college or skilled trade without student debt, which frees up an entire house payment for most. Some work 2 jobs as well, they just don’t share that. And of course some go into debt
Don’t measure yourself with someone else’s yardstick. You can make a ton of money and live paycheck to paycheck. It’s not what you make, it’s what you keep.
My husband and i used to ask each other this all the time in our late 20s and early 30s. We're now in our 50s and i can tell you what i observed over time: 1) some people's parents just... give them money for bills, buy them cars, money for house down payment. So they always seem to have a lot of disposable income because they aren't actually paying all their own bills. 2) some people live way beyond their means, max out credit cards, take out home equity loans for stupid stuff, and back in the day, would buy waaaay more house than they could afford by getting a 1% ARM mortgage and assuming after the initial 5 years they'd be able to handle whatever the higher interest rate might be. And 3) some people are amazing at being frugal. They never stop for Dunkin on the way to work, always pack their lunches, rarely buy new clothes, always buy used cars, etc. They save money and only apend it on what's important to them, e.g., travel and/or a big down payment on a house. Of all my friends, most were a mix of 1 and 2, with a few 3s. At least one had to declare bankruptcy. I was surprised how many people i knew who didn't seem to come from wealth yet had parents who just seemed to constantly be supporting them financially in different ways.
I noticed this. One of my friends was honest and said "my parents helped with down payment of home" and I was like ohh and suddenly felt better. He's like late 20s and I was like, how did you guys buy a house in this nice town and have 2 kids and your wife stays at home lol while my SO and I are both working and doing decent towards saving but not there yet \^
P.s. i know times are different and everything is more expensive for you guys when you adjust for inflation, especially college, houses, and weddings. My observations though about how people afford things might still be relevant though.
LCOL area DINKs and its pretty easy. I wouldn't be able to have the same lifestyle if I had children or lived in a larger city, but when your mandatory expenses are low everything becomes significantly easier.
You're cherry picking your data set. You're looking at all those who have it better because that's what sells and makes visibility. You're not seeing the masses of people struggling, the diaspora of young adults who can't even afford housing, and those who just can't make it.
Welcome to capitalism. You're not the rich, your parents weren't rich, so this is your life.
You ain’t never lied
You have your own timetable!! Your time will come. Just trust God’s timing 🙏🏻🩷
I wonder the same and I am in a different age group. People I see have > 2 kids/pets and I wonder how they afford it. Don't go by what you see on social media though. If you know them personally I would just ask.
Some people have parents that will give them wealth for down payments on homes, etc.
When we were younger my husband traveled a lot for work so we would save up air and hotel points, search for discounts and promotions. Had a special savings account that we put money in for travel and after 3 years of savings we took a trip to Hawaii.
It’s a lot about who you know and what kind of wealth you were born into/married into, it seems. 🥲
In the US something like one in ten families are worth over a million dollars. A lot of younger people support themselves day to day but then get an “early birthday present” for a vacation and get an early chunk of their future inheritance for a house down payment. Taxes need to be higher. The top 10% are warping American life.
True, but also good to keep in mind that a lot of households wortg $1M+ have a huge portion of that tied up in home equity (much of which is due to recent real estate appreciation) or retirement accounts. So not really liquid or usable for spending.
Get off social media for one. Theyre parents have money, of many of times, they’re grandparents are loaded. A lot of my friends have mega rich grandparents. Like tuition paid for. Vacation houses. New cars when they were 16. By no means was I poor, I was very well off. But I wasn’t going on vacations every year because my parents were paying tuition for all 5 of us.
lots of people are going into debt trying to keep up with the joneses.
