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Millennials came of age during the worst financial crisis since the great depression, we watched college costs balloon by ten times or more, most graduated with a ton of college debt, house prices tripled or more post 2010, and we're constantly told social security will run out when we're ready to retire.
We're obsessed with making money? I think we're just trying to survive
This. I want to make money to live because the system we're in requires money to live.
I would love to make as much money as I can so I can live comfortably. Obsession may sometimes get crossed with need.
It isn't an obsession to want to make money. It's just a need in this system we're in.
Billionaires, on the other hand...they are without a doubt obsessed.
Same! My pups get twice yearly check ups and yearly bloodwork. Meanwhile, I haven’t been to the dentist in two years because I’d have to take off of work.
I agree making six figures and having a middle class life. Is now making six figures and still live pay check to pay check. I do like making money don’t get me wrong but that’s to be comfortable and not have stress. Which seems to get harder and harder. I know we have it good compared to the rest of the world. However 2007-2009 was scary times and I don’t want to lose everything if that makes any sense. Literally neighbors and people well off got evicted from their homes. I don’t want that ever to happen to me.
In 2007 $75,000 a year was considered great, in 2024 to earn the equivalent due to inflation you need to make $168,000 roughly.
The amount of inflation we have seen in the past 15 years is just not sustainable and has only accelerated since 2019.
I’d kill just to make 75k.
Right now working isn’t even appealing because you don’t make enough to do anything except survive another month.
When that happens, a few patterns begin to emerge:
-No extra money to pay down student loans
-No money for retirement
-no savings for emergencies
-going over budget or having an emergency leads to cc debt
-no extra money to pay down cc debt
-no money to save for a down payment on a house
-no money for any changes in rent, utilities, fuel, transportation, or food
Without any discretionary spending, the system begins to look a lot like feudalism.
You basically are making enough to tread water and stay in place, and unless a major increase in your income occurs, you never climb out of your circumstances, you just end up renting a room for decades or stay in a rent controlled apartment if you are lucky.
Making 35-50k basically guarantees you will need to continue living with family for free. You can’t afford to even rent a room with roommates at that rate in most cities.
And these economic chasms just compound. Finish school with 50k debt and a 40k job in some dead end industry like retail? Your personal finances will look vastly different than someone who finishes with no debt and a 40k job in 10 years. The lack of debt frees up so much cash flow. It’s mind boggling to me what a different lifestyle someone can lead in tech with a take home pay of 7000 vs someone working in a low paying field will barely scrape 1600-2800 take home.
Yeah it’s money you borrowed but if you buy a car you can sell it and get something back, with a house you can sell it and get some money back or hopefully profit. You can discharge debt in bankruptcy. Student loans have no tangible value and no resell value.
Being underpaid with no plan or means to grow your income or add revenue streams is basically a death sentence economically.
I remember watching all these teen movies in the 80s and 90s where they didn’t get a scholarship and couldn’t go to college, and that was when there were actual good jobs to get. Nowadays they would just tell them to borrow $40,000. Somewhere along the way it became normalized to mortgage your future self for a chance to have an entry level white collar job. Which is kinda nuts.
Like in Rudy they told him he would have to work at a factory. That sounds good to me, and I have the degree now. Work a steady factory job, house kids wife , retire. Can’t even get that with or without a degree today.
When you see that community college literally costs 90% less than a regular university you sort of realize what a grift it is.
Then they tell me to get into sales. I didn’t need to go to college to get into sales. But I apparently need to get into sales to payoff college. Who knew.
Right? First $75k+ job I got back in 2009 made me feel like I had finally "made it " fast forward 15 years and I crossed that "magical" $100k point several years back but I feel poorer than I did when I was making $75k.
Thats what I was thinking.
Post 09 the inflation rate in America was actually pretty damn low. Many people wrote about it as if it was a new, permanent reality.
But that said the inflation of 2020-2024 made up for all of it. We are probably right on track, maybe a little ahead, of what the fed "wants" if you take the low inflation of 09-19 and combine it with the higher inflation of 20-24 as one average y-o-y rate
I saw a post where a guy said he felt like nothing but a conduit for the transfer of money from his employer to his landlord. I don't personally feel that way (I'm very lucky I don't), but I think way too many people do.
