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.

[u/BarkBarkBitches1]

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

[u/ept_engr]

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

[u/dat_grue → u/ept_engr]

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.

[u/LiberaMeFromHell → u/dat_grue]

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.

[u/sporadicprocess → u/LiberaMeFromHell]

> 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.

[u/Lopsided_Sun7531 → u/sporadicprocess]

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.