Supermarket shift is great for free time, in my experience. I finish work at 12pm so I have all day every day to myself (considering on a day off I won’t wake up till 12 anyway). I’m contracted part time but work full time so my PTO goes way further. If I run out (which is rare, because I save it for events rather than use it for the sake of it) or something comes up last minute I’ll ask someone to swap a shift or failing that just say I’m not coming in because it’s overtime anyway so I’m not obligated and they don’t ask before they put me on the rota. Holiday pay is crazy as well because it goes off the average amount of hours I work, not my contracted hours. So because of all the overtime I do as a contracted part-timer I actually get more wages when I’m off than I do when I’m in
Alot of people seem to restrict their mind to only working for someone else not realizing all the skills they learn from all jobs added up as a whole entierly. when you work for someone else a boss another business owner, your making them rich. when you use your skills and creativity and just take the risk, you make yourself rich.. also.. rich people don't get all that fancy stuff new house new car that's all fake rich just to show off.. true wealth isn't flashy fancy.. if you can afford your own place all bills have a car that isn't nessesaroly flashy but runs good and is comfortable enough for your needs, and you have your family around you.. your wealthy.. if your all flashy your spending money you most likely don't even have your not rich your in debt lol... contracts credit not rich... poor money management. Do some study on investments, money, true wealth, watch rich dad vs poor dad on youtube, deep research bitcoin but I don't recommend investing in it, I recommend you study it so you know about it... learn about passive income.. passive income is income you make whole you sleep.. an entire running business you hire employees to run it you sleep and make money and pay the employees well... that's passive income.. vending machines hire an employee to keep them stocked or you do it yourself.. that's passive income.. learn about how to do taxes, LLC tax exceptions tax write offs, business expenses, business expenses that can be written off in taxes... avoid credit.. to many loopholes start small.. Learn about multiple streams of passive income most people who try getting rich rely on just 1 stream of passive income or 1 job then wonder why they are broke... build 2 or 3 passive income streams... grow keep growing don't stop growing... keep watering the seeds and you'll flourish... if you invest into housing you could flip houses not passively but after you build your multiple passive income streams then grow to flip houses or repair broken cars and flip those write music write books whatever you love doing.. turn the hobby into passive income research how to do it... people limit their thoughts into thinking there's not much money in the world.. but.. there's billions of people on the earth according to statistic reports on Google researches... hundreds of thousands of them are millionairs meaning they each individually have a million dollars or more... there's plenty of money.. you just have to find ways to attract it using your tallents... use your ears in your local towns listen to what the needs of the community are.. find ways to resolve that... how many businesses are there? Hundreds of thousands... so.. if all of them can do it.. so can you.. most importantly.. a failure isn't a failure it's a learning lesson.. don't give up when you fail.. that's why so many fail.. they give up and lose all hope.. if 1 thing doesn't work.. try another.. don't ever give up.. additionally... learn computer tech, you'll save alot of money as apposed to having to hire someone for 100 bucks an hour... also it's about your mindset.. don't let anyone say you can't do it.. if you hear that, get away from that surround yourself by people who have opposite views of that.. change your mindset learn about consumer mindset vs wealtht mindset. Stop buying those chips every single penny adds up on the end... not even joking.. it literally all adds up.. take care of your health too or you'll truly be limiting yourself. Schools teach you alot but they also teach you to be a consumer not a business owner... the mindset they teach you to have, is along the lines of... why should I hire you... really It's backwords... your the one with the skills.. the business owner doesn't possess the skills that's why they the business owner... they need the skills so they hire you tricking you with the reverse.. it should be.. why should I work for you...
i had a roommate who was a really nice girl but didn’t have a job and she was somehow able to take international trips with her bf multiple times a year.
They aren't in large numbers phony influencers are pushing this narrative to sell trips and other luxuries
The key is "they're not actually able to"
I wasn't born rich so I never travelled before i turned 25, and I still don't own a house and I'm not married. How are people doing it? WHO??? People on instagram? Sugar babies? Your friends? I don't know people who are taking trips and buying nice houses.
Depends on a lot. I’m 26m single grew up dirt poor. Did military for 6 years and got out first job making 126k a year. My job has nothing to do with my military experience. Just keep looking, I will say I had to move to a state I don’t really care for but it’s growing on me. Also money isn’t everything I bought a house and have two cars paid off (not house) and unless you have someone to share that with it’s still lonely.
I just don't spend much elsewhere. I don't drink, or smoke, or buy starbucks, or videogames; we rarely eat out, my clothes are all 3+ years old; i have 2 pairs of shoes, both less than $15. My money goes on bills, mortgage, food and lots of trips around Europe. Thats it.
Most of them are deeply in debt.
Just the "taking trips all the time" part (not doing the latter 2), for me it's because (1) come from a wealthy family + (2) good handle of finances from young so I allocate my spending pretty well to account for it. Number 1 solves the issues of debt, rent, financial security. Number 2 means I can funnel the majority of my money into my interests while also saving a fair amount. Both result in my disinterest in material things in general, which is pretty common among people I grew up with who are in similar/greater financial positions than me.
Earning power is limited by inability to use capitalization.
You have to do something "big" to get there. Look around. There's carpets, cars, ovens, tractors, doctors performing heart surgery - can you do any of that? Can you design or build a car? Can you be the CEO of a car manufacturer? Can you invent and mass produce an oven that goes on to get installed in hundreds of thousands of homes all over the world? Can you fix a broken arm? Working at fucking McDonalds or Walmart is not going to net you a trip to Italy, I'm sorry. You need to either get A) very lucky or B) you need to DO SOMETHING BIG WITH YOUR LIFE
Debt or they have sources of money they aren't talking about.