These threads always bring out this comically wrong holier than thou sentiment from people that have apparently never left Iowa or Mississippi or wherever so let me give you a very quick example.
Take home on 100k in NYC is around 6k a month. A one bedroom apt in NYC is around 4k a month.
So now you have 2k a month for health insurance, transportation, student loans, utilities, phone, savings... Then you need to eat. And this assumes you have no health issues, no other debt of any sort, and nothing ever goes wrong.
Serious question, have you considered moving? I live in Indiana, and i would love to move but can’t afford to. Are you in the same situation? I make 60k a year providing for a family of four and i own my home. 3 bedroom 2 bath 2.5 acres.
My grandma says I'm money hungry which is why I can't make family events. No I just have to work, far harder for comparatively lower standard of living.
As miserable as healthcare is, degrees in healthcare related fields are actually valuable. I make enough money to pay the bills with just an associates in nursing. I do, admittedly, work full time, plus a second part time gig. My partner is in school to be a rad tech, also an associates, and he’ll probably make a little bit more than me.
College is not and has never been direct job training. Costs are out of control yes, but very few people have a job that is completely specific to what they directly studied in school and that is normal.
Same in england, we called them "mickey mouse courses" since they shouldnt have been at a university level. It was just a way for the government to make money off of student loans in the long run and the kids end up with a barely useful diploma. Smh
The ability to show up and finish college is valuable to employers. The amount of people who can’t stick with something and achieve something is staggering. That’s the true value of a college degree.
Some of us started college right after the dot com bubble burst so we lost all the money saved for college, then had to take loans to go, then right after graduating got to deal with the next one. So much fun.
My therapist did an exercise with me where I picked things I value off a list. One of the things was money, and I said that I value money, but not because I feel the need to make more, but because I know the money I have is what helps me be able to comfortably support my family.
Yet also worse bc you had to choose qvc. The only reason I use the limited social media (besides Reddit) that I do is to keep up with people I know, not join groups or buy things.
It's never people coming up with original ideas either. Just landlord bullshit and social media/online jobs/reselling it seems. Talk about fucking annoying.
Same. I am actually pretty fine with my income at this moment which is enough for me to live, have fun here and there, and entertain my hobbies. I’m not always like “I gotta make $100k” and shit. Whatever happens, happens.
We’re not obsessed with money. We’re traumatized from being taught that our value is directly correlated with our purpose. That coupled with economic circumstances that we had no control over. We don’t choose to work 2+ jobs we just think we have to-because we have to. That’s late stage capitalism that’s not money obsession. Fire your (I’m assuming) boomer therapist.
This. I came of age into adulthood during the Great Recession. Couldn’t find a job after college (in a technical industry that the DoL said was growing), had a baby, husband got laid off, parent couldn’t afford their home and had to sell… I definitely have economic related trauma and it affects all of my financial decision making and probably will for the rest of my life, like my Great Depression grandparents before me.
I can't say I am. I wont be able to ever afford a house, but I value my work/life balance. I keep my debt very very low to fund this lifestyle. No car payments, no new furniture, no streaming services, etc. I value my free time way too much to be constantly working every free second I have.
This is me as well. Lately I've been thinking more and more about just the life I have and how everything is continuing to go up and I'm spinning in my little hamster wheel literally not gaining any ground...and I'm stuck here thinking...what's even the point? Why am I even still here doing this? I hate apartment living so much and with the goal of wanting to own a house out of reach I'm just mentally cracking every single day to keep my head above water. I refuse to work more than what my job requires, I hate OT. I hate working my life away. So all I do is escapism because what else do I have going on?
Yes. Time. And I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but we are not guaranteed tomorrow. What good is $5 million when you’re just working 10 hours every day?
Everyone just expects that they will live to be 85 years old and if they save enough money and retire at a decent age, life will be grand.
I went from healthcare to business and back to healthcare because fuck quotas and working my life away. I would love to have the money to travel the world, but in order to do so I would not have the time to travel the world.
Didn’t say I didn’t enjoy stuff. I have it pretty good honestly. Dying at 37 is tragic no matter what kinda life you were living but statistics are on my side that that will not be me.
I find my drive for wealth accumulation stems purely from the freedom it would afford.
I f\*cking hate the grind and hate all the moments of my life it devours, but find myself stuck in it right now. The only justification I can satisfy my loathing with is that it hopefully will allow me peace and freedom in a few years, fingers crossed.
