Financially, Most People End Up Where They Deserve to Be
This particular clip of Asmongold talking about why some people dislike a guy on YouTube who helps people with their financial problems resonated with me because it echoes exactly what I believe:
It starts with a woman complaining that the government isn’t out to help “the common man,” which is true as far as it goes, but Caleb Hammer goes on to note we actually have an incredibly progressive taxes, which is also true. How progressive? Well, this recent Tweet certainly stuck with me:
How much more progressive can a tax code get than 200 people paying 47% of the taxes for a state with 40 million people in it?
Anyway, she goes on to complain about not getting more help from the government, and he tells her she needs to go get a better job. Although I had only seen this clip, I was interested in getting more details on this couple’s situation, so I skimmed his 1.5-hour episode with them:
They’re an unmarried couple, and she makes 43k per year, and he makes around 48k. That doesn’t seem so bad, right? But even though he’s paying for the vast majority of the monthly expenses and she has gotten some settlement money on top of that income because of a childhood accident, she’s still down to $8.10 in her bank account and has debt. How? Complete financial irresponsibility. She’s constantly eating out, has all kinds of subscriptions, and is paying the minimum on what she owes (one of those credit cards had a 36% interest rate).
The guy is better than her, but he’s spending $50 per week on weed, has a 14% interest rate on a Mustang that’s worth 5k (but he still owes more than 8k on), is talking about choosing not to pay taxes this year, and is eating into the savings he did have to support her.
If you look at these people, what it comes down to is that they have no budget, zero financial discipline, and they’re really not even thinking about things like paying off debt, saving money, or investing. It’s basically just, “All I care about is getting through next week.”
No matter which party is in power or what the economy looks like, one thing you will continuously see is that roughly 60% of people live paycheck-to-paycheck – and some of those people make an extraordinary amount of money:
Data shows that while 57% of earners with an annual income of $50,000 or less live paycheck to paycheck, 40% of those earning $300,000 or more have found themselves in this cycle.
If you make $300,000 per year, you can live fairly well and put back a good amount of money, even in places like Manhattan and San Francisco.
So, how can it be that so many people struggle financially? Is it the “system?” Is it that “hard for Generation Z?” Is it that “There are no more financial opportunities anymore?”
No, maybe 99% of the time, it actually comes down to 1 of 4 things:
1) You’re young and haven’t had a chance to build up financially yet.
2) You have more kids than your income can support in style.
3) You got too sick to work.
*** This is the big one. The one that explains almost all of them. ***
4) You make bad financial decisions.
What kind of bad financial decisions? Well, just to name a few:
* Not having a budget.
* Not saving and investing even a small amount each month.
* Not putting back large amounts of one-time windfalls.
* Spending too much on cars.
* Spending too much on a house.
* Splurging on things because you feel stressed or think you deserve it, as opposed to spending money on things when you can actually afford it.
* Letting your spending rise to match your income instead of living below your means.
Why do so many people screw this up? Because we’re DELUGED with advertisements for products, bad financial advice, and opportunities to make our lives easier at a cost all day long, every day.
Meanwhile, the rewards you get out of being financially responsible don’t make you look cool on Instagram. Are you saving and investing money? That means you’re driving a car that’s a little older, living in a house that’s a little smaller, and not eating out as much. If that’s you, it can be easy to feel like, “You’re not keeping up with the Joneses.”
On the other hand, it’s EASY to go out to eat instead of prepping your lunch beforehand. It’s EASY to pull out a credit card and buy something that you can’t afford because you’re stressed and, “you deserve it” for working so hard. There’s a tremendous amount of social pressure on people to spend money they don’t have to impress people they don’t know.
So, if you don’t ACTIVELY take steps to safeguard your financial future, if you’re not disciplined, if you just go with the flow… You’re almost always going to be a financial mess. Chances are, you’re going to blow through everything or end up with not nearly enough money when you get older.
You may say, “Okay, well, what about the rich, though? Those guys just get handed everything, right?”
No, actually, for the most part, they don’t:
Just how deep does the myth that millionaires’ wealth simply fell into their laps go?
According to The National Study of Millionaires, about three-fourths (74%) of millennials believe most millionaires inherited their money, and more than half (52%) of baby boomers think the same thing. But our study of millionaires blows that theory out of the water. Here are the facts:
Only 21% of millionaires received any inheritance at all.
Just 16% inherited more than $100,000.
And get this: Only 3% received an inheritance at or above $1 million!
… Millionaires and the general population receive inheritances at nearly the exact same rate. So, don’t miss this: Millionaires are no more likely to get an inheritance than their neighbor who’s swimming in debt.
And if you do happen to get an inheritance, you’re probably going to have to wait a long time to get one. Most Americans get an inheritance in their 50s.
The thing about getting where you want to be financially is that typically, it takes discipline, a lot of work, and an awful lot of self-denial over a very long period of time for most people to end up on a sure financial footing. Some people do it and reap the rewards, while most people don’t and pay the price of failure. Ultimately, we mostly end up financially exactly where we deserve to end up.
We are broke because we want instant gratification and lack control over finances. We are a fat society because we lack self control and want instant gratification from unhealthy food. We are morally bankrupt because we lack self control and favor what feels good right now. If only there was a common denominator to help us figure this out.
Money discipline is completely lacking in our culture and education system. But I will agree that key things for life have gotten far too expensive. The brainwashing to 'buy this', the crush of inflation, the loss of jobs and downward wages, and the new brainwashing that all of this should be paid for by the government, all appears to originate from the same corporate oligarchy.