There has been a plethora of stories talking about the privilege possessed by the upper middle class as of late. This article is typical of what the left is trying to do– they are saying that young people no longer have a chance at the American dream because they are being kept down by [insert here: “Boomers,” the upper middle class, banks, landlords, Donald Trump] because of privilege.
The things that supposedly prove that you are blind to your privilege are:
- Why don’t you move to a less expensive area, or one where jobs are more plentiful?
- I worked hard to make it, you can too.
- Money isn’t everything.
- We all have the same opportunities to succeed.
- I don’t worry about money.
- Why don’t they save more?
- Everyone should travel.
Numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 are all linked in my mind. It isn’t just about hard work, it’s about choices. The choices that we make directly affect the outcomes that we experience. If you pick a troublesome albatross for a mate, you decide to smoke week all day instead of hustling to improve, or you waste all of your money on OnlyFans, Starbucks, and Door Dash, you are not making good choices. Your outcome will reflect that.
That isn’t to slam having some vices- I like to gamble, and ordering Door Dash when I am at work instead of clocking out for an hour to go eat is actually more cost effective. The think is, you can’t be doing those things when you are poor. The importance of understanding when you can give up wants in order to afford your needs is something that many young people struggle with. Everyone, when they first move out of their parents’ house, is used to living a better lifestyle than they themselves can afford. My mother used to call it a “caviar and Champaign taste on a beer and bread budget.” Live within your means, save as much as you can, and then you will later enjoy a better life. Learn that sacrifices when you are young will pay off when you are older.
Once you realize that, you won’t have to worry about money and you will be able to travel. There is no secret to making it- so many people think that there is some magic or secret society to becoming wealthy, but it isn’t a secret and it isn’t magic.
The way to wealth is this:
Own your house. Renting just means that you are paying someone else’s mortgage.
Buy a house, preferably with a 15 year mortgage. Pay it off as quickly as you can- don’t just make the minimum payments. Look at four different choices (using West Orlando prices):
- Rent a nice 2 bedroom apartment. Ten years ago, it was $1200 per month. Same apartments today are $2300 per month. If you did that for 15 or 30 years, it would cost you $324,000 or $648,000 and you own nothing.
- Buy a house with the roughly same square footage in the same area for $140,000 in 2002. A 5% down mortgage would mean a $7,000 down payment and monthly payments of $937 for 30 years. Total cost for 30 years: $344,320. A lot, but you also now own a house that is now worth $425,000. Not bad. You are now $733,000 more wealthy than if you had rented.
- Or buy the same house with a 15 year mortgage. Now the payments are $1281 per month, but you pay it off in half the time. Now the total cost is: $237,580. After 15 years, no payment at all. You are now $835,000 more wealthy than if you had rented.
- Same 15 year mortgage, but make an extra $200 per month payment against your principal: you pay the house off 3.5 years early, and this saves you another $12,000 in interest payments. You are damned near to being a million bucks ahead of renting.
Don’t pick a spouse/significant other that spends you into the poorhouse.
I know that she (he) is fun- after all, spending money is fun and gives you instant gratification, but at the expense of your future well-being.
Know the difference between wants and needs.
Door Dash, Starbucks, and eating out are great, but you don’t NEED to do that, especially when you are poor. Wait until you can afford it before you waste money on these things. If you don’t own a house, are making extra payments on it, and can’t afford to pay all of your bills plus put at least 10% of your income aside as savings, then you can’t afford to any of those “Wants.” Learn to wait until you can.
Education is the key to financial well being.
That doesn’t necessarily mean college. The lack of a college degree doesn’t mean that you won’t get a good job. There are plenty of trades out there that make good money- welders, for example. I was a fire medic and making a pretty good living.
Having a college degree doesn’t guarantee you a good job. Taking out $200,000 in student loans for a degree in 14th Century French poetry is a bad idea.
The trick is to learn a valuable skill, then be good at it. Work hard, make wise choices. Save. Don’t waste money on stupid bullshit. Then be patient. It will take a while. It took me about 12 years to go from bankrupt to a million in net worth.
That’s my advice. I have learned all of these things the hard way. It wasn’t privilege that got me to be successful- remember, I have been poor and even homeless. It was the school of hard knocks. Doing the things I recommend here is hard. It takes discipline and sacrifice.
Or you can just stay poor and blame your landlord or Donald Trump for it.
7 Comments
Woody · August 25, 2025 at 8:16 am
The people who coined the phrase “YOLO”, and spent money they didn’t have are now complaining they don’t have money.
Barry · August 25, 2025 at 8:24 am
Sage advice. Wife and I financed a piece of land and then built and finished out a small garage using my separation pay from the Army. We lived in that garage for 2 1/2 years saving what we could. Finally had the money for the down payment on the house; took out a larger 30-year mortgage plus a small 15-year mortgage to cover the remainder on the land mortgage. Took a second job (drilling in the Army Reserves). Paid off the 15-year mortgage in 3 years and the 30-year mortgage in 10 years.
Lots of pasta and beans and rarely eating out at a restaurant. Worked on my own vehicles (always used), never bought new or name brand stuff, learned the joys of church ministry thrift stores (amazingly good stuff in them and cheap).
Low point was late 2004; just paid our property taxes and, aside from the sacrosanct emergency fund, we had $300 remaining until I received another paycheck. I had just been mobilized back to Active Duty and, unfortunately, our group of mobilized Reservists did not receive a pay check for 60 days as Finance screwed up the paperwork for every single one of us. From that low point, everything improved. It took a decade of building, slowly at first but faster at the end, but life greatly improved.
