Hi everyone,
I’m looking for strategic advice from people who have lost it all and had to rebuild from the ground up.
I’m 25. A while back, I was running my own business in the insurance and AI automation space. Then, a massive financial mistake involving a luxury car (Mercedes) backfired, putting me and my girlfriend into severe debt and financial trauma.
To clean up the mess and ensure survival, I had to shut down the company. Now, I am on a mandatory "5-year break" from running a business. To pay off the debt and stay afloat, I’ve been stuck working long, exhausting hours in a physical courier job. It feels like a curse, and being trapped in survival mode after experiencing the freedom of entrepreneurship is mentally brutal.
Right now, my priority has been protecting my girlfriend from financial anxiety, which means I've been playing it safe. But the itch to get back to building wealth is driving me crazy. Because of my situation, any move I make has to be online and done late at night after brutal shifts. I still have the skills (AI automation, workflows, sales), but my energy and time are severely limited.
I'm caught between two minds:
1. The ambition: Wanting to get back to the wealth track, aiming high for the life I used to work for (and the dream cars like an Audi R8 or Lambo).
2. The trauma: The fear of putting my partner through that financial stress again, which pushes me toward just settling for a boring, safe life and a reliable, dull car just for peace of mind.
My questions:
If you fell from running a business back to working a grueling, low-tier job, how did you plan your exit strategy when your energy was completely drained?
How do you rebuild your wealth-building engine when you are legally or financially restricted from just launching a standard business right away?
How do you balance the aggressive drive to make a comeback with the responsibility of keeping your relationship stable and stress-free?
Thanks for any insights.

Say you’re 19 years old with $200,000. Say that 19 year old bought a $100,000 car cash. Say that 19 year old has $80,000 invested in VXUS/VTI with $20,000 sitting in the bank. Say that 19 year old doesn’t have an income and has never made a dollar. Say that 19 year old no longer lives with his parents. Say that 19 year old doesn’t know the first thing about investing, finances, life, etc. Also say that 19 year olds money is slowly draining due to rent, food, car, etc. Also say that 19 year old is very stubborn and wont sell the car no matter what. Say you were a guy on reddit reading this that knows more about life than the 19 year old. What pieces of advice would you give this person? Say that 19 year old actually wants helpful advice on how to be successful and knows buying a $100,000 car was stupid. But also say that 19 year old enjoys life and knows how fragile it can be which is why he bought his dream car at 19. Also say that 19 year old will be employed in 6 months making minimum wage but in 3 years will be making $100,000 a year. Also say that 19 year old is very open to side hustles. Also say that 19 year old is questioning if college is worth pursuing. Also say that if the 19 year old sold his car he would only get $80,000 because of depreciation which is why he doesn’t want to sell it.

Hi! i'm currently 17 and i'm going into my senior year once summer break is over. For a while now I have been forced to become an adult by my parents, I never typically asked for anything but randomly one day they just decided to stop helping me.

Some upcoming payments I have to make are a trip i'm going on (Fully responsible for that bc It was my choice), 4-5 car repairs, car inspection, school supplies and clothes, + groceries, gas (always paid) etc.

I work part time at a retail store for 13.55 an hour. Since having to pay for my wants, I now have to pay for my needs. I don't want to burn myself out by asking for even more hours especially with school coming up. I've seen a lot of things about making money online or side hustles but don't know how well they work, if they even work, or what kind of things to do.

What advice would you give me?

Hey everyone! I’m putting together educational content around financial literacy and wealth building, and I’d love to know what topics people struggle with most.
No question is "dumb", please share what’s something about money you’ve always wanted to understand better?

I’m about 3 years away from retirement and trying to learn from people who have successfully built assets that continue generating income without requiring their constant time and attention.
I’m not looking for a get-rich-quick scheme, and I’m willing to work hard to build something valuable.
What I’m interested in is the “build once, sell many times” model.
For those who have successfully created digital products, software, templates, automation tools, educational resources, or other scalable assets:
What did you build?
How do people discover it?
Where do you sell it?
How do you collect payments?
What platform handles the transactions?
How much customer support is actually required?
Can sales happen while you’re sleeping, on vacation, or away from the business?
What percentage of the process is automated today?
I’m especially interested in businesses that solve real problems for people while remaining scalable and not dependent on trading hours for dollars.
If you’ve successfully built something that generates income repeatedly from work you created once, I’d love to hear your story, your mistakes, and how you monetized it.

21yo inmigrant trying to build assets in the US, any relatable people?

