It's what happens when people choose to buy things now for instant gratification than be concerned about the long term impact of those financial decisions in their future. Why save or invest now when inflation, taxes, debt, and wages that couldn't keep darkens your future?
It didn't make sense to me at first because I have a habit of living below my means and just think of the future implications with each item spent. But for people that have less regard for their future self, buying into the experience now is "life changing". Imagining better living circumstances for themselves in this economy is hard.
The inconvenient truth about passive income is how much money you have to front load before you can start living comfortably over passive income stream. It's like spending your 20 million to earn 50,000 monthly passively. But no one from the poverty line or middle class has that money so this advice tends to be a pipe dream.
People eventually adapt their wants and choose the low hanging fruit options to get some control and semblance to the luxury they deserved by opting for liabilities disguised as assets. Instead of save to invest or purchasing assets that would payoff well later in life, people would spend it now while they still have the energy.
Tomorrow isn't guaranteed, and one could just retire from working throughout their life without doing anything meaningful while young. I'd like to invent a new genre and call it economic horror and this is exactly how things will usually play out.
I don't agree with the squander but I understand. This is a systemic failure and a symptom of an economy failing a generation rather than individual choices. Our boomer parents had better purchasing power for the same goods and aren't overworked. How advances in tech now didn't help with the quality of life
As inflation rises, the cost to live gets higher and most of one's wages are funneled to paying taxes or survival costs while the wealth gap inequality ensures those at the top 1% can have an option to be a philanthropist or live life to the fullest. It's not about poor versus the rich. It's a generation living in a time where the system is stacked against them.
So people unconsciously self sabotage their financial future taking on debt for things they don't need and to fill in a void of making sense a life that they have to define the meaning.
And despite all this doom and gloom, I'd still try to own a piece of land and a house because if you want to start building generational wealth, you have to own a real asset to pass onto the next generation.
Thanks for your time.