Now we are doing well and I seek to pay my good fortune forward to others.
Elrod · August 25, 2025 at 8:29 am
Random thoughts: Money – it seems the Educational Industrial Complex is apparently forbidden to teach basic economics. If nothing else, one free period a day with reading assignments – Friedman’s Right to Choose, Sowell’s Basic Economics and Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson – would go a long way toward correcting that. So would actual math courses with real math in them.
Mortgage – Few people seem to know how to read an amortization statement on a loan, or for that matter, know that such a thing exists. Even in a 30-year the principal is peanuts for the few several dozen payments, so if nothing else, quintuple pay it when it’s low, then quadruple, then triple, etc. That won’t change a 30 into a 15, but it will fairly easily make it a 20-22 year.
Pay yourself. One of all outgoing payments should be to you, money that’s set aside for “whatever is most important.” Regular savings doesn’t pay much interest, but it is easily obtained. Once a reasonable minimum is reached, start putting it into higher yield – but safe – stuff. Eventually you’ll have something such as a bunch of CDs, each of which matures in sequence; even 4 maturing annually on a quarterly basis before automatically renewing means the longest you have to wait is 90 days; worst case, the CD as collateral will give a lower interest rate on short term loans, very worst case they can be redeemed for face value before maturity sacrifing only the interest.
Real estate is – almost – always a good investment if you know what you’re doing. Many moon ago I worked for an outift that moved us around a lot. If one has a good financial foundation each time you land in a new town, you can hunt down good deals on houses (helps to have a real business already established to do all of this). Find a good property management form to handle it when you get transferred again. Lather, rinse, repeat. A co-worker retired at 22 years – 8 years early, thanks to a corporate buy-out to reduce headcount – with 14 townhouses (3 of which were purchased at foreclosure give-away prices in 2009-2011, thanks the fallout from the 2008 Financial Festivities). Positive cash flow from them is 5X his pension, and over time he has the option to recover the original capital plus the value increase. Which, or course would get re-invested in something else.
The list goes on, but: 1) you have to be smart enough to pursue activities that benefit you; 2) you must be sufficiently disciplined to practice it correctly, and; 3) be patient.
Tsgt Joe · August 25, 2025 at 9:06 am
The vast majority of the crap in my life has been the result of my poor decisions. The good from good decisions. Some things have been easier because I have a higher IQ, many things have been harder because I’ve been burdened by depression and other emotional issues. My youngest sister ( whole family has depression) said it best, in a rant responding to another sisters whining. Depression? Depression! The whole fucking world is depressed, get your ass out of bed, put one fucking foot in front of the other, do it again, all day long. Tomorrow you do the same fucking thing, get out of bed go to work! Though I ended up in a “ touchy feely” profession, social work, my bedrock value has been: a man works, a man provides. To echo little sister, f’ excuses, f’ your sensitive feelings, get to work. With that said, I do have some sympathy for young people who have been sold that bs about needing a college education. But its tempered by the fact that I know a number of folks who got tuition assistance from their employer and paid as they went. I have worked, in addition to other places, the Air Force, General Motors and the state of Michigan. Each one of those offered tuition assistance. Its all about what you do with what you have.
Lon Monroe · August 25, 2025 at 10:06 am
Great advice. Partner (female) and I worked for 25 years (both good jobs which paid pretty well) and with no real ‘vacation’ and minimal money spent on ‘want items’: when retired, now live debt free (the key to older age stable living). Now own a small cattle ranch with house, barn(s), all the junk you could possibly image and quite a bit of pastureland. As mentioned already, good choices are key with a dose of common sense (seems to be a bygone thing).
WDS · August 25, 2025 at 11:20 am
Asked a young lady out (years ago) and I said to her “I know this great little restaurant, quiet with excellent food.” She replied, “I’d rather go to the jewelry store at the mall.”
Second date? Hell, there wasn’t even a first date and DM is right, it goes both ways.
SoCoRuss · August 25, 2025 at 11:21 am
Agreed, the current class warfare is also leading to a Dehumanizing campaign now. Whites and especially boomers are to blame for everything. That’s just to make it easier when the time comes to take our stuff for equality.
I fully understand how everything for normal people are high cost now, fuck what the .GOV says.
But, I look at how kids spent now and am shocked. Unless you spend the required $30K (current median cost) for a destination wedding, you aren’t a good parent or don’t love them.
I have a friend with a kid that was just shamed in to paying $5K cost to him to be a best man at a destination wedding. He was already financially shaking but allowed guilt to control him.
You said it, if you cant figure out what to and not to spend money on, you are doomed to failure. But kids have been lead to believe everything to fine, everyone gets a winners trophy, everyone is guaranteed the american dream. It s ALL bullshit but they cant see it so they of course turn to the socialist utopia their college professors pushed as the answer to all ills.
Part of the issue is who is qualified to teach economics/finances in our education system when those idiots say its ok to have massive debt if .gov can print money, then you can have too much debt also.
I don’t just blame the system, parents carry a large portion of the helicopter mentality and not just saying NO to their beautiful little babies…
The last depression was mitigated by lots of folks had families in rural areas who farmed so they could survive, when this depression/collapse hits none of these kids will have a clue on surviving and will die badly or fall in with groups that will make Rwanda look like a spring break party.