re: How are average earners able to prep for the future?

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Come work for the state

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I wish I could be a government leech that’d be tight

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Most people need to wake up and realize they can’t afford most of what they have if they want to save properly and can’t always live where they want to live.

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Fact.

If most people would just quit eating out and eating junk food.

Play Rec Sports.

Go on less or no vacations

New cars? Nope.

Reasonable house and even the kids sharing rooms.

They'd be fine. These are things the middle class did forever.

That all changed recently. When I was a kid we rarely went on a vacation and when we did it was super cheap. Going out to eat was a luxury. We didn't have a pantry full of snacks and junk. Rec sports was all we played.

That money alone is enough to retire rich if invested annually.

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If you count the ponzi scheme that is social security this percentage is higher

We need the kids working!

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My wife and I had a tough conversation with the in-laws just the other day. They've made really solid money most of their lives in the oil field but now, in their early and mid 60's, they only have like 100k for retirement. Now, they take trips every year, as in multiple trips and have pissed away gobs of money while the wife and I have told ourselves no a ton and instead saved and invested. MIL has some health issues that she needs to take pretty expensive medication for and the FIL isn't exactly a beacon of health either. She told us the other day that their plan is to work until around 70 and then the kids can fill in the gaps in their budget.


We straight up told them they got another thing coming if they think we're going to watch them burn through cash and take vacation after vacation, buy new car after new car while we disciipline ourselves for our future and then turn us into their retirement account. Not happening. We wouldn't let them live on the street obviously, but this idea that we're going to be a gravy train for them to live lavishly off of into retirement just flat ain't gonna happen.

I don't know how people can make it on median income. When I was in my twenties I thought "man if I can net $10,000 a month I'll be rich." Now $10,000 a month doesn't seem like much.

I live a pretty modest life, and saving money for both retirement and emergencies is becoming increasingly difficult.

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I don't know how people can make it on median income. When I was in my twenties I thought "man if I can net $10,000 a month I'll be rich."

I live a pretty modest life, and saving money for both retirement and emergencies is becoming increasingly difficult.

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Honestly, my wife and I weren't sure we wanted kids, but the financials have certainly been a factor for us to not up to this point. Everything is just so damn expensive.

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Have to find a company that will max your retirement. I started late at my company but have seen my 401k supercharged over the six years I have been there. All prior employers offered no match.

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New employer deposits 20% of every employee's W-2 in our profit sharing plan. My previous two employers hardly even had a match worth mentioning.

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How are average earners able to prep for the future?

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Here’s the bottom line.

Saving money sucks.

It would be great to just spend every nickel that comes in. Tons of shite I’d like to buy. Trips to take. Cool places to eat and drink. It would all be awesome.

But that doesn’t work if you want to retire one day. As painful as it is at first, you need to save a significant portion of your income, like 15%. Eventually it will get easier and the about of money will grow. Compound interest is greatest thing ever. Fast forward 25 years, and the money you put into savings is insignificant. It’s growing at such a rate on its own that you stop worrying about your future.

So when you eat out, get a new phone, buy a 12 pack and some smokes, this is some of the money that could being put into savings.

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With the exception of the last 100 or so years

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I think before WW2 it was a little more this way, then after the resulting big boom the traditional image was retired well off grandparents in the family home warmly welcoming the family on holidays. Also yes taking care of parents on the back end seems common in developing nations: South America, parts of Asia, Eastern Europe.

I think in developed economies the expectation is the elderly have set themselves up for success and the kids can go off and flourish. I think that worked for 40-50 years and now we're swinging back hard.

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How are average earners able to prep for the future?

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Exactly how you'd expect- live within your means and save as early adn often as you can.

I'm an average earner, or probably even below average tbh. In college I got a shite degree but it wa ssomething I wanted to do, and ende dup workign in the same field. So all of that was on purpose and not some big accident, but I knew beofre I even graduated college I was never going to make much money. Also, I love not working so have alwasy wanted to retire as early as humanly possible. Since I knew for certain I'd never achieve that by making a bunch of money, the only other option on the table was to save a bunch of money. Ideally as early as possible to let time and interest do their things.

My first salaried job I contributed ot retirmeent a little notch above what my employer was already matching. A few years later I opened a Roth IRA on my own and contributed as much as I was able to every month. A few years after that I opened a brokerage accoutn and throw money into it monthy to buy into S&P500 Index funds. None of the above is in high dollar amounts by any stretch, but over the last 10-15 yeras that I've been doing it it's definitely been a good thing. As I've progressed career wise I continue to bump up all of those things. In addition I don't waste money frivolously on dumb shite. I drive a a 12 year old chevy malibu and will until it dies. We take some vacations but nothing extravagant. We don't eat out a ton. I usually take a snadwich and chips to work almost daily. My only real extravagance is football season.

I still have the same realization I did even in college in that I'll never be a high earner. I will never come anywhere even remotely CLOSE to making 6 figures in a year. But when it comes to reitrmeent I feel like I'm in a better boat than many of my peers that haven't even thought about retirement yet even though we're now in our mid/late 30s.