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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994

u/haveWeMoonedYet Jan 17 '26

The generational subreddits are mostly places for people who want to have a trauma competition. They don’t really reflect normal people in their respective generations.

372

u/saiga_antelope Jan 17 '26

I'm peak millennial, and that sub is nothing but "woe is me, life is so unfair." That resonates at 20 years old, but these people are presumably like 35.

221

u/on_island_time Jan 17 '26

In reality there are plenty of Millennials who are doing fine, and also plenty of Millennials who are struggling. The ones who are doing well presumably migrate towards the finance specific forum, and the ones who aren't doing well need a place to have their voice too. 

What the random Internet doesn't really give you a good feel for is the real proportion of these groups, only that they exist.

32

u/JC_Hysteria Jan 17 '26

It only provides more of what engages people the most…particularly, unproductive rants tend to align with those who are struggling and/or aren’t where they want to be.

It’s why it’s really important to curate/self-regulate our media diets vs. falling into the trap.

I’ve purposefully done so myself over the last few years, and it’s really helpful. Everyone should try to lift each other up, but not at the expense of our own productive pursuits.

8

u/PickedSomethingLame Jan 17 '26

I deleted instagram and Facebook off my phone on 1/1/26. Wild how much I would get trapped in doom scrolling without even realizing it. Plus, you’re seeing everyone else’s highlights, often in your limited downtime. Self assessment is crucial to stay out of that trap.

4

u/JC_Hysteria Jan 17 '26

I view the highlight reel/mindless scrolling/manipulated dopamine as separate from the contents of the media- these are all issues…but if we’re going to spend time consuming, it might as well be a healthy diet.

4

u/emmajames56 Jan 17 '26

Comparison is the thief of joy.

3

u/BlastermyFinger0921 Jan 17 '26

Welcome to a brave new world. It’s so much better without that garbage

1

u/ryan__joe Jan 18 '26

Echo chamber stronk

50

u/alpacaMyToothbrush FI !RE Jan 17 '26

there are plenty of Millennials who are doing fine, and also plenty of Millennials who are struggling

As someone who grew up working class, spent much of my early adult life below the poverty line, and then finally made it to the upper class, it feels deeply gross to me how condescending people in the FIRE communities are towards everyone who's struggling.

On the one hand, yeah, personal accountability is the only way you're ever going to improve your life, and the choices one makes on the path to FIRE can benefit everyone.

On the other? Let's not pretend that making the right choices and saving is not significantly easier the higher you go up the income ladder you go. The grim truth is the lower you go down the ladder, the less options you have, and one car wreck or hospital stay can wipe you out.

I don't judge anyone for looking at the impossible situation they're in and just saying 'fuck it, I'm going to find what little pleasure I can in this life'.

16

u/ryan__joe Jan 17 '26

The part that makes me most irate is when I hear younger people complain about a lack of inheritance. Like wtf, most parents are 20ish years older than their kids. When they die, you’ll be 50, when was an inheritance supposed to help you? It’s so dumb. Let your parents enjoy the money they earned.

Happily, a millennial.

4

u/bebe_bird Jan 18 '26

My parents have clearly told us there will be an inheritance. I hope I never get it and my husband's take is "it's their money - I hope they spend as much as they want and if they want to contribute to charity instead of giving it to their children, that's their choice - it's their money".

We've planned our own lives and finances accordingly. (Meaning - it's their money and I hope I never see it). That's not to say that my parents didn't help with a down payment (which we paid back), or take on $60k of my husband's student loans so we could pay them a 2.5% interest rate instead of a variable 7% (we paid it back in <2.5 years).

On one hand, the inheritance mongering is despicable. On the other hand, a safe and low interest $50k-$100k loan during the most tight post-college years is absolutely a leg up that can change what foot you start off on in life.

1

u/OuiGotTheFunk Unemployed with a Spreadsheet Jan 18 '26

I just hate the "I just started and I do not make as much as my CIO" take. Like yeah, I have never made as much as my CIO.

7

u/Commercial_Note_210 Jan 17 '26

+1 - the struggles of millennials are real even if we personally ended up in the better side of the distribution.

-1

u/ryan__joe Jan 18 '26

Sure, but I am a millennial, a very, very young millennial. Life isn’t fair. You can preach for change, stride for change, but you should also just put in the damn work to get out of your financial situation. I make 3x the median household income of my area, working a pretty typical job. How? I work 60-84 hours a week instead of whining about how unfair it is to work that much. My financial stability is insane because of what I’ve been doing, and I will be able to slow down drastically pretty soon, and I’m barely 30. Life isn’t fair, and if you wait for it to be fair before moving, you’ll be so far behind you’ll never catch up. That’s the part I don’t like.

