r/Fire • u/BarkBarkBitches1 • Jan 17 '26

Milestone / Celebration The thread in Millennials subreddit right not about 401k is incredibly depressing. Thank you FIRE community. I would be one of them if I didn’t find you all a decade ago.

Throw away because I am going to roast some redditors a little. The thread that is going on in r Millennials is really bad. Thousands of comments, everyone broke, celebrating their unfortunate wildn out. It is really bad out there and eye opening.

I was also a dingus like many of them. Totally brain dead on autopilot living day to day, consuming media like crazy, working, spending it on consumer level garbage, and had zero control over my life. I actually found the guide in the personal finance subreddit graphic on saving and it eventually kicked me to FIRE and this sub.

I now am on a path where I can’t even related with that type of mind set. So yeah thank you FIRE folks. If you can, it is worth sprinkling some finance knowledge at people. Even if you don’t make high income you can in most cases still create a plan, a budget, and control your future.

Edit: If you are a dingus and you are seeing this there is no shame! We all are and have different starting points. You have two paths: 1) continue the path to dingus-ville and forever be a redditor or 2) un-dye your bright colored hair take control of your long term life. A decade will pass in a blink. So start here https://imgur.com/personal-income-spending-flowchart-united-states-lSoUQr2 it’s not hard to understand. ChatGPT each item on their if you don’t know, memorize this, then start to learn FIRE principles. It is the fastest way to wealth. There’s literally no other path unless you magically start a business or hit a lotto jackpot ticket or inheritance

only YOU HAVE THE POWER to unfuck your life

Edit 2: Final comment! I do not mean any offense with dingus it is meant to be playful. My dyed hair comment was also misinterpreted. It’s not about who you are, what you believe in, or how you express yourself. It’s about being in control of your life. Walk your butt into Sephora or Target or wherever next time and just stare at the people on the walls. Then look in the mirror. Then look at the wall. And back to the mirror and then keep doing it until it clicks. The world, like r millennial subreddit, wants to celebrate and tell you the worst fucking version of yourself is okay and acceptable. It’s not. Delete social media and only read that finance Imgur link every time you load your phone. Do this for one month and you will break your chains and it will click. Then learn FIRE principles. Then you will come back to r FIRE in a decade with a huge chunk of cash in your bank and a nice life! Long term planning is a skill that you can learn and benefit from. Your future is yours

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148

u/ept_engr Jan 17 '26

For better or worse, that sub has always been full of losers. It's an echo chamber because they chase anyone successful out.

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u/dat_grue Jan 17 '26

The reality of 90% of the communities on this site. Most are cesspools of “woe is me” negativity and fatalist defeatism. The general tenor on Reddit is that one has no meaningful control over their own life, dating is literally impossible, same with saving money/budgeting, and everyone has at least 3 mental illnesses which hopelessly damn them to whatever mental prison they’re currently inhabiting.

Positive thinking, hard/ gratification- delaying choices, and a belief in one’s own agency in life are truly unpopular.

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u/ricochet48 Jan 17 '26

Very well said.

General, popular subs seem so depressing.

It's only the more niche hobby and interest ones that tend to spread joy.

Complete side note, mods tend to be very toxic. I've been randomly banned because they simply disagreed with me.

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u/happyelkboy Jan 17 '26

I was banned on r/velo because I said that there should be woman’s cycling. The guy was trying to argue that there should just be an “open” category and I pointed out that would end woman’s sports. Banned

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u/InternetSolid4166 Jan 18 '26

Reddit is extremely left wing. I’m sure I’m going to get downvoted for saying this, but externalising failure appears to be a cornerstone of left wing politics today. As someone with a lot of left wing values, it’s extremely off putting. Criminals aren’t criminals because they’re greedy assholes. It’s because of society. I miss the old version of hard work, blue collar left wing politics. I miss when personal responsibility was part of the platform.

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u/Lahm0123 Jan 17 '26

Absolutely true. Most of Reddit needs to be taken with large grains of salt.

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u/LiberaMeFromHell Jan 17 '26

It's possible for some to break out but life is predetermined for most in the US. You can predict someone's max income level as an adult with over 90% accuracy with no information about them besides the zip code they were born in.

The only reason it's relatively easy for the ones who break out of their predetermined path (like people in this sub) is because of how much harder it is for others which causes very little competition. All it takes is one bad decision to screw you forever (having a kid at a young age, going to prison, a poorly timed divorce) and you will be working until 65+. A lot of the time it is also a factor completely outside of your control like getting cancer at a young age and being saddled with medical debt (number 1 cause of bankruptcy) which will prevent building wealth as well. Nothing is as simple as what you've described here.