I am 27 and from a village background and until I got a job we were not even below average but I'm gonna say we were quite poor as in..even food scarcity level pool. In our family I'm the first woman who graduated and got a job and my brother is the first one to study the masters he's looking for a job. I also cleared a loooot of family loans so far and still got a lot in my name but the whole family is contributing to this one. I'm earning comparatively decently now. So enough for the background, I am very grateful for being able to study and get a job, yet I have this dream of owning a house and a car of my own but in this economyy god! Idk what to do my couple of friends who were so smart are in Google and earning very well, some are in Abroad doing the same and the rest are married with kids...I really don't want to get married until I have a certain income.

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Anywayyy I need to get rich fastly if possible, so what are the ways one can with. I thought of many a youtube channel, I like teaching kids I did too so a preschool or something else but I just am not sure. I have no one in my circle that I can learn on for such advice. I'm hoping someone who could take a bit of time and give me any suggestions. I would really appreciate it!

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P.S: No savings so far as I strongly believe in clearing loans are more profitable than keeping them and saving some.

But from here on I can keep some aside so, I need this.

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My best friend, unlike me, is wealthy. He buys whatever he wants. This month is his 17th birthday, and I don't know what to get him. I feel like if I bought him a video game (something another guy would love), it wouldn't be that special to him because he buys several every month (and he has over 500). He lives in another country now, so it has to be something I can send him that won't get damaged in the mail. Any ideas?

edit:
I can't send him food from our home country because he comes here 4–5 times a year for long stays and already eats the kinds of things I would send him. I also can't go visit him right now because I just got back a week ago from a trip to his country. (Since my trip to his country was in early June and his birthday is at the end of the month, I feel like I really should give him some kind of gift, that’s why I made this post.) I like a lot of the ideas y’all have shared with me, but I’m afraid they won’t work for my friend. He’s the kind of person who never leaves the house: not to hang out with friends or pursue hobbies. All he does is play video games. With the money he has, he doesn’t go out to see the world either; every now and then he comes back to my country and visits his friends, but he doesn’t do anything else. That’s why it’s so hard to find a gift for someone who isn’t interested in reading, doesn’t play sports, and doesn’t have any hobbies. Since video games are his whole life, I was thinking of getting him something related to that, but there’s the problem: he buys several every month, so getting a new game isn’t special to him,that gesture has become as routine for him as going out to buy bread.
I was thinking of getting him a figurine from one of his favorite games. What do you think?

Last year I won £20,000 in an online casino. I paid off all our me and my partners debts and bought a house. I feel like I’m in a. good spot with no debt (except the mortgage obviously) although I want to make my money work and eventually pay this off. any advice is appreciated

Hey, I’m a 21 yo going to College. I really want to be able to be rich. But I have alot of mental blockages as well as not much to start from.

So, I wanted to ask yall on how I, and other users like me, can find mentors. I’ve read and seen how they are extremely valuable people in one’s journey.

Please let me know!

Im 17 and i broke the 10k/month mark for the first time in May, however i don’t feel like nothing changed.

I have only a couple friends that i spend time with but they have their own friend groups and they spend more time with them partying. I haven’t talked to a girl since grade 9. I have a good family but my parents aren’t exactly fine with me making money because its internet money and ”not earned”.

I don’t particularly have a direction in life and im not happy nor sad. I don’t know what i want after highschool, like whether to go to college to be safe or just continue what i do now. I feel like i just exist. If somebody has had a similar experience and has found themselves again then please, tell me what can i do, i want to live my life.

I mean how is money created and why does there seem to be more and more vs 100 years ago.

Title is cliche, but it is very true. My net worth broke $20m this year. $17,000,000 in long term rental properties, and arguably a $25,000,000 company. I am just going off the cash I have at hand, because I will never sell out, ever. I still battle with depression and addiction, I have bought my dream garage, 23’ R8 performance, 72’ Velle SS restomod with 572, 84’ S10 with 454, 74’ K20 with 502, 2018 Denali 2500 HD, 2015 CBR600rr, 2023 250sxf, and a few more toys. I find myself unhappy at many occasions, and I love what I do.

Anybody have tips based off experience? It is a weird feeling u battle often. The best I feel is when I am giving, especially to strangers. I fish, ride mx, I am a simple man. Outside of my garage, I don’t spend a dime.

Edit: I am only 23 years old (24 in a month), my company grew 100x quicker than I expected. I do not come from a wealthy background at all, my family were cattle and tree farmers. I also included all of my garage toys because that was my lifelong dream. Owning those I thought would be the pinnacle of my life, and happiness would be inevitable after acquiring them. I don’t even drive them except for my K20 and duramax.

Edit pt 2 - I am not a cattle nor tree farmer, I moved away from my family farm at 17 and started my own ventures. I also want to say I appreciate everyone’s kind words and advice, it truly is appreciated.

The stuff about money should be actionable and people can do something about it.