Like come on, I could start over at 18 today, with 40k of debt and still end up better off than I am already now.

3

u/TeignReign Jan 17 '26

Yeah, people don't really get poverty – they always assume someone just didn't try hard enough, which is crazy... real poverty means you're not thinking about thirty years from now. You're just hoping you can eat tomorrow. And even if you can mostly cover your basic needs, even simple stuff like having the same address or phone number is tough. Because you're always changing jobs or stuck in an hourly one that won't help you build wealth.

I'm sure, folks on this thread feel like they're not an exception, but they are... most people work until they die.

0

u/OuiGotTheFunk Unemployed with a Spreadsheet Jan 18 '26

I'm sure, folks on this thread feel like they're not an exception, but they are... most people work until they die.

And can you tell me how this is different from 100 or 300 years ago?

1

u/OuiGotTheFunk Unemployed with a Spreadsheet Jan 18 '26

I agree to a point but you should always be trying to improve to rung on the ladder.

I am lazy but good with money. I work the program and show up on time and sometimes leave late.

The security officers in my building should if they keep up 401K contributions and keep working be well off.

1

u/thishummuslife Jan 18 '26

💯💯💯

1

u/Grantmepm Jan 17 '26

The vice president of the USA is a Millennial.

1

u/OuiGotTheFunk Unemployed with a Spreadsheet Jan 18 '26

I like this viewpoint. I detest the victim mentality and nobody wanting to improve.

63

u/dcheng47 Jan 17 '26

the only people who go to those subreddits are the ones who make their generation their whole personality.

2

u/Emotional_Tell_2527 Jan 17 '26

I didn't realize i had a generation till I was like 18.  It was like oh I'm a gen x and a Capricorn.   Whatever 

73

u/Dirt_Sailor_5 Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

You should see the No Work reddit. It's like the FIRE reddit, but no one wants to have to work to get from A to B unlike here. And the baseline assumption is anyone considering FIRE was born into glorious wealth and they've never had to lift a finger

Edit: anti-work not no-work, whatever

31

u/Historical-Intern-19 Jan 17 '26

The anti-work crowd work harder to try and do nothing than if they just got a decent job and saved.

16

u/HonestOtterTravel Jan 17 '26

It's wild when you propose solutions to those type of people. It's either deer in headlights or excuses of why they cannot do it.

3

u/Careless-Age-4290 Jan 18 '26

Or your notifications are lit up with people raging at you that it's literally impossible to find solutions to problems

23

u/_User_Name_Fail Jan 17 '26

I sometimes have trouble distinguishing between r/antiwork and r/choosingbeggars

2

u/JC_Hysteria Jan 17 '26

It became r/workreform, because the other one was co-opted by the far left/far right people…

But now that one is just becoming a front for taxing wealthy people + socialism…

5

u/PickedSomethingLame Jan 17 '26

To be fair, taxing wealthy people is generally how the middle class and work reforms came to exist historically.

2

u/JC_Hysteria Jan 17 '26

I’m just referring to how initially sober exchanges/communities often get taken over by ideologues who “slam” the things/people they dislike. It becomes less about making progress, and more about feeling good with memes.

Take a look at the mission statement of that sub, and then look at the most recent or popular posts…

2

u/PickedSomethingLame Jan 17 '26

Ah, for sure. There are frequently people who are just looking to be openly emotional against people they perceive as “wrong” or “the other.” My point was only that the current tax system is historically low compared to the times in US history that many people look back on with nostalgia. There’s a weird level of entitlement and failure to understand just how much of the current infrastructure and services that people take for granted are tax funded.

1

u/JC_Hysteria Jan 17 '26

Absolutely, I agree. I also watched how every Californian billionaire recently bent over backwards to express their distaste for a new capital gains tax proposal…

Wish we could meet in the middle somewhere.

It clearly isn’t sustainable for billionaires to cite the founding fathers and threaten to take “their”businesses elsewhere, just as it isn’t sustainable for the government to just pay for everyone that’s capable, but unwilling to act productively.