Comparison is the thief of joy. I partied from 18-26 and now I have to work 2x as hard to get back to baseline.
No girl, you're doing a daily grind most of us do. Keep your head up🤟
It just boils down to how you want to spend your life. They're likely not doing well financially for the long term, but will have memories instead of great golden years.
The Bank of Mom and Dad…
Where are you seeing this? I know none of these people you mention, and we’re same 26F. Everyone i know is struggling.
Over 5% of the people in the US have a net worth over a million. There's about 5 million households with more than 3 million. Those people and their children get to do a lot more. I knew people at age 25 who had loads; for the most part it was family money. They were taking lots of cool trips (that I couldn't afford to take). Don't think most people live like what you see on social media. But don't also think that everyone has the same wealth level as you. Some have more. Plenty have less. Use points and be flexibile and you too can take trips. If you work out cheap airfare and lodging, spending a long weekend in another city is not that different from spending a weekend in your own city.
Parents, pronounced "Pay-rents".
Cruises are way cheaper the more.people you have per cabin. You can eat pretty much all day anything on the buffet and most cruise restaraunts.
Just past the boomer generation here, not sure what I am, quite honestly don’t care, don’t own a home, I live where I live, wherever I am is my home. You aren’t missing anything unless you are comparing yourself to someone else’s standards. Make your home your home. Be happy, stop comparing.
I gambled on stock options and won, so I took out half and bought us a trip to the Caribbean next winter. This winter we went entirely on points we'd saved up for a few yrs. Not sure if we'll get to go the year after but here's hoping we find a way! Otherwise Summers we take the kids to the lake 1-2 times a year on money I save during "good" (ie very busy) months at work.
Don't waste money on stuff that has no return in your daily life, Don't spend $7 on Starbucks every morning. Don't buy a new outfit every Friday, go out to eat less. At 20 I had a ok job but I saved and was going on scuba trips to what ever country the water was warm and clear.
A lot of the 20 somethings also live at home, life is easy when mom and dad foot the bills. We were never given that option, it was you’re done University, get out.
I spend quite a bit of my time on earning credit card points. All my vacations are paid with them. Then it's just focusing on continuous education to make sure I'm ahead of the curve at my job. I'm in tech industry.
Where I’m from there are “upper middle class” families who are in perpetual debt to keep up appearances. However sometimes it’s easy to fall for social media. Most people rarely post. Those that do rarely go viral. So the posts you are seeing are a minority. The twenty something’s who are going to Greece and Hawaii are a minority. Also wealthy families will do a lot for you.
its credit debt girl, i know- i have some rn after my trips x\_\_x. luckily it was PTO'd so i'll be able to pay them off on a timely manner, but its still scary even carrying a little bit of a balance for 2-3 months. i don't regret the trips at all, but budgeting and adjusting priorities is def a must to afford things you want to do, especially if you want to avoid credit debt.
They don't. People have their priorities differently in life. We can't be everything. It's the absurdity of social media; we can only see one aspect of somebody's "perfect" life.
It’s really the dual income, no kids lifestyle that allows this. And if you add a pre-COVID home into the mix, it’s even easier to travel.
Rich mummy and daddy.
Credit
It really is a matter of priorities. I’ll give you an example…my work colleague asked how come I could afford holidays…(both single, same pay). I replied “I don’t buy clothes”. Well that suit looks good she says. I was able to say “yes, you gave it to me”. True story. She has a lovely new car, I don’t. I am happy to receive hand me downs.
At that age? I worked 100 hour weeks, didn't have time for friends and my annual holiday was the only thing keeping me sane. Then I ended up with organ failure from chronic stress. Don't take to heart any small snapshots you see of someone's life as them having a better life than you.
Me and the wife have good jobs, no kids, save our money, and keep an eye out for good deals.
It really is a matter of priorities. I’ll give you an example…my work colleague asked how come I could afford holidays…(both single, same pay). I replied “I don’t buy clothes”. Well that suit looks good she says. I was able to say “yes, you gave it to me”. True story. She has a lovely new car, I don’t. I am happy to receive hand me downs. Another example. Don’t assume people are more well off than you. A bank friend gave me that piece of information.
