Why A $100,000 Salary Can't Buy The American Dream in 2025...

2nd Channel @ZacV2

Chapters
0:00 Subscribe!
0:38 Family Income Needs
2:16 American Dream Income Needs
5:12 Student Debt
7:44 Average Income
10:58 Spending
13:30 Social Media
15:12 Comments

#finance #debt #money

[Zac-Rios]

31 Minutes of INSANE Credit Card Debt in 2025...

[greenlantern]

Damn, living in a low cost of living area is AMAZING! I don't bring home anywhere near 100K and my wife and I are living happily and contributing to retirement every month.

[Max-vetu]

The American dream was never about having a multiple bedroom house, multiple nice cars, eating out every week, and vacationing in Cabo. It was about having a small piece of land and living off that. Social media has ruined people's perception of a nice life.

[hanaj]

80k in Chicago with no kids. I feel ok, but I spent most of my 20-30s making under 40k

[DollieDaubney]

Hallelujah!!!! The daily jesus devotional has been a huge part of my transformation, God is good 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻was owning a loan of $47, 000 to the bank for my son's brain surgery (David), Now I'm no longer in debt after I invested $12, 000 and got my payout of m $270, 500 every months, God bless Ms Evelyn Vera🇺🇸..

[rsimmons]

$100k is still strong. I make $100k and save $30, 000 a year and that includes monthly student loan payments of $500 and 1 bed room rent of $2, 300. I would be better if I had a $1, 600 studio apartment or made $120, 000 or no student loan payments. But I am still doing decent on $100k.

[rr.]

Income is not the problem. It's habits, expectations, and the entitlement. Social media has skewed what the "American Dream" so much, and less about developing a discipline mindset.
Anecdotally, I've known some high-income earners ($200k+) who live paycheck to paycheck because of their over-inflated lifestyle. I also know some millennials (<$100k) that own homes because they've saved their money for years, pushed through to driving old cars for years. They also cook, not have exuberant number of useless subscriptions, and are well disciplined; yet, they are extremely happy.

Don't blame the system. Look at your habits first. It all starts with the individual.

[stocksxbondage]

Houston, earning 110k, 21k taxes, 28k saving, still have 19k of spending money left over. I’m living off 42k after taxes. 3500/month expenses. This includes eating out and driving a Lexus. I’m living in luxury (to me). You absolutely can get the American dream on 100k as I’m doing it starting from a negative net worth.

Have roommates and live cheap for 5yrs, you’ll have 100k cash, some emergency fund, and a paid off daily driver. Buy a small starter home with above 20% down and you’ve permanently “fixed” your biggest expense (housing). Build an emergency fund, and get your 401k match at least. Then, split savings between paying off debt and contributing to your retirement accounts. 100k is plenty money when you get roommates even when you don’t “have to” even in places like NY, it can be done. Live in Jersey. Yeah Manhattan is expensive lol who do you think you are?

[michaelw]

I’m in Georgia and you absolutely do not need $213k/year to live comfortably. That map is ridiculous.

[A_Shihtzu]

People earning 100k+ living paycheck to paycheck would be broke if you gave them extra money because they would just lifestyle creep it away. Expensive luxury cars, larger home, and expensive vacations just scale with income for the majority of people.

[Sarah-tjtq]

Idk. I make about $50, 000 a year and I'm pretty comfortable, even with paying off debt and establishing savings. But to give background, I have no children, no pets and no car.

[braticuss]

100k is plenty in most parts of the country, if you live within your means. Stop buying a new car every 3 years, a new phone every year, luxury goods, going out to eat multiple times a week, traveling constantly, starbucks everyday, etc... I spoken with so many people that make this complaint and then ask them why they're driving a BMW, and wearing designer clothes if they can't afford to live. Their response is usually along the lines of "I'm not going to stop living life or having fun, I should be able to have all of this stuff." Social media has distorted what the "American dream" really was about. That map is absurd, probably made by some pro-communist to attack evil capitalism. I'm from Boston, and still have many friends there. You don't need 240k to live in MA, unless you live in downtown Boston. Most of my friends have average (well under 100k) income with families, live a bit outside the city and do just fine. They don't live extravagantly, but they live well.

[Renderlesscharacter]

this is a global trend, after the pandemic everything changed, even today we have a huge inflation, shrinkflation, migration and everything in between

[kunya]

We make 60k. We own a home, feed our family, have savings, retirement going, three kids, a dog, two cats and 17 chickens. Apparently you "need" well over 100k to survive here in Washington. I think people's idea of "survive" is way off.

[sylskaterChannel]

When my gf and I were putting money away for a down payment, we were putting away 1k CAD a month in 2022 and we were not able to follow the rising price for houses. When we finally found a condo, we were able to put aside a little more than 18k CAD and is was barely covering the down payment needed. We were lucky to sign just when interest rates were going up. The guy at the bank was pushing hard for us to take the flexible rate and we ended up winning and getting a fixed rate. 6 months later the fexible rate was higher than our fixed rate and still is to this day. We are able to pay our bills and all, but saving money is hard. Can't imagine if we would've taken the flexible rate, we would be bankrupt

[Neversink]

1:48 these numbers seem super inflated. I have a family of 4, wife doesnt work and im making half of what they suggest as "needed" in my state.
Were totally comfortable and saving money.

This is some weird demoralization psy-op

[ClaudiuDenis-hppf]

It’s really heartbreaking to see how inflation and recession impact low-income families. The cost of living keeps rising, and many struggle just to meet basic needs, let alone save or invest. It’s a reminder of the importance of finding ways to create financial opportunities. You've helped me a lot sir Robert! Imagine i invested $50, 000 and received $190, 500 after 14 days

[ddavison]

I really enjoy your content. I think an interesting video would be one about the costs of funerals and the disposition of the remains of loved ones. It’s astronomically high, even if you settle on cremation. I don’t think a lot of people realize that insurance policies they might have thought would help their families after their passing can be devoured by funeral expenses or settling outstanding medical bills. Not sure if there are enough videos on this topic online to put together a presentation on it, but I think it would be an interesting topic. Another related topic that could be worth looking into is how medical debt of loved ones who have passed can be passed down to their surviving relatives and how joint accounts that had been shared by the person deceased and someone still alive can be dipped into to settle those.

[NeverSeenAMooseIRL]

Yes living is expensive nowadays. But if you are making 100k and are living pay check to pay check your just bad with money.

[UsurpersAndAssassins]

The problem is simple. There are FAR TOO MANY PEOPLE, wanting FAR TOO MUCH, and living FAR TOO LONG. Until at least one of those things changes - everything will just keep getting worse.