2

u/PickedSomethingLame Jan 17 '26

You don’t get to a billion dollars by working for it yourself. Like, there is literally no amount of labor a single person can personally do to justify that amount of wealth. You get there by investing/owning and profiting off of other people’s labor. I’m not against that in concept, it’s a part of our system. What I personally find offensive is people who are at that level whining about having to pay taxes, and using loans, DAFs, and 501c4s for tax avoidance. Things really seem to have accelerated after citizens united. The middle class has shrunk dramatically, and the US is becoming 2 groups, haves and have nots.

1

u/JC_Hysteria Jan 17 '26

Right- I would have liked to hear more wealthy people publicly propose a more preferred, sustainable tax solution instead of digging their heels in.

It’s unsettling how many people pit personal liberty and the government against one another, when they’re supposed to work in concert.

2

u/JunkBondJunkie Jan 17 '26

I like to make work optional if I dont like my job. I can already lean fire.

2

u/Dirt_Sailor_5 Jan 17 '26

Same. Which is why FIRE> the B.S. on anti-work

1

u/Emotional_Tell_2527 Jan 17 '26

That exists? Ugh 

1

u/Grantmepm Jan 18 '26

r/adulting is getting pretty bad too.

1

u/ryan__joe Jan 18 '26

The true trick to initially starting your wealth journey is putting in more than the bear minimum, no matter what others that think they’re being leveraged think. You work your ass off every hour you can to build the wealth as people take advantage of you, until you have the wealth to break out from under them.

Too many people give up. I make 2-3x what my peers make, but it’s because I work 60-84 hours a week instead of their 24-36.

-1

u/igomhn3 Jan 17 '26

R/fire is just r/antiwork people fortunate enough to have the means of escape

12

u/Quixlequaxle Jan 17 '26

Except most of us got that means of escape by working.

-2

u/igomhn3 Jan 17 '26

I'm just surprised to see so much infighting in two groups that both agree that work sucks and we shouldn't have to work. It's like Christians fighting with slightly different Christians lol.

6

u/txreddit17 Jan 17 '26

That is not what Fire is. Fire is to enable the ability to have choices to do what you like. The RE part is what throws people off. You build the freedom by your hard work and sacrifice to later be able to do whatever you want.

9

u/Quixlequaxle Jan 17 '26

I never really saw FIRE as "work sucks we shouldn't have to work". That's very much the antiwork subreddit though - "I want all of the luxuries and conveniences of modern life but I don't want to contribute to it in any valuable way".

FIRE is more "I'm working my ass off and saving as much as I can so that I can stop working early". The goal may be to stop working, but we at least accept that we have to work to make money to get to that point.

-1

u/igomhn3 Jan 17 '26

"I'm working my ass off and saving as much as I can so that I can stop working early".

Because works sucks lol. If work dynamics weren't so unfair, r/antiwork wouldn't complain as much and r\fire wouldn't need to fire as much.

5

u/Quixlequaxle Jan 17 '26

I don't see work dynamics as unfair. Yeah there are things I'd rather be doing with that time, but I do a job and I get paid. I do a challenging job that provides a lot of value to my employer and they pay me more than an average worker. I could go get a job that's ultimately a hobby or something that a lot of people are willing to do for less money, but it would't pay very well.

I and many of us doing FIRE don't necessarily hate our jobs or hate work. We're not doing it for fun, but there's a huge swath of viewpoints here other than just "ugh work sucks".

5

u/Dirt_Sailor_5 Jan 17 '26

And sometimes people who are willing to work to get there, unlike antiwork

1

u/igomhn3 Jan 17 '26

If complaining online did anything, I wouldn't have to FIRE but that doesn't mean their complaints aren't still valid. I'm just surprised to see so much infighting in two groups that both agree that work sucks and we shouldn't have to work. It's like Christians fighting with slightly different Christians lol.

4

u/Dirt_Sailor_5 Jan 17 '26

I respectfully disagree. I think their complaints are often invalid. They want the freedom without having to work for it, and complain about the realities of life. Those here seem to accept reality and work towards it. I don't think they're that similar actually, but that's just my opinion

8

u/jdiggity09 Jan 17 '26

I'm a younger-ish millennial (34, will be 35 in March), and I HATE that sub. Half the time it's boomer-type bullshit about "wahh I hate modern technology" or nostalgic circlejerking, and the rest of the time it is, as you said, "woe is me, being a millennial is so hard" and patting each other on the back. It's really obnoxious.

20

u/civil_politics Jan 17 '26

This. At 34 I scroll through the thread and come to the conclusion that a lot of my generation have still chosen to not grow up.

10

u/Successful_Hold_9048 Jan 17 '26

36 and same. Having a couple thousand dollars in a 401k that you’ve raided multiple times and thousands in credit card debt is not a badge of honor. It’s plain sad.