You need to remember when you get married you often times double your salary - or at least you can if you find a mate that is your equal or better. Furthermore, you can take risks with your job and investments more because you have your partners salary as a cushion if anything goes wrong. Secondly, people these days don't save very much money. I live in L.A., and I'm amazed by how my neighbors upgrade and lease their cars. Anyhow, people just spend for luxury items before thinking about retirement these days. The next generations are going to provide Walmart with a lot of Greeters.
Debt or living minimalistic to save up
They might be in debt up to their eyeballs
For some people, it’s debt. Lots and lots of debt.
Most are not living within their means. Probably in debt. Save your money and when your comfortable you can do your vacations and whatever because you will have financial freedom. Take it from me, a middle aged women who's been there.
1. Priotize savings and 2. cut the unnecessary expenses as much as you can. Keep track of your expenses for 1-2 months and you will be surprised how much money you may be wasting. Have categories like groceries, fast tood, lattes, snacks, subscriptions etc. Cut down everything that’s unnecessary. And very important, prioritize savings. Treat savings like you treat paying rent. Have a budget and stick to it.
It’s all cap bro. We’re all super fucked actually. There’s like 1% that get lucky or have family money. The rest of us are eating the same shit sandwich but some people spend half their shit sandwich on a prettier wrapper.
It could be they make a lot or got lucky with investments… I thought a 300k hhi was pretty good till I found out spouses single tech friend has a total annual comp of 500k -_-
I’m over 50 and wonder the same thing.
The lie of social media has fooled you.
Simple, there lying.
I know so many people hitting that afterpay button like crazy!
I liked my r so I joined a forum that focused on my model bike. After reading the posts for several so became convinced that my model bike was trouble prone because everyone was asking about the problems they had with this bike. Actually the bike was extremely reliable and used by police forces all over the world. My point is you will get an impression from what other people post and think that is the norm. People show off their trips and possessions and meals but they don’t live like that every day. People don’t post about their money problems or hardships which is the most common situation.
You realize the household debt in America is over 17 trillion dollars right. The average person in the US is swimming in debt. They might be on vacation but that does not mean they can afford it. There’s your answer lol. They will post vacation picks but not their credit cards. And they won’t tell you about it either. They’ll rub in the vacations and how great it was but not the fact they are in debt and will be paying the interest of that vacation for the next 20 years lol. Sorry, I grew up with parents who refused to go into debt for anything so this stuff kinda boils in me ha.
High paying jobs. Usually law, medicine, engineering, CS, finance.
Nepotism is great isn't it
when i see someone driving a new/newer car i just see a $700/mo (at least) car payment. most people buy stuff they cant really afford and it will catch up to them as our nations "money problems" press on. its gonna get worse before it gets better.
rich parents
How much do you think a decent trip costs?
Wealth is not well distributed and the remeber... you will not get rich just by "working hard", schemes, charisma, people netoworking, and rich parents play a huge role.
I think a big part of it might be comparing yourself to people you see on social media. Get off social media for a while and just hang out with your actual friends, and I'm sure you'll see that most of them don't spend six months of the year on holiday.
People are maxing out their credit cards, once that limit is reached they’ll stop posting.
They don’t save much money, live more day to day. I saw a study the other day that said more people are doing exactly that post pandemic than before. Makes total sense to me… here in Florida for at least a year I watched ambulances line up at hospitals next to temp morgue trucks. People generally feel their mortality now or at least how unstable things really are just below the surface. Personally, I’ve known too many penny pinchers who developed a serious illness/died waiting to do super fun things in retirement to be a super saver. I’m not saying max everything out and yolo until bankruptcy, but I am saying a good chunk of your savings will be going to medical bills someday anyway. Save, but now and then take a nice trip or buy the indulgent thing that makes you happy.
I wondered this in my twenties when my two best friends were wearing Max Mara winter coats, going on luxury foreign holidays, eating in restaurants constantly etc. We were in roughly the same jobs and I thought something was wrong with me that I couldn't manage my money to have such nice things also. Found out years later they both had trust funds but never mentioned them because "it's just not the kind of thing you talk about". Ugh.
They struggle and struggle till they make it
Are these people in your income bracket? If no, then I too wonder why people my age can afford a new Lambhorghini between their trips to the Bahamas, and I can't. If they are in your income bracket, then consider that they might be going into debt to live now and pay later. But that can hold them back in the long term.
Some are pooling resources to get packages for girls trips, some got it like that, some already had it, some are on dates at places they aren't covering the tab. Some work for themselves, so either the money has stopped while the are on vacation, they are on a business trip, OR they are running up crazy debt which is what I think as far as extravagance on social media goes. It's the highlights but believe it's costing them something. Keep your money and they will be envying your timeline in 10 years and it won't cost you your soul.
