Bring able to save a significant portion of your income more than the US poverty line for 30 years without some black swan life event happening to drain it also partly depends on being lucky or/and not having children. The median US household makes plenty to become millionaires for maintainkng a reasonable QoL if there aren’t any such black swan events or children involved.
For my mom, it was a custody battle for children that initially wiped her life savings. She since has often worked 100 hours weeks at a job that pays above average for a blue collar job to make enough to back up to retire (plus happens to have worked at the same company long enough to get a pension, something they phased out for anyone less senior than her), but that’s not something anyone should be expected to do be able to retire, so I’m not quick to judge people for not having accumulated money.
But a lot of people waste money on convenience in ways that definitely add up cumulatively over the decades. $5/day adds up to $150k after adjusting for inflation over 30 years. A $10/month subscription is $10k over 30 years. Reducing costs like that in a few places can cumulatively get you to at least theoretically being on track to be a millionaire.
The QoL aspect is extremely important though. If I can’t have one $10/mo subscription… what’s the point of being a millionaire in some hypothetical future if I spend my prime years depraved and depressed?
Sure, but at the median income in the US, you don’t need to be depraved or depressed. At least not for monetary reasons. I’m not saying you need have to cut all subscriptions. A lot of people have much more than one reoccurring charges or spending habits that could either be reduced or cut completely with little to no effect on QoL.
That’s been a point of discussion in financial independence circles. You can rearrange your whole life so you’re saving 60% of your income, and some people have. Are they happy? Often not, and some of them have backed off when they realized they shouldn’t give up so much happiness now for the prospect of being happy later.
Bring able to save a significant portion of your income more than the US poverty line for 30 years without some black swan life event happening to drain it also partly depends on being lucky or/and not having children. The median US household makes plenty to become millionaires for maintainkng a reasonable QoL if there aren’t any such black swan events or children involved.
For my mom, it was a custody battle for children that initially wiped her life savings. She since has often worked 100 hours weeks at a job that pays above average for a blue collar job to make enough to back up to retire (plus happens to have worked at the same company long enough to get a pension, something they phased out for anyone less senior than her), but that’s not something anyone should be expected to do be able to retire, so I’m not quick to judge people for not having accumulated money.
But a lot of people waste money on convenience in ways that definitely add up cumulatively over the decades. $5/day adds up to $150k after adjusting for inflation over 30 years. A $10/month subscription is $10k over 30 years. Reducing costs like that in a few places can cumulatively get you to at least theoretically being on track to be a millionaire.
The QoL aspect is extremely important though. If I can’t have one $10/mo subscription… what’s the point of being a millionaire in some hypothetical future if I spend my prime years depraved and depressed?
Sure, but at the median income in the US, you don’t need to be depraved or depressed. At least not for monetary reasons. I’m not saying you need have to cut all subscriptions. A lot of people have much more than one reoccurring charges or spending habits that could either be reduced or cut completely with little to no effect on QoL.
That’s been a point of discussion in financial independence circles. You can rearrange your whole life so you’re saving 60% of your income, and some people have. Are they happy? Often not, and some of them have backed off when they realized they shouldn’t give up so much happiness now for the prospect of being happy later.