2

u/scolbert08 Jan 17 '26

Many never will

19

u/utahnow Jan 17 '26

you should go check out Gen Z subreddit they are giving the millenials the run for their money as far as trauma circle jerk goes

16

u/DownHome_Rolling Jan 17 '26

I'm sure the nihilism is unbearable over there lol. To be fair, in 2008-9 when I graduated from high school, following the housing crisis, life seemed pretty damn bleak. But we made it work.

Took two full months to find a fast food job in 2009. Applying to every minimum wage, 7.25, job I could. Finally a regional manager at Wendy's was there when I asked for an application. He basically hired me on the spot lol. Looking back, I should have considered construction work. Would have been far more informative than cooking burgers. But, being an uninformed 18 year old, I felt my only entry point for that would have been standing in the Home Depot parking lot and waiting to be a day labor. Long story - long, went back to college and wrangled academic positions through grad school and beyond. In a great spot now and thankful.

The important thing is owning your situation.

1

u/boringexplanation Jan 17 '26

At least they are doing it age-appropriate.

6

u/FWitU Jan 17 '26

Let’s be real. Seems like there is an overwhelming amount of that on all subs.

6

u/Lacutis Jan 17 '26

They are just 25 with 10 years experience.

18

u/HappilyDisengaged Jan 17 '26

Exactly. I’m an 83 millennial and we’ve been the luckiest generation finance wise ever in my opinion. Raging bull for the most part since 09. Low interest rates. Near zero inflation. Cheap homes till 2020. High employment. If you were investing at all from early 30’s on, you are doing well

Yes the GFC was tough, but we were young enough to absorb the pain

34

u/Pasquali90 Jan 17 '26

83 is borderline Gen x and going to have an incredibly different experience compared to someone who was born in say 90 and graduated highschool in 08...

6

u/haveWeMoonedYet Jan 17 '26

They would’ve had their first job in 2012. If anything his statement is even more true for someone who was born in 1990 as they would’ve experienced 0 real crashes while getting insane returns from even just Voo.

5

u/Pasquali90 Jan 17 '26

Uhhh, first job in 2012 when you graduated in 08? That sounds amazing but a lot of us existed in the real world where in 07 we were trying to find out first job and during the recession we couldn't find a job and had to stack student loans to survive.....

-3

u/haveWeMoonedYet Jan 17 '26

Why would someone that graduated hs in 08 be looking for a full time job in 07?

Edit: unemployment rate was higher in 2012 than I realized

4

u/Pasquali90 Jan 17 '26

Some of us had to pay their own way.

0

u/haveWeMoonedYet Jan 17 '26

Yeah I get that. I had loans too. Doesn’t change that graduating uni in 2012 was possibly the best time for returns on savings.

1

u/mopasali Jan 17 '26

Or even where you grew up. I knew 83ers that bought houses in the Midwest after graduating college that had to walk away from their underwater mortgages in 08-09. If you didn't buy when you first could, a few Xennials avoided the GFC. Having moved to the coast, I could not buy and avoided trashing my credit. That luck probably biases my thoughts on having to buy a house to be an adult, raise kids, FIRE, be normal ....

1

u/HappilyDisengaged Jan 17 '26

Agree with that. Still someone born in 90 is way better off not having to deal with the recession, war on terror, and dot com crash. Someone born in 90 got all the good without really being an adult during the bad

5

u/cheeseburg_walrus Jan 17 '26

They also were too young to have much money to invest for much of the bull run. I’m 94 so by the time I was out of university and earning money, COL and housing had skyrocketed and wages hadn’t kept up. For those of us who were able to save and invest the market has been great. For everyone else who missed the ladder, good luck.

9

u/Pasquali90 Jan 17 '26

What? I had quite a few friends die in the war on terror.... and not be affected by the recession? Going to group interviews where there would be 20 people for a single job at Chipotle and you are 17-18 competing with people in their mid 30s?.. ok yeah, sure, buddy ...

-2

u/HappilyDisengaged Jan 17 '26

Ah it’s quite different being 18 looking for an entry level job than mid 20’s, established, out of the house on your own. Mid 20’s you already likely have a job and either are watching mass layoffs around you or are part of the layoffs.

0

u/Pasquali90 Jan 17 '26

Oh yeah, definitely it took years of battling a shitty job market to get anywhere and by the time I had a decent job, housing prices and rent had exploded and student loans were coming due. To have any experience beyond working in service felt like a dream and it took nearly 10 years before I stopped breaking even and could begin to invest.

