0% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck
12-31-2018, 12:39 PM
I think the main problems, as have been pointed before, are the debt and living below your means. But at the same time, reading through the thread, I just can't believe how good you have it in the US. Talking about 40-130k year income, so many facilities, opportunities, it's unbelievable.
I come from a 3rd world country in EE, and do you want to know what's considered a good income here? 12-15k$ a year, that's a good fucking income. And some families, with 2-3 kids, live only from that. And another fucked up thing? We have the major big corporations, with the big supermarkets, and everything, but the prices? The prices are the same as in tier1 geos. So imagine having to live with that.
I am a young guy, 23 years old. Do you want to know what all my peers are thinking about? Move to another country to manage to put some scrapes aside, and to make a living, or get a 500-800$ monthly job here, getting abused in every possible way. You talk about people buying expensive cars on a debt, we take a debt to buy those 2nd hand used cars from you.
One of the main advantages though is that real estate is way more less expensive than in the US, but with 12-15k annual income, how do you think you can afford to buy one? So yeah 40% of the population, take credits to afford a home, and they are gonna be debt burned all their life, just to repay that fucking apartment, because houses here are a luxury in big cities, mostly for the rich(if you don't come from the poor villages). And don't let me tell you about the quality of the apartments, built with the cheapest materials, just to make a profit.
The main thing I've learned from my father, is to never take on debt. My father came from a really poor background, having 12 siblings, barely having anything to eat. By the time he was 12 years old, his father made him sell honey by the railway so he can pay rent just to stay in his father's home. He used to steal food from colleagues in school, so he could give it back to his siblings. He had to work hard his entire life, travelling abroad working for years so his family could have food on the table, considering my mother didn't work a single day in her life.
I remember when I started highschool, I only had 1 outfit to wear every single day.(I remember one day even wearing my mother's jeans, because I literally had nothing to wear) My father was re-investing all the money he was making, and we only had the basic necessities. After beeing mocked at school by my classmates every day, one day I got the courage to go to my dad and ask him for some money to buy new clothes, because I never even had the courage to ask him for money. He told me, if you want money, you have to work for it, so he had a plantation of strawberries on a field, and he brought me on a weekend to work for 10 hours. I remember I was exhausted, every worker from there was laughing at me, at how my father makes me work for him with the other workers. At the end of the day, my father gave me 15$, for 10 hours of working the field in the sun. I remember beeing so mad, breaking my back 10 hours only for 15$, I couldn't even buy myself a pair of sneakers. That was the moment I knew that I would never do this again, and that in life if you don't create something for yourself, nobody will help you. I've made my father a promise that day, that I will have more money in life than he ever will. And do you know what he told me? Maybe on the moon. I remember clearly, that was the breaking point for me, as soon as I got home, I went to my computer and searched for: "how to make money online".
7 years fast forward? Now I have my own business, employees, live alone, properties, my own car, without a single help from my parents. I've worked my ass off, every single day, while others were partying, I was reading and reading, most of the nights falling asleep on the keyboard. It was a hard journey, I had to sacrifice a lot, from having experiences with girls, going out with the guys, going to parties, etc. But I don't regret anything, because at the end of the day, I know I am a better man because of it.
My whole point is that, this new generation is pussified. They don't really know what hard work is, everybody is used with instant gratification because of the internet, techonology in general and social media impact on our lives. And when you also come from a poor country, your options are so limited, no wonder 99% of my peers feel so lost. It's a sad reality we live in, as someone said before, only you are responsable for your life, and you have to make the right decisions, otherwise you will be left behind.
