Wealthy people are so damn out of touch!

[u/SkepticDrinker]

They say if you ask a poor person for money advice is poor and with rich it's rich. So I have been asking advice of people who have become financially independent, at least money isn't a stressing factor in their lives.

Oh my god. "Save 20% of income and invest it." I explain money is tight and hardly any left to buy a single stock. "Oh then ask for a raise or job hop." OK, my review is 6 months away, and in the Mean time what else? "A side Hustle! Whatever you make there invest it!" Tried and got burned out, actually made me work less from exhaustion.

So I asked "what did YOU do?" And the story is what you expext; my parents paid for college, I got into tech, my dad knew someone in the company, etc.

They are giving me advice they didn't follow through with. They could have just said "I don't have any experience with that, I grew up in privilege."

[u/Dreamgeezer]

Grew up poor, now very not poor.

I decided that I was going to get a white collar job that had some math involved and paid well by any means necessary. No excuses. None.

I went through college right after high school, worked jobs to eat and house myself, had roommates, took advantage of planned parenthood, and got into tons of debt with student loans.

I had undiagnosed ADHD, so my grades were only good in classes that didn't require participation. Didn't matter how easy the class was, I barely passed if I had to track something outside of learning the material. I still managed.

My mom got injured when I was in high school and got progressively worse when I was in college. She died during my 5th year. Towards the end, she was so stoned on pain meds, benzos, who knows what else. It was hell to watch her decline in her late 30s/early 40s and then die before she turned 42. I had to constantly compartmentalize shit to get through work, school, and family. Worst thing to see someone suffer so, so much and just die in despair. It was hard for me because at the end she lived in this trailer in S. Texas with busted out windows to get air flowing. No running water in the trailer either. I have so much freaking guilt for not stopping school to help her. I was so close to being in a good spot to take care of us too.

After she passed, I had to drop my classes and had some bottlenecks with work schedule and class availability. Yet, after 7 years, i graduated with 2 bachelor degrees.

Then, I did what I could to get my CPA. Worked at a construction company that paid shit, quit, and got placed via those temp employment agencies. Company I worked with figured out I had a brain and put me into a niche area. So, while working, I studied for the exams for like 5 hours every night and managed to get that done. It wasn't as crazy as college, but I didn't take care of my diet nor hygiene at the level I should have. But seriously, nothing was going to stop me from my goals.

Through all of this, I kept telling myself that nothing worth doing is easy. You just have to suck it up and make it work. There are resources out there that can make things slightly easier, but you got to be ready for the worst. I definitely had many times where sleep and a glass of water was my dinner.

HOWEVER, I also know that I've been lucky. None of that is lost on me. I sure as hell know that hard working people are not guaranteed to be rich. It's hard to look for opportunities when you can't afford to look up or take chances.

There are small things that can help make money stretch, but it seems like an investment needs to be made to even get the ball rolling for many ventures.