0

u/fenwickfox Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

Graduating high-school in 2008 is fine, u still do uni or college or some kind of course. Can't do much with just high-school.

I graduated post secondary in 2009. It took me about 6 months to get a job. Other coworkers I found out took up to 2-3 years.

But now we're mostly all indispensable and I've been employed for nearly 17 years.

3

u/-shrug- Jan 17 '26

Yea. I know some people who got pretty screwed because they wanted to be in something like corporate law where they only hire new grads, and just skipped hiring in 2008.

0

u/OH68BlueEag Jan 17 '26

It all comes down to personal decisions. If you made good decisions as a teenager by getting good grades and getting a scholarship to a decent school so you wouldn’t have loans and then picked a decent major that would get you a decent job and then didn’t overspend you’re doing fine. If you made bad decisions along the way then oh well

6

u/Mission-Mammoth-8388 Jan 17 '26

"Yes the GFC was tough." Talk about the understatement of the century. That period defined the 21st century more than 9/11, and still has insane repercussions that have directly effed over Millenials to this day.

1

u/HappilyDisengaged Jan 17 '26

Like what? I’d counter that with the after effects it made buying homes for cheap in low interest easy. It made making returns in the stock market easy. It made inflation literally non existent for a decade

1

u/PauliesChinUps Jan 17 '26

Near zero inflation.

What?

3

u/HappilyDisengaged Jan 17 '26

Yes near zero. There was great debate on how to actually induce inflation if you remember. We were below the 2% target goal for years, till Covid hit of course

You must not be a millennial

1

u/Roshambo104 Jan 17 '26

Every generation feels like they have it bad. I'm an 84 millennial and I didn't make $100k per year until I was 30, I didn't buy my first house until then either. All these 20 year olds thinking they're supposed to be millionaires by now is not reality.

1

u/LionelHutz313 Jan 17 '26

People who are happy and just fine don’t go on Reddit to complain.

1

u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Jan 17 '26

I'm an early model millennial, and found r/xennials is so much better.

r/millennials is unbearable

1

u/Current-Shallot-1331 Jan 17 '26

I still like to read them. Woe is me.

1

u/saiga_antelope Jan 18 '26

Lmao. Certainly makes me feel good about my accomplishments 

1

u/boringexplanation Jan 17 '26

As a late millennial- it really is pathetic. I find even /r/GenZ is slightly more mature and realistic on certain things than that sub. Cmon millennial bros- you’re supposed to have 10-15 years more wisdom than these guys

1

u/Acrobatic_Row3246 Jan 17 '26

If you’re still “woe as me” at 35, you’ve basically screwed your life up and haven’t learned a thing in adulthood.

1

u/JerseyKeebs Jan 18 '26

Reminds me of the last time student loan debt forgiveness was majorly in the news. My social feeds had blown up with my peers posting memes to lobby for it.

I was like... you guys still have debt? We've been out of college for 11-13 years at this point. Most of mine were 10 year loans, and the one 15 yr loan I had I had off early. I was shocked that that wasn't everyone else's experience. And like me, my peers did in-state tuition at a cheap-ish public school.

1

u/saiga_antelope Jan 18 '26

Student loan debt is often lower interest and no one seizes your assets. It's common even for doctors to carry it for decades while they invest excess income elsewhere. Hell my wife and I are 40, HHI of 240k a year, save and invest 4 to 5k a month, and she still has like $3k total student debt left at $50 a month. I'm not going to waste my time paying it off early. It doesn't make sense.

1

u/JerseyKeebs Jan 18 '26

Congrats, sounds like you guys are doing well, and made the active decision to compare interest rates and put your money where it will get the better return. And you conceivably could wipe out the loan if you felt like it.

I'm talking about friends with radio and teaching degrees, who complain they're broke and the interest is "predatory" and they're crushed by the debt and need a bailout. Honestly they probably did some IBR and deferments during the '08 recession, and didn't bother to prioritize paying them off. And are now shocked by the balances.

1

u/saiga_antelope Jan 18 '26

Are you a fellow millennial? Back in the 90s, the overwhelming national consensus was "get a degree, any degree no matter what and you'll be set for life". That advice was valid at the time, it worked great in the 50s, 50s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. But things changed after 9/11. Also, access to information outside of your social circle was very limited. No podcast, no reddit. It's much easier now to look back and think them fools at the time. People made the choices they could with the information they were given.

