3 May 2023 11:23 pm
Seeing as I am not a teacher, counselor, or among the legion of otherwise useless professions, it is rather unfortunate my words will never reach their ears.
Perhaps a few readers (1-2 at most) will read this and pass it on to their heirs, nephews/nieces, and/or grandchildren in hopes that they will not suffer a cruel fate.
To < 22 yr olds, I have this to say to you:
Topic: Building wealth
You will not be able to build wealth like your grandparents were able to. Not on your own and not without torrential tides of help.
If you are "on your own" (which describes the bulk of people coming from poor or middle class wage slave families), you will face an onslaught of forces designed by their very nature to impoverish you.
In addition to wage suppression, you will not be able to build wealth through real estate (RE = too expensive right now + a house you live in is a liability, not an asset) or the stock market. We are nearing the end of a secular bull market that began in 1942 and will enter a dismal decade of negative returns (2030s). If you "buy and hold" hoping to achieve the same results as your Boomer grandparents, what little wealth you have will be completely eviscerated by a secular bear market.
Know this - the deck is stacked. You showed up to a party right before its conclusion and the tab is due.
So how do you escape a life of impoverishment if traditional employment, buying index funds, and buying a house are no longer feasible?
I can think of 5-7 options off the top of my head, but to keep it simple at 2:
You either go full autist and work "on the next big thing" (AI for example) so investors pay you $500K+ a yr or you get good at bamboozling people in the business world so they hand over some of their cash while you promise them riches and more.
Choose one of the options above but do not neglect/forfeit both.
Perhaps a few readers (1-2 at most) will read this and pass it on to their heirs, nephews/nieces, and/or grandchildren in hopes that they will not suffer a cruel fate.
To < 22 yr olds, I have this to say to you:
Topic: Building wealth
You will not be able to build wealth like your grandparents were able to. Not on your own and not without torrential tides of help.
If you are "on your own" (which describes the bulk of people coming from poor or middle class wage slave families), you will face an onslaught of forces designed by their very nature to impoverish you.
- Corporate monopolization and buyouts
- Corporations laying off middle management (mid-tier corporate jobs that traditionally paid upper middle class salaries) to enrich shareholders + C-suite and replacing those jobs with low salary grunts
- IRS goons checking Venmo accounts posting more than $600 in transactions per year to extract taxes from peasants like you (but not from billionaires and oligarchs)
- Burdensome occupational licensing requirements, such as requiring 1500 hours and thousands of dollars to become a hair stylist or 2000 hours to write a real estate appraisal report without a supervisor. Or $200K in debt and another 4-6 years after obtaining your Bachelors to go to a Big Pharma sponsored school to become a glorified pill pusher for retarded Boomers who couldn't stop guzzling down Pepsis with triple patty cheeseburgers + bacon
- Extremely saturated labor market with 50-100+ applicants per job
- High levels of immigration/H1B visas further depressing wages
- Automation and AI reducing # of available jobs by at least 30% in the next 15 years
- Rampant inflation
- Cost of living (not included in "official" inflation calculations, or not incorporated appropriately) esp. rent skyrocketing
In addition to wage suppression, you will not be able to build wealth through real estate (RE = too expensive right now + a house you live in is a liability, not an asset) or the stock market. We are nearing the end of a secular bull market that began in 1942 and will enter a dismal decade of negative returns (2030s). If you "buy and hold" hoping to achieve the same results as your Boomer grandparents, what little wealth you have will be completely eviscerated by a secular bear market.
Know this - the deck is stacked. You showed up to a party right before its conclusion and the tab is due.
So how do you escape a life of impoverishment if traditional employment, buying index funds, and buying a house are no longer feasible?
I can think of 5-7 options off the top of my head, but to keep it simple at 2:
You either go full autist and work "on the next big thing" (AI for example) so investors pay you $500K+ a yr or you get good at bamboozling people in the business world so they hand over some of their cash while you promise them riches and more.
Choose one of the options above but do not neglect/forfeit both.