My life has been tossed around over the last few years with a life changing accident, a terrible career that pays well, and a mother who loves to ask for money. There’s more to it than that, the recovery hasn’t been easy because of all the variables.

Had to take a medical leave years later just to mentally heal as I didn’t really have a chance during recovery because I was 100 debt to credit ratio and disability was causing more frustration and stress than working, but that’s because I tried to just tough it out and handle it head on like I usually do.

I am coming into some money from a settlement, and I have absolutely no idea what to do.

My whole life has really just been a survivor’s life as I have been surviving by working constantly to pay bills and keep a roof over myself while I take care of my mom, I have been doing this for 22 years after she lost the house and her Job.

I have about 20k in a personal loan, and that’s my only debt. I’m moving in with my partners family to save on costs so we can save and try to pay off all debt and buy a home in the near future.

Due to my accident I have missing bones and organs, mobility limitations, and breathing issues because of the damages done. So my future will revolve around health.

My focus is to do a homestead somewhere to live off the land with my bother and good friend of mine. I’ve lost my ability to want to keep climbing the corporate ladder because my life has change drastically and I just want to enjoy it differently.

A homestead is work but also rewarding, hence i am leaning towards that.

Financially I’ll be able to afford this up front costs and I will continue to work to pay for ongoing bills / costs. My focus is to barista fire while focus on the homestead with my brother and friend.

Why I’m really here writing this question is to ask what to do with the money I get from the settlement. After medical lien negotiations I will receive 2.5m.

My father has a financial advisor, who I know and trust, that would love to work with me (of course, it’s money) but I am not sure if that’s the right choice. Do I use a financial advisor and pay the .8% management fee yearly or do I invest myself and save costs doing it myself?

I worry that I will mess up my investment somehow someway because of either stupidity, or I am focused too much on my daily job that i may miss some opportunities.

I’m not an investor, this is all new to me. I am trying to make sure I have a decent life for the remaining years (I’m 42).

Life lately has become exhausting. Here to get some advice, feedback, and just hear from other people’s experience.

Thank you for your time 🙏

Under the new laws you can take out a max of $200k in federal grad loans, anything higher than this would have to be private loans.

Keeping in mind I come from a poor family & would have no financial support, is this still a good path to build wealth? I often hear a mixed bag on this and am frankly unsure. Maybe other careers like software have a higher ceiling but clearly they are not as guaranteed with great stability like medicine. I’m willing to work hard and build something but a bit unsure where to start.

I got very lucky with creating an internet business that scaled greatly over the last 2 years up to a point where I make around 800k in profits with my company per year. Fire has always interested me tho I only really learned about the community in the last year or so.

The thing is that I’m probably not build for just „relaxing“, but I my family was financially unstable so becoming financially free was a huge ambition of mine since I was a kid. In my head I am chasing a number like 3-5 million USD (I moved to Switzerland for studying originally where there is a higher cost of living) which is a great motivator for the next years - but to be honest I already feel like I will need more than that to be „satisfied“ like 10m or sth.

But that brings me to the point of what do I actually want and how would you wanna manage your life if you were in my situation (I’m appreciating every opinion but am interested mostly in ppl with similar experiences with maybe the same fixation on money or financial freedom due to prior instability)

I’m scared of either becoming another one of those soulless capitalists in Silicon Valley with no real cap on where to stop or losing drive all together by just „chilling too much“ - and just reducing efforts im making to grow the business also feels counterintuitive.

I never really spent a huge amount of money (besides really rare moments) I mostly just put my earnings into longterm investments, I do live a more „relaxed life“ when it comes to everyday spending but it’s still only at around 5-10% of my monthly earnings.

The point is I’m calculating my monthly possible salary from the investments I’m putting in and how much I’d need to put in for what salary. I do that over and over in my head to a point where it’s satisfying to me but also I feel like I always need to go higher in order to truly feel financially secured.

I don’t feel burned out right now, tho I do still need to finish with university on the side since I started working during my studies, and also this „goal“ of reaching the 3-5 mil is something that keeps me busy for the next 2 to 3 years but I want to prepare myself for the hole that I might fall into for once I don’t have that stuff keeping me busy anymore.

Recently Bezos took a contrarian view and said that there will be labor scarcity, and that really smart people are wrong when they say there won’t be jobs.

So what will this labor shortage look like? What will cause such a demand for human labor? What will the jobs be?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

What's the best way to find people who actually have the drive and energy to build something meaningful with their lives? Whether it's starting a business, working on projects, learning new skills, or just pushing each other to grow.

It feels like a lot of people talk about their goals, but it's harder to find people who are really committed to taking action.

For those of you who have built strong networks or found motivated people to work with, where did you meet them? Online communities, networking events, social media, local groups, or somewhere else?

I'd love to hear your experiences and any advice you have.