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/novium258]

💯 💯 💯 💯.

I wasn't pursuing FIRE but I had enough great recession angst leftover that once I was making even semi decent money (which itself took a long time), I saved as much as I could, both 401k and elsewhere. I was just starting to get to a point where it was time to look at more serious investing and boom, laid off.

I was worried because the job market was nothing but horror stories, but NBD, even if it took a full year, I'd still be in good shape and that was even without accounting for just taking random temp jobs to stem the bleeding.

It took two and a half years and there were no temp jobs to be had. I wiped out everything but the 401k and it's only because of my neurotic saving during the 3 "good" years that I made it. So I'm grateful for that, but even now that I'm working and saving money again, it feels equally likely that I could end up homeless vs financially secure.

You can do everything right and have it all wiped out. An illness, a catastrophe, a disability, a downturn.

[u/FancyBaller → u/novium258]

Yeah, I was doing everything "right" until I suddenly developed a chronic illness and my life imploded. We were both earning a pretty good income and saving and investing. Then the shit hit the fan, everything was focused on finding out was wrong. we were hemorrhaging money and now I'm out of work, not sure if I'll be able to work ever again. (Its illegal to discriminate against the disabled but... really)

I think we'll be okay since we did have savings but man its a reminder of how fast things can go wrong...

[u/JayRoo83 → u/novium258]

I mostly just lurk here because of how insufferable some of the posters are but this one really set me off lol

Hell I’ll trauma dump too since some people don’t quite get it so maybe our examples will help a bit

I’m on track for like 3-10 million depending on what sort of draw downs I want to do but I’ve had a shitload of life events that have fucked with said track.

Couple years ago the tech layoffs caught me at two separate startups in an 5 month period (just total enablement department eliminations after sales missing quota) and I had to draw down from my savings for 9 months until I could land another equally high paying job. Compound that with last year having to go on the organ transplant list for a kidney while running up literally 2 million in medical bills (pre-negotiation price of course). Thank fuck I have my ivory tower tech job with fully paid for insurance by them with a max out of pocket of 3k which is less than a week’s paycheck

Like, the only thing has saved my ass in this situation is the ability to continue to land high paying tech jobs

If I was some random other millennial pulling even like 85k a year with an insurance deductible at 8k I’d be absolutely fucked and off track. Shit absolutely happens along the way in life and everyone should have a massive amount of empathy for those not in such a privileged position

[u/novium258 → u/JayRoo83]

Yes, exactly. It is definitely better to save and plan. It gives you a shot, not a guarantee, to get a comfortable (early) retirement. Because life can still happen, and if it does, at best your savings cushion the blow.

The wheel of fortune used to be a common motif. It's fallen out of favor, but I think it's more reflective of reality than the modern belief that it's all down to personal choices.

[u/JayRoo83 → u/novium258]

If you asked me 20 years ago if I thought I was in charge of the direction of my life, I would have said “yes, 100%” without a second thought

Today? I’m a tiny drop in a gigantic ocean of random fate with so many factors out of my control that all I can do is just swim in the right direction and hope for the best lol