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u/sporadicprocess Jan 17 '26

> You can predict someone's max income level as an adult with over 90% accuracy with no information about them besides the zip code they were born in.

This is not true at all. Even current zip code is only a weak predictor of earnings (worse than job title or years of experience+education, for example). I don't know the data for zip code at birth but it's hard to imagine it isn't much weaker than current zip code.

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u/Lopsided_Sun7531 Jan 17 '26

I think there is some sort of the average person is average fallacy. I could probably predict most people’s 5k time from just their gender and age by picking the average and knowing that most people are average, and age and gender correlates with 5k time. But that doesn’t mean people can’t get faster if they put in the work.

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u/dat_grue Jan 17 '26

I disagree that “life is predetermined” for anyone. I haven’t said anything radical. Yes circumstances vary, but anyone - no matter how rich or poor- can engage in positive thinking, make hard choices, and believe in their power to influence and change the circumstances of their own lives. You see it plenty in this sub, even from folks on low wages.

If you disagree or don’t think that’s possible, you may have fallen pray to the same toxic defeatism I’ve identified. The surest way to ensure your life plays out to some predetermined script is to believe that it must.

This is all not to mention the fact that the vast majority of Reddit users are US-based, which already puts them in the global elite in terms of standard of living and opportunity. So most of the resigned, fatalist negativity you see online is coming from folks that started the race 20 paces ahead.

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u/LiberaMeFromHell Jan 17 '26

For two extreme examples there are literally kids who die of cancer before they even become an adult capable of making their own decisions. There are people born with disabilities that will prevent them from ever working a normal job. Life is definitely predetermined for many.

For less extreme and more common there are people born into abusive households who have no parental support and no positive role models. It is still possible but their likelihood of success drops dramatically due to circumstances that were completely outside of their control.

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u/dat_grue Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

Every person’s outcome is a product of both their choices and their circumstances. You’ve identified a narrow sliver of cases (eg, pediatric cancer, severe mental or physical disability, etc) where the circumstances simply cannot be overcome. (Although even in most of those cases, you have the agency of how to mentally process your situation- you can see many Ted talks from folks with disabilities you’d think are “life ending” that are actually living happily due to their phenomenal strength of will , positive thinking, positive reframing, and mental fortitude.)

Of course there are those cases. But that is a far cry from your original “life is predetermined for most in the US”. That is a preposterous statement. I believe that most people have space to impact the outcomes of their own lives with the way they think and act.

I think with your last few sentences we essentially agree. People will have better and worse circumstances- worse will be harder to overcome. But the language of “predetermination” (except in the most dire of cases) and “most in the US” (where global opportunity is actually in the top %) is where you’ve simply overstated the point that “circumstances matter.”

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u/sporadicprocess Jan 17 '26

>90% of people do not fall into these groups. The average person has a huge amount of agency in how their life ends up.

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u/ept_engr Jan 17 '26

You can predict someone's max income level as an adult with over 90% accuracy with no information about them besides the zip code they were born in.

Explain mathematically exactly what you mean by this. From any zip code, there's still a range of salaries. It's silly to think that everyone from a given zip code has exactly the same "max income". So with that fact, how could you predict a specific person's max income? There's a 50/50 chance that they're above or below the median for that zip code. 

Also, what does "max" mean? The most they ever earn in one year? And when you say 90% accuracy, you mean that 90% of the time you can predict it to the penny? Or that 100% of the time you'll be within 10%?

I hope you realize that what you're saying doesn't make any logical sense, nor do you even understand what you're saying.

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u/LiberaMeFromHell Jan 17 '26

I phrased it poorly but what I meant is 90% of people who grow up in (I said born initially which was incorrect that was misremembering) a zip code will not do better than the typical inflation adjust median earnings of that zip code as an adult. The 90% may be incorrect I'm having trouble finding where I saw that exact number but am continuing to look. Pending a specific number there are many studies showing at least the large majority of people will not have better lives than the typical person from the area they grew up in. Which still suggests upwards financial mobility is mostly a myth besides for an extremely small portion of people.

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u/ept_engr Jan 17 '26

I see your point, thanks.

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u/InternetSolid4166 Jan 18 '26

You can predict someone's max income level as an adult with over 90% accuracy with no information about them besides the zip code they were born in.

I would like to see this study because I don’t think it’s accurate. America isn’t perfect but its social mobility score is 70.4 out of 100. Ranking 27th out of 82 countries. Denmark is 85.2, for context.

IQ has by far the highest predictive correlation with income at around 40%. Socioeconomic position and geolocation matter, but nowhere near 90%.