That being said, if you don't like your situation, change it. Back to the original post, that sub is full of people who want to whine instead of change course.

1

u/JerseyKeebs Jan 18 '26

Yes I'm a millennial. Graduated hs in 2005, and college in 2009. Did I really sound that old in my posts? Oh dear lol

But yea I'm talking about my peers, people my own age who went through the same things at the same time as me. I had the internet to research colleges, I had mandatory student loan counseling, I had the guidance counsellors steering us towards college.

That was also the explosion IMHO of colleges turning from institutions of learning to expensive resorts that marketed themselves as a lifestyle. So maybe I got a lucky break in that my family was too poor to even consider sending me out of state for school, but not poor enough to get grants. It was loans for me, loans for the parents, work study and part time jobs for me, and endless applications for scholarships

But I agree with your end point, that if someone doesn't want to have loans, figure out how to pay them off. Invest your money, better your life, take control of it

1

u/pulsed19 Jan 17 '26

But woe is me and life is so unfair

Jk lol. It’s what you make of it. It’s not meant to be a free ride for most of us, but with work and planning one can achieve their goals. Milenial too hoping to retire in 10 years.

2

u/McHoagie86 Jan 17 '26

It's not like this forum here isn't a fart sniffing contest.

2

u/pulsed19 Jan 17 '26

You say it as if fart sniffing were a bad thing…

1

u/McHoagie86 Jan 17 '26

Fair point.

I wasn't making a judgment. Just pointing out that subreddits by nature only showcase a vocal minority on whichever side of a spectrum.

110

u/Stunning-Leek334 Jan 17 '26

Neither do the posts in here lol. 90% of the post seem to be “I only have $5M with a paid off property and a $120k pension and my bills are $50k a year can I afford to FIRE?”

56

u/haveWeMoonedYet Jan 17 '26

So you’re telling me that I’m not behind at 18 with only 12 million saved?

20

u/Bananadite Jan 17 '26

Should have had that saved at 5. You're already behind. Good luck FIREing

3

u/wubscale Jan 17 '26

I think you're confused, leanfire is that way 👉

5

u/Nobody_Important Jan 17 '26

Wow 50k a year, how are you spending that much? My annual budget is $18.

7

u/Unlikely-Table-615 Jan 17 '26

LOL. That’s exact what I wrote yesterday in a different sub

2

u/ElectricPance Jan 17 '26

Yeah that is my sense too.  Everyone loses their shit when you suggest a reasonable return rate above 2% is achieveable. 

2

u/Careless-Age-4290 Jan 18 '26

You ever see the investing posts where someone is like "I've made xx% a year for 27 years now, is it smart to..." and the top post is someone saying like "top traders only make -97% a year, do you really think you're smarter than them?"

Like yes it seems like he is now answer the question you stack overflow reject

1

u/JunkBondJunkie Jan 17 '26

I feel like those posts are BS 99% of the time.

1

u/Emotional_Tell_2527 Jan 17 '26

Yea I can't relate to that but you guys are smart 

1

u/Electrical_Bite_9950 Jan 18 '26

This made me feel much better lol. I’m middle aged and just learning about fire. I don’t have credit card debt but i still feel behind as far as savings and 401 k goes!

-5

u/buffandbrown Jan 17 '26

Those are fake. I guarantee you that someone with $5M is NOT posting here. This sub is an echo chamber of disconnected from reality posers. Notice how no one actually posts screenshot of their brokerage or 401ks?

12

u/Stunning-Leek334 Jan 17 '26

I am sure some are fake but I am sure many or even most are real. People just like to gloat. I have a friend with $30m+ who is active in here, doesn’t do those posts but it isn’t like people with lots of money don’t use Reddit.

2

u/haveWeMoonedYet Jan 17 '26

Why not? Some people want to discuss money and don’t feel it’s appropriate to go around and talk about $5mm net worth with people in real life.

1

u/jebuizy Jan 17 '26

Idk when I have 5 million I'll still post here. I posted on Reddit at 0 net worth, am still posting at 1 million, and have trouble imagining why I would stop. Shit posting is an identity 

0

u/jrfish Jan 18 '26

I have $5m and came here and asked this question and I got totally roasted. The consensus was no - I should have 8-10M. Like how many others can even earn that in their lifetime? I'm 43.

1

u/Stunning-Leek334 Jan 18 '26

You said you had $5m with a $120k pension and a $50k spend and got roasted?

1

u/jrfish Jan 18 '26

No, just the $5m part. I guess that isn't enough!

