it's all good Jake.
Please note that when I say "you" as follows, it pertains to generically speaking anyone. It isn't directed at any individual.
What I'm seeing here is common which is posturing of this attitude like "yeah I'm set, I got it bro. I'm so successful in my early 20's working for somebody else that they give me enough scraps off their plate that I can buy X". No, you aren't set. You've accomplished nothing. You make dogshit as far as real money is concerned, and it isn't enough to ever be independent. I hate seeing kids with a 2 in front of their age who think they've somehow "made it" with their little degree and their little job, or worse - still finishing school and trying to explain to the world that they have all this opportunity and things will be so grand and perfect. Yes, congrats, you've just become like millions of other people running the rat race. Giving people the rundown on how you've stood up a run-of-the-mill modern Western life isn't impressive.
Here's an idea: rather than talking about how little is owed on a car or house, or justifying expenses of cars, all based on some small income and this little box that 99% of 20-somethings fall into - instead talk about how you're going to start a business or invest in some way that will fund your car desires 1000x over down the road. So you have a house? Houses are money pits. They are not investments. Nice to have but quite possibly the WORST thing you can do in your early 20's is to buy a house that YOU pay for. I say YOU because if you rent it and someone else pays the interest and taxes and cash flows your escrow to repair stuff on it, then it's not the worst thing anymore.
Working hard is something to be proud of. Working hard for material things like cars and houses is stupid. Work hard to become smarter about how to have the experiences you as a person want out of life
Storytime:
I grew up playing soccer with a buddy who I still play with to this day. 20+ years. Really nice, unassuming guy. He was failing physics in high school so he started the physicsforums website as a place for people to answer questions, etc. He took that and ran with it, still went to UWM and got a comp sci degree just to have a fallback (positioning), but he's never worked for anyone beyond the age of 18. The forums took off and now he has the likes of Harvard professors contributing content. He has a 6 figure RESIDUAL income from the traffic and literally spent his entire 20's out of the USA for 9 months out of the year. Every year. all he did was travel the world and he still to this day at the age of 32 does not have to work for anyone and is currently spending summer in Tanzania and surrounding countries.
THAT is success. It's not about having X number of dollars to buy a house or cars or whatever or being "rich" - it's about having the freedom to pursue what is important to you at your leisure, on your own clock, not having to answer to someone demanding you are 9-5 somewhere 5 days a week or whatever the case may be unless you truly want that structure in your life. He was smart about what he did, rather than just "work hard" to do the "yea i'm gonna go to college and get a job and ride that one out", and now he has infinitely more freedom to do what he wants with his life, not beholden to the whims of banks, employers, or any other form of debtor.
I do very well for myself but usually all I can ever think about is how I'm going to get my next property in order to get to a point where someday I can say "I will do what I want on my own terms and I do not need this job". I really want to be able to coach soccer again, and I'd love to get enough track time where I can start instructing. I'd love to be able to travel as a software consultant maybe a couple months a year helping companies understand architecture that really want to learn and better themselves, rather than be tied to some elitist investment firm like I am now who favors politics over progress. I'd love to have time to help young entrepreneurs get started, even help bankroll them or fund ideas because I personally know how hard it is to get capital to pursue things like that. But I can't do any of those things right now because I wasn't smart until age 25 when I started getting properties for myself and doing web development outside of my day job because I knew I'd never even have a shot at some semblance of freedom otherwise. 13 years from now, when I'm 45, my goal is to be able to do all those things on my own terms. But I'm ok with that because I've defined the goal, the terms of it, what I want and how I will keep myself sane in the meantime *cough* with my modestly priced 135i *cough*.
So when I see people just starting out, who have done nothing of any merit or value yet in the world, spouting off about these typical things around cars, houses, student loans, credit cards, whatever, yadda yadda modern Western society "success" criteria - all I can think about is this:
STOP. THINK.
You wanna work hard? Great. In your 20's when you have the time and energy to work that hard, at least put your efforts into working hard where a portion of that counts towards helping yourself in the long run. Whatever you give to an employer is making them 20x what they pay you. They bank on that. You're being utterly robbed. Don't get me wrong, I know the system needs millions of work-a-day rat race chumps who will never go anywhere in life, I get that. But at that point all your eggs are in one basket. There is an untold amount of opportunity available for people who want a less stressful life with more freedom to do the things they want if they are smart about it. Almost anybody with intelligence and skills can do something in addition to their regular job to help build themselves up a buffer and start separating themselves.
Do something for yourself in order to insulate yourself from corporations and a world that in general doesn't give a damn about you. The sooner you understand that and work towards it, the sooner you can pursue passion around cars or whatever without caring about the financials.
I know people who can literally write checks for over 100 million dollars. I'm not talking assets - I'm talking liquid cash available on-hand. And you know what? Those people who own big like that are always selling, liquidating, and moving on. That's opportunity for creative, smart people. There's plenty of ways you can be smarter where you "work hard" but you are not "working hard at a career job". and it doesn't even have to be real estate like what I am into. For example, I also am always checking out sites like Quiet Light Brokerage - they broker deals of sales of websites - everything from drop ship businesses to e-commerce to amazon re-sellers to you name it. These are things you can buy small or big, some even potentially grow and flip with some smart moves.
The bottom line is this: work "hard" but realize you need emphasis on being smart about what you're going hard at, and position yourself to react to the inevitable changes in your life. Nobody cares if you have cash to buy a car right now or how little you owe on your house because honestly that means nothing in the grand scheme of things. It seems big to you at a young age but there is a much broader stroke that everyone should keep in mind and the more money you blow on stupid shit at a young age, the less you are positioning yourself for the future.
again, let's not mix this up and make the mistake of boiling it down to having X number of dollars. Define what you want to do in your life, what you're passionate about, and then determine if you are happy giving that up to work for someone else for mediocre money that may get you a few nice-to-haves like a used BMW or a small house. Realize that every dollar you spend now moves you further away from your goal if you are blowing it on cars or anything like it.
Nobody here needs to agree with me, but in the past 8 years I've met a lot of people who are independently able to pursue what they want in life and they don't need to even talk about the costs of BMWs. I know how they did it, the underlying premise is all the same, and all I'm trying to do here is help add some perspective to people who are smart enough to realize that they have opportunity to not struggle as much. And for any of you to say you aren't struggling is a lie. If you don't believe me when I say that, then that means you don't grasp what I'm saying. Stop trying to justify to the world why you're doing what you're doing right now because of how awesome you think you've set yourself up. The unassuming millionaire in his 1988 Corolla doesn't care because he's going to spend the rest of the day on his boat staring at clouds contemplating the mysteries of the universe, without a care in the world.
