TikTok Video

If everybody's so broke, why are the restaurants, bars, concerts, and ball games always packed? So here's my theory on this. Number one is that the top 10% of Americans are responsible for about 50% of consumer spending. So a lot of people that you see out there spending money have a lot of discretionary spending. They're crushing it in today's economy and they're spending their money. But what about the other 50%? Here's the conundrum that I think this 50% is in. If you're working eight to five, which is nine hours, you're commuting a half hour there and a half hour home. You're committing about 10 hours a day, 50 hours a week to one job. And unfortunately for a lot of people, that one job is not paying anyone enough money. They might, if they're lucky, have $500 leftover at the end of the month after all their bills are paid. But here's the buckets they're looking at. They got $50,000 of debt, student loans and credit cards. They might want to have children in the future and they want to stay for children. They want to stay for a house and they want to put money in their retirement. But they've got this $500 and these four buckets. And that $500 even though it's really wise to invest in your retirement and pay off your debt, I think they're looking at this going, "This is going to take me 10 to 20 years to accomplish. "Fuck it, I'm going to the concert. "I'm buying the new shoes, I'm going to brunch. "I'm getting bottle-less mimosas. "I'm going to go on a vacation." And the reason for this is because the sacrifice is now an unreasonable time frame. Even though we should still pay off our debt and stay for all of this, I understand why people aren't doing it aggressively because if it's going to take 10 to 20 years, you can't expect any young person in their 20s or 30s. To sacrifice 20 years of no dates, no children, no ball games, no weddings, no new parachutes, no new tech, it's way too long of a sacrifice window for people not to enjoy themselves along the way. Whereas, back in the day, if your debt was only eight grand and to save for a house was 10 grand, someone could sit and go, "You know what, for the next two years, "I'm not going out to eat, I'm canceling my vacations, "I'm going to pay off my debt and buy a house, "and then I'll start enjoying my life." Two years, very reasonable. 10 to 20 is very difficult. You might say, "Freddy, 10 to 20." Yeah, the average person is taking 10 to 20 years to pay off their student loan debt. And the average first time home buyer is around 40. So you have people graduating high school or college right now that it's going to take them on average 10 to 20 years to pay off their student debt and purchase a house. So I don't think it's bad spending or bad budgeting. Yes, you should pay off your debt. Yes, you should invest for your future. But if you've only got three to 500, maybe $800, maybe you'll put 102 towards these massive payments, but you're gonna go and enjoy your life because the journey is gonna take so much longer.