Why Americans Are Actually Broke! (2024 Edition)

Why Americans Are Actually Broke! (2024 Edition)

It's easy to put all the blame of our finances on the economic factors working against us right now: the lasting affects of high-inflation, low housing affordability, and more. Those have their impact, but we want to dig deeper than that. Because as financial advisors and people that have been around to see Americans in good times and bad, we recognize that there are some persistent behaviors that need to be fixed.

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[cur]

People often like to put it on politicians but the truth is Americans have been broke for decades because they're generally awful savers. The social media obsession has definitely contributed to the consumer debt society we live in.

[chicarbiomed]

Kid I work with. Masters in EE, coding genius… young but still… thought it didn’t matter to pay more for his brand new car (he doesn’t even drive) because the interest is built in and won’t change anyway. Interest is almost 9%… not curious at all about budgeting or investing. So good at math, no financial education. Sad really

[timothy]

Status, status, status. It's a social problem. Social media made it worse. People will pay anything and go into crazy amount of debt to prove that "I'm better than you are."

[rodrigocortes]

Keeping my “starter home “ has allowed me to save $20k yearly into my Roth 401k and pay for my kids college. If we would have our “dream home “ I would probably be house poor and getting ready for divorce because lack of money is the number #1 factor of divorces. Life is good 🤑🤑

[zo_]

People are not good at telling themselves no. Nor can the majority of people think and act for the long term.

[mialovestravel]

If you haven’t already, I’d love to see an episode where you break down how a low-earning individual should budget their income (say, $40k) to follow all of your guidelines. Make sure to also factor in unexpected health emergencies, home appliances breaking down, childcare, etc. and I think it will become more clear why it’s very difficult for those Americans to save anything meaningful.

[Julietarocha-ik]

Since the commencement of Biden's presidency, the United States appears to have witnessed more adverse outcomes. These include impacts on the markets, such as declines in prices, significant inflation spikes, and instances of bank failures. I am contemplating whether the sudden surge in interest rates will be advantageous for value investors or if it might be more prudent to temporarily avoid involvement in the stock and financial markets.

[emilydonna]

We work for years to earn $1million on our retirement, while some people put thousands of dollars in some meme coins and they become millionaires.

[tharius]

Exposing students to financial classes in school would certainly help, however I find it unlikely most would pay attention any more than they do in other classes. Most students probably wouldn’t remember any more from these classes than they do from their geometry class. The best thing you can do is be a good example to your own children and teach them good financial habits early.

[Kornheiser]

Sadly, 95% of those watching this episode will fail to appreciate the greatest moment...Brian's attempt at a "Beeker" impression. Well done Brian. 👏

[izqgsol]

For the last 10 years our public school system in Southeastern Virginia has required that all high school students complete a Personal Finance course prior to graduation. So glad that all of our kids have taken part in that. My husband and I however have been their primary financial teachers. It all starts at home.

[debratakagawa]

One of the issues with having many types of debt is the trouble we had back in my younger days, we couldn’t make all the minimum payments and not add more debt. We had to do beans and rice to get back on track and never do that again.

[jameschaves]

Prime example of wanting it now mentality is someone I work with took $10K from her 401K to go to Disney. She could care less about the 10% penalty or loss in compounding. As she said “my kids deserve it”!!!

[irishi]

My problem with the "They don't teach it in schools!" excuse is that schools still teach *math*. The principles of mathematics don't change when a dollar sign is placed in front of the numbers. Everyone was taught; only a few apply what they've learned.

[Kyle-xtip]

most people I come across make ridiculous decisions financially and act bewildered when they end up having to drain their 401k to catch up.

[AKAAAK]

I hear a lot of this "It's just money, you can't take it with you" mentally

[sarashann]

The problem is Americans are raised being sold to constantly. Buy! Buy! Buy! Can't afford it? Put it on credit. To get ahead, one has to aggressively safeguard oneself against this.

Agree family life and the example it sets is a huge influence.

[Jon-efcz]

I'm broke! I have a decent sized brokerage account, but with my job cutting out overtime and the high cost of everything. I pay our bills, and there's nothing left over to invest or save. The stress is real!

[NewGuy]

We never felt broke, but we had a lot of expenses with full time careers, house and two kids. We knew we were comfortable and always lived below our means and invested.

It wasn't until in my early 40's that I started getting burned out from work and looking at our financial numbers closer and realized we were actually considered rich. The bull market of 2019, 2020, 2021 made us feel REALLY rich.

Just wanted to share our experience and let the kiddos know: work, save, keep you head down and ignore distractions towards your personal goals and by your 40's you'll finally turn that financial corner and see your finish line...

I'm 47 now and been on "cruise control" downhill/coasting since age 43. Good luck!

[sarashann]

Listen to these guys. This young Boomer heeded the advice of OG Dave Ramsey and now am comfortably retired and completely debt free. Oh, and I drive a Toyota Corolla. Good luck folks. You control your financial destiny.