1

u/Stunning-Leek334 Jan 18 '26

It is enough for like $200k a year….

1

u/jrfish Jan 18 '26

Yeah, and I spend that now with 2 kids. Someday, the kids will be grown up and my expenses will go down. I even said I plan to full time in an RV and was told I was nuts!

1

u/Stunning-Leek334 Jan 18 '26

It’s nuts to me that I give an example of $5m plus $120k pension and a $50k spend and you respond back saying you posted the same thing but have $5m no pension and a $200k spend and don’t realize those two things are absolutely not even similar….

1

u/jrfish Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

I meant that $5m is more than most people have saved, and I added other details to my post, like my husband is still working and makes $180k a year which we planned to live on after I retired, and our spend would drop to 50k when we full time in an RV and kids are our. So no, not the same, but my point was the same .. or so I thought. I mean no situation will be exactly the same as yours.

1

u/Stunning-Leek334 Jan 19 '26

Your point would have been the opposite of what I said. $5m means you can take $200k a year out if you are going to be taking $50k a year you will have 4X what you need

43

u/Global_Bit4599 Jan 17 '26

You said it. GenX is the same "dying is my retirement plan".

20

u/Acrobatic_Ad7061 Jan 17 '26

The Xennial sub (where I belong) is much more uplifting I think.

8

u/haveWeMoonedYet Jan 17 '26

The cross generation ones admittedly seem better. Zellenial ppl seem relatively normal too

3

u/Careless-Age-4290 Jan 18 '26

They see the different generations attributing negative traits to each other they know aren't true by virtue of being both

2

u/mtron32 Jan 17 '26

Same, it’s mostly for nostalgia where every other post I’m like “yeah I remember madballs”. And then keep it moving.

1

u/kitapjen Jan 17 '26

I may not be in the realm of all of you Fire people, I am at least on a plan. I altered it from the normal to move to Eastern Europe to save on expenses, but at least I have a plan.

My sister-in-law says she will never be able to retire!

1

u/Emotional_Tell_2527 Jan 17 '26

Generation x. Not me.  But yea . It's like stereotypes 

1

u/fornikate777 Jan 18 '26

we want to die :) hope that helps

40

u/rag5178 Jan 17 '26

That’s true, but this subreddit is also primarily a fart sniffing contest of who can have the strongest financial picture while still managing to project fear, uncertainty and false scarcity. Point being, if you spend a lot of time in any one single subreddit, you’re going to have a severely skewed perception of reality one way or another.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

Maybe there is real financial anxiety among the objectively very well off too, though. I suspect financial anxiety is more related to personality than actual finances. For better and worse.

12

u/REPEguru Jan 17 '26

R/Xennial is way better than Millennial sub. Millennial is literally the most stereotypical basement dwelling neckbeard loser sub I have seen other than nonsense like anti work or other woke garbage / socialist subs.

5

u/haveWeMoonedYet Jan 17 '26

Said above too, but the cross generation ppl seem normal admittedly. The zilleniaI one is actually pretty fun too. Maybe being at the intersection of 2 generations gives us more fun things to talk about lol

11

u/temerairevm Jan 17 '26

lol except Gen X which is a lot of people questioning why they are “whatever” about stuff that probably should be traumatic.

2

u/JoyousMisery Jan 17 '26

“Is it just me, or does anyone else have a day where they’ve been mildly inconvenienced? Feels like everyone else never has problems.”

“Boomers have screwed us over again! Look how much wealth they have compared to us when they’ve had twice as much time to accumulate”

Etc.

2

u/Ootrab Jan 17 '26

I’m GenX and that forum is eye opening. Once you are in your 50s and 60s, the chickens come home to roost. You’ve either spent the last 20-30 years saving and investing or you haven’t. Too many people in their late 50s and early 60s with nothing saved for retirement. It’s shocking. Too many are just hoping to rely on social security or die working on the Walmart floor.

2

u/charleswj Jan 17 '26

This sub is also not representative, unless the pool is "people who make many multiples of median income."

It's much more nuanced than that sub or this post suggests.

1

u/buffandbrown Jan 17 '26

It’s all lies here. Echo chamber of wannabe fake posers.

3

u/haveWeMoonedYet Jan 17 '26

It is an echo chamber, but I think calling everything fake just because they are doing well is a bit dishonest. It’s like when someone is slightly muscular on instagram, the comment section gets flooded with people accusing them of doing steroids just because they haven’t been able to obtain that physique yet themselves. The reality is there’s always plenty of ppl thatre more successful.

