One of the problems I see every day is people who can't manage money. I don't mean to denigrate people who are truly struggling, but there are plenty of folks who have incomes I would consider truly affluent who still live paycheck to paycheck. Deferred gratification, saving, investment, living below one's means, budgeting to take control of expenses, recognizing opportunity costs, all of this is apparently unknown to most.
I lived in a single-income blue-collar middle class household. I helped my mother clip coupons, plan expenses, and make the most out of what we had while still saving and tithing as a part of home-schooling. I don't think many Gen X, Millennials, or Zoomers have had that kind of experience. The consequences are everywhere. Avoidable consumer debt looms as a constant threat for so many people. Instant gratification and deferred payment is the inverse of healthy financial planning.
So good job teaching Smallsteps early on to start considering these subjects!
It is amazing, isn't it? I know at times I am far worse with money than I should be, but at other times I am far better with it than most, which saves me. I also tend to work my ass off at what I do, which brings some benefits.
I don't think so. Though, I am Gen-X and most of my friends were working from around 16 years of age on. For me, I was working from 12 with cash in hand jobs, as it was the only way I could get money for anything I wanted. It taught me independence, but not sure if for better or worse yet.
A friend of mine (from the US) brought up how many people are living one paycheck away from nothing. It is incredible that society functions at all there - but then, that is what the gaps are there for - so that the affluent part, don't see much of the financially effluent part.
A lot of the wealth of the "1%" is in fact highly leveraged debt, or shares in highly leveraged corporations. It's a house of cards waiting for the inevitable economic reality behind the facade of prosperity to be revealed. We'll see what stands after. But of course the US government will plunder the productive economy to prop up their cronies when they get caught with their pants down. That's the reality behind the rhetoric of our "free-market capitalism."