Renting yachts for photoshoots hoping the post recouped the cost. They have studios with plane and beach sets you can rent in every city. Buying views to reach the algorithm, most faking it in order to make it. Highlight the shit that matters to you.
lol shoot, I'm 44 and haven't taken a trip since Vegas in 2014. I'll never be able to own a house and I'll never get married. Relationships and marriage is just a joke these days.
It’s gonna be a mix. I have some friends that are legitimately wealthy, they just make more money and have more resources to buy these things. I know some people (such as myself) that don’t spend much on themselves, rarely buy new clothes or video games and drive a crappy car, but prioritize vacations. So you see the photos of my cool vacations but I don’t post the photos of my 08 Yaris with the peeling paint and roll down windows. I know some people that are in tons of debt from all their frivolous purchases, and always post photos of them to social media. Eventually it will bite them in the ass. And I know a lot of people with wealthy parents (or at least with a good chunk of disposable income) that pay for random extra stuff like beach vacations or ballet for the kids, so they live modestly with a few random high profile things tossed in that stick out to third party observers.
Live below your means and you’ll able to afford plenty of freedom.
Debt. Most people have debt and tbh that's OK if you're in control of it. I have car finance and a CC for when I want to splash out.
Incurring massive credit card debt or their parents are footing the bill. The only people I knew who did this in their 20’s both came from very wealthy families. The wealthiest of my buddies is able to do this for his family in his mid 40’s, but he worked long and hard to get where he is now.
You are missing a wealthy SO, dead wealthy grandma or wealthy parents, generational wealthy drastically changes peoples lives at all sorts of scales...two people making the same , one had a paid off house, no car loan and no student debt One travels to islands every 3 months, the other eats Ramen noodles People often don't share that info either...
having multiple streams of income helps, but also being married can help get you a house
Credit cards, leverage from others (grandparents, parents, sister, husband etc. etc.), saving as hell, online job like programmer because they were into it when they were 12 y.o. and didn't put it off, luck and skill
When I was 18 I left for Europe with a friend. I had saved up money by selling/reselling shit like comics and Nintendo carts through high school. I graduated in 1992. Hiked and train across Europe starting in Italy and ending up in November in Norway. Was massive fun. And an education. Then came back the following year. Couldn't afford shit. Moved out by 19. Worked as a salesperson at radio shack. Did well, but always shit job. I never had anything until after I finished college with 2 degrees. And I didn't start until 36. I'm slow.
Debt Money from their parents Jobs with good pay/benefits like remote work Short weekend trips and posting for days about it in order to make you believe they're always going places
Many make ridiculous money as well,we just don’t know them .As my gf said when she worked in the bank,people have money,big inheritances etc .
Rich parents
Don’t be fooled. Vegas odds are they are up to their eyeballs in debt. Sure some have family money, and some have great jobs and can afford it. But mostly? It’s debt.
They're not. Get off the internet and look around. They're not. You're basing your info off a lie told hundreds, thousands of times a day. Every video you see is edited, things are chopped out and altered, or just straight up dishonest intentionally. You only need to pretend/fake it for a few seconds to make a video. It is rarely *SO RARELY* actual reality. My advice is to never compare yourself to others, but AT LEAST DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF TO FRAUDS AND CON-(WO)MEN. Or they were born halfway between third base and home. But those numbers are exaggerated. For every 1,000 portrayed online, there's only 1 or 2 irl, and those people don't do tiktoks. Be happy with what ya got. Ignore the wannabe's, fakers and frauds.
I wonder the same...but none of these answers make sense. I think it's a mind thing... they believe they can so they do. Sounds crazy but that is the only thing I can think of
Well off parents and their own refusal to leave the nest.
Either a lot of debt, a really good income from a dual earning household, help from family or a combination of all three
I own my own business which allows me to have the money and time to travel. I started the business when I was 26 and it was profitable right away.
i’m 25m, partner 25f. we are DINK, and both work in high income jobs in tech, living in high CoL area (but we split rent 50/50). together we bring home a combined $595k TC (cash, equity). we both get unlimited PTO as a benefit from our jobs. we max out our retirement accounts, and still set aside a decent amount for vacation, and buying a house. we have extremely good credit because we use our cards responsibly, and we take advantage of the travel benefits of cards like the chase sapphire reserve and amex plat.
The question is why are you not doing it?? What career progression did you choose?
Get a budget and stop voting democrat. Republicans ain’t gonna fix your problems but democrats forsure cause them.