It’s funny, I was talking to my financial planner who says bear markets happen on average every 5 years anyway. And yes, he also confirmed we experience massive crashes when speculative industries arise without any real value behind them. I guess the plus side in that is if you’re fortunate to have like $25 k in savings; you can take some of that cash and buy up when the markets crash to all time lows.

Gotta love the Wall St predators.

I hate this all, but if you throw your investments into ETFs and index funds, at least those are somewhat more stable and resilient. And at least my investments aren’t in hedge funds.

It’s hilarious. I thought at 20 years of age, I’d be balling while bringing in this kind of income. A significant chunk of our family income goes towards future investment for retirement, my kids’ future education and healthcare costs, because our safety nets fucking suck. And we live pretty modestly because of that.

I often think of the majority of people who haven’t had my level of privilege, access to education and good fortune, and how they don’t really have any disposable income to invest. They don’t come from generational wealth, or don’t have access to proper assistance, because people refuse to invest in our future generations. Our youth who should’ve started building a financial future in their early 20s are fucked.

Know how I bought an overpriced modest 3-bedroom condo in a mid Southeastern USA city with old bathrooms and a beat up kitchen? My entire student loan was paid off and I got a refund on all of my payments because I put in 10+ years of public service in my field, along with having made enough payments.

Forgot to mention, that’s on a 30-year fixed mortgage. But that was still better at being at the mercy of landlords who kick you out at will, and kept jacking up the price of rent to the point where rent is more than a 30-year death contract.

But that student loan was hell. I would’ve been throwing $500-600 dollars a month at that thing with most of the payment getting sucked into interest. Again, education is important and necessary nowadays, but those who don’t come from generational wealth are indeed screwed.

Anyway, with some help along the way I’m grateful for, I get to grind away until 65-70, and by then, I won’t be at my top shape anymore to really enjoy the freedom of retirement and do things like travel. I try to take care of my body, but age always wins. As for now, no taking vacations to places faraway like I had dreamed of in my youth. Too damn expensive. And after all of this work I put in.

I’m still grateful in a lot of ways. Boo-hoo, first-world problems I guess. Most people in this world struggle to even have clean water, basic necessities and will probably never see the world outside of their own village. And soon enough, we’ll all be facing second- and third-world problems like so many other countries imperialist capitalist nations have screwed over.

And you gotta love it when people say “just I invest more, day trade, blah, blah.” You are 99.99% guaranteed to lose on speculative individual trading, and bills/necessities still need to get paid.

I often think how me, my wife or my kids could get stabbed in the street by a desperate person who was left behind because of the wonders of capitalism. And sadly it will get worse.