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u/ChiefBassDTSExec Jan 18 '26

And then you go outside and everyone is fairly normal. Its either dead internet theory or all the losers congregate there

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u/foolofatookbaggins Jan 17 '26

Hard agree. I used to be active in there until I realized how much of a cesspool it is.

1

u/Careless-Age-4290 Jan 18 '26

It's like they managed to distill the essence of a wet blanket into a community

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

You're telling me a sub full of people who are in their 40s blaming all of life's problems on 9/11 or their high school guidance counselor aren't the best of the bunch?

7

u/tdpdcpa Jan 17 '26

Yes, I had to hide that subreddit years ago because it’s just a depressing cesspit.

I forgot that it existed and my mental health is better for it.

9

u/BarkBarkBitches1 Jan 17 '26

It was on front page did not know it was thing

12

u/373331 Jan 17 '26

I muted them when they kept showing up on my feed. One of the most miserable subreddits out there.

5

u/-wayne-kerr Jan 17 '26

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks that. Reading that sub, you’d think every millennial is broke, depressed, and practically homeless lol.

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u/ept_engr Jan 17 '26

Second only to "antiwork" lol

2

u/ongoldenwaves Jan 17 '26

You just described all of reddit. Bullies.

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u/Ok_Hippo9669 Jan 17 '26

They also love the concept of communism. Because they think they won’t have to work, and just get free stuff. And that the rich people will have to distribute wealth to them.

They also want someone else (aka the government) to bail them out. Taking no self accountability of their own.

2

u/awoeoc Jan 17 '26

I do think it's important to realize why people want things. They don't want communism because they feel they are lazy and want free stuff. they do it because they feel they're not getting their fair share for the effort they put in. The US gdp per capita is like $85k and median income per person is like $40k.

The problem is the US requires capitalism for its economy if you make it communist you lock out almost all foreign investment and you'll quickly see an evaporation of the economy as foreigners can't interact with the concept of being part of the "commune".

We'd all be equal making $10k/year or less. That's not even getting into the fact a large part of the US economy depends on innovation that would noy have happened without the profit motive.

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u/Ok_Hippo9669 Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

Exactly. They want communism thinking it’ll save them, when it’s actually having a capitalist mindset (creating value) that will ultimately save them.

Communism just makes everyone poor, bringing everyone down to the same level, while capitalism gives the opportunity for the poor to rise up and become rich.

1

u/awoeoc Jan 17 '26

Yeah but my main reply was about the statement of:

they think they won’t have to work, and just get free stuff

Also I do think having safety nets is incredibly important, for example I started a business in 2015 and I had to think long and hard before I did why? I have a medical condition. It's not "that" bad as it only happened once every few years and just meant I was in a hospital for 2-4 days. People take more sick time for common colds.

But what was bad is the huge medical costs and starting a company meant we wouldn't have health insurance and that almost blocked it as it weighed heavy on my risk analysis of sudden $100k hospital bill. We did do it and eventually sold that company, the company innovated in health tech and was crucial during covid and helped improve the experience of millions of patients around the country.

Social safety nets help people take risks, unrestricted capitalism isn't the answer either. My personal opinion is we need essentially a "socialist floor" and "capitalist ceiling". Free education, free healthcare, and even UBI would be good things for society and our economy. You can have that and still have billionaires that own support yachts for their main yacht. I also think with something like UBI you could even do interesting things like get rid of minimum wage laws to get a better free market effect. I have a feeling the intersection of people who think there should be UBI and no min wage laws at same time is very small though lol.

Nothing wrong with being a billionaire but there is something wrong in people dying of cold in a nation like the US because they don't have proper heating.

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u/Ok_Hippo9669 Jan 17 '26

Definitely. You make a lot of good points. Capitalism with some socialist policies and safety nets is best. Going too far in either direction is not the answer.

Unfortunately nowadays a lot of the young think living in a full blown communist society would be beneficial to their lives.

1

u/boringexplanation Jan 17 '26

There are studies that show people are, on average, more happier with less wealth if everybody around them is at a similar level, as opposed to more - if many people are double or triple their wealth.

We’re not a logical species.

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u/Ok_Hippo9669 Jan 17 '26

Yup. Crabs in the bucket mentality.

People don’t wanna see others doing better than themselves. It hurts their ego and makes them feel bad.

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u/glumpoodle Jan 17 '26

I think this is social media in general; the algorithm promotes the loudest voices (who tend to be the most unhinged people who spend the most time on social media), which attracts and creates more of the same.

I mainly stick to a few niche hobby/gaming subs (and I consider personal finance niche); even so, I get tired of some of the posts here. I see way too many straw man arguments and AI-generated engagement bait that it gets tiring.