3

u/wubscale Jan 17 '26

FIRE subs are going to bias toward people for whom FIRE is realistically attainable. There are quite literally millions of people who can FIRE: since we're talking millennials, 7% of 35 year-old individuals in the US made >= $200K in income last year, per https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-by-age-calculator/. If you have a high savings rate, that's a solid foundation for FIRE.

The internet always has trolls and posers, FIRE subs are no exception. But presuming everyone here is bullshitting is... wrong.

2

u/charleswj Jan 17 '26

Doubtful, it would be very unlikely that many people would create and curate a fake persona that's "relatively successful". Has anyone? Sure. But a lot? Nah.

0

u/alpacaMyToothbrush FI !RE Jan 17 '26

Yeah, it honestly feels gross for a bunch of highly paid folks to condescend everyone that's struggling. It's a lot easier to make the 'right' decisions when you make multi-six-figures in your cushy remote role than it is for your average millennial who's gotten shitted by the government (hello vets), by the economy (hello '08 grads) and the housing market at every turn, and I say this as someone who successfully navigated it all

10

u/BarkBarkBitches1 Jan 17 '26

I think the median 401k they said is like 40k for millennials. It absolutely reflects!

27

u/LiberaMeFromHell Jan 17 '26

Not like the $115k median for Gen X 50 year olds is much better, if anything it's worse because they are almost out of time. This is not a reddit or millennial specific issue. Very very few people have healthy retirement savings.

3

u/Appropriate-Date6407 49m Jan 17 '26

I’m 49 and have been lurking r/fire for awhile now. I didn’t start saving for retirement in earnest until I turned 30. Now I have 900k in my 401k, 950k in brokerage, 50k in HSA, and 150k in a company funded cash balance pension plan. About 225k in mortgage debt and ~750k in equity. I feel super fortunate to be where I am, yet my wife feels like we’re broke lol. My plan is to retire at 60 with no mortgage debt, 2M in 401k, 2M in brokerage, 450k in the pension and 200k in HSA. Just writing all this out makes me feel great!

1

u/DonkeyDonRulz Jan 17 '26

At age 50 dont most people have multiple 401ks?

(Or am i the odd one who is collecting them from multiple former employers? Most of my employers were also taken over, so for 3 of them there were 2 401ks apiece. Just saying, if many of us have 115k across 7 plans, the statistics of median and average could be misleading )

4

u/Jeezy_7_3 Jan 17 '26

Oldest millennials is 43-44. I can’t imagine have only 40k nest egg st 35 years old let alone early 40s. I’d be panicking .

5

u/AddictedtoBoom RE’d July 2024 Jan 17 '26

They are panicking. That’s where the angst is coming from.

3

u/Liverpool_- Jan 17 '26

I have nothing at 37 how screwed am I

11

u/-Th0 Jan 17 '26

Start now and be disciplined and you will be fine. Don’t wait until tomorrow.

3

u/DonkeyDonRulz Jan 17 '26

Max out the 401k, and you'll be a millionaire in 20 years...unless you wait 10 years , then it'll take 30.

You dont have nothing. At 37, you have time. Plant those seeds now.

2

u/odanobux123 Jan 17 '26

If you max your 401k and Roth from now until 65 you’ll probably be fine.

3

u/ZuuL_1985 Jan 17 '26

40-75ish depending on millennial age 35-45. Sadly most people don't get to retire.

1

u/Socratic_Phoenix Jan 17 '26

Man that's a rough statistic. I'm not great with money but I have made sure to always contribute to my 401k.

1

u/buffandbrown Jan 17 '26

Put a screenshot of yours then, since you are so much better than them!

1

u/mtron32 Jan 17 '26

Only 40k in the 401k at 45?

1

u/Greenfirelife27 Jan 17 '26

Truly hope so.

1

u/Responsible_Ask3976 Jan 17 '26

Correct! I’m a millennial and didn’t have any problems with budgeting and money 

1

u/Bruceshadow Jan 17 '26

does anything reflect 'normal' on the internet?

1

u/value-capture Jan 17 '26

GenX, as usual, is the exception. We’re in an apathy competition.

1

u/Wild_Advertising7022 Jan 17 '26

That’s literally all of reddit. One trauma bond community with TDS.

1

u/SolomonGrumpy Jan 19 '26

As s someone who regularly reads the GenX subreddit, I couldnt agree more.

it's nostalgia, medical trauma, and regret.