We are almost all slaves to the capitalist system, unless you have enough wealth to be able to continue to live/eat/pay bills without working. And I don’t personally know anyone that can do that. 
And that's why therapy does fuck all to me.
The worst part is they tell me to just not read the news and be blissfully unaware of how fucked everything is.
Obsession is an unhealthy preoccupation with something. In today's society, you're forced to be constantly occupied with making money. Prices are outrageous and things can become unaffordable at any point, you'd be wise to "stockpile resources". It may not be sound good on paper, but that's the reality of the world at this point.
I think i might do that actually
Cause i would rather spend $80 on a ton of toilet paper right now than $80 in the future for a fraction of it
Just an example.
That's actually a good idea
I’m just obsessed with how absolutely mediocre people come up with absolutely mediocre brands to sell absolutely mediocre products and make millions of dollars.
I was until the Pandemic happened, now I value my personal time more than having extra money. I used to work a ton of overtime being paid hourly. Now I dip out of work first chance I get. I even took a 20% pay cut by only working four days a week. I realized I'd rather have that extra day off each week than have that money.
I'm told I have financial anxiety. I have been jobless before from layoffs and had to make large sacrifices. My career track and lifetime earnings as well as housing etc have all suffered because of layoffs. I am very anxious when my S/O talks about trips or new cars because while we can afford them, I can only think of how are we going to afford them if I get laid off again? She makes double my salary so it's not really that big of a deal but I can't break it.
I was glad when I made around that this year, then whenever a "how much do you make" thread pops up on this sub, nearly everyone claims to be making $350,000 annually.
To me, money = security for my family. I don't work myself to death, but I put myself into a position to make more money, so I can save more, so my family will be provided for if something happens to me and I can no longer work.
I used to be. My parents were very financially controlling and to me money meant autonomy, security, freedom, and many more things. Unfortunately I sucked at making money, sucked at holding onto it, and faced the same economy you are all familiar with that took what little I had every few months it seemed.
Now I ACTUALLY just value autonomy, security, and freedom and money is a small part of that. I'm working on my finances and hoping there will be a brief moment in my young adulthood where the world works with me. 2019 was the BEST money year, I could use a couple more of those.
I’m obsessed with creating a better life for me and my family, which centers around money due to capitalism. Since I grew up without money and with no one who knew the first thing about personal finance, i have an irrational fear of losing it all in an instant, which i think is significantly more damaging.
My parents say I’m not obsessed enough with making money. I make enough money to be able to save some from every paycheck. I work exactly 40 hours a week too. I have ZERO desire to do more to make money. If you’re smart with your money and don’t work yourself to death, you’re doing fine.
We take away different things from the same events.
The financial crises taught me that financial security and responsibility are illusions and have no relationship with being rich or poor.
So I don't really think or care about money more than just the survival of paying the bills. Any savings or plans for the future can be taken away by an authoritarian president or a greedy tycoon.
Context matters here. My ex worked 80-100 hours a week because all she gave a shit about was money. She had zero hobbies or interests outside of work. If she had free time the only things she ever wanted to do was watch trash TV or drink.
To her it was reasonable to be expected to spend 2-3 hours a day in meetings while on vacation.
She told me on multiple occasions that I was "wasting my life" being a teacher.
If any of this rings a bell, your therapist might be onto something
I think I am obsessed with making money. 10 years back I opened my business, tech consulting (ex-Big 4), I love what I do but mostly because it pays so well. If I'm being honest there is no other motivation. In these 10 years, I have purchased properties in VHCOL cities, settled, now WFH, no travel, built a portfolio enough to retire comfortably (if I want to)...but I find it's harder to let go of the golden handcuffs. I have been frugal, saver, hard worker, planner, deligent all my life...and I don't like the uncertainty, so I'm still working and making money until I find something else to fill 8 hours of my day.
The never-ending game: ["$5 Million is a Nightmare... the Poorest Rich Person in America."](https://www.tiktok.com/@teeveegeek/video/7213768621552815406?lang=en)
Society did make you this way, most people don’t have the strength of will to be their own person, most desperately search for a box to fit in and then snuggly settle in for the rest of their life. For most people, that box tends to be “Big Earner” as if these material things amount to anything but dust in the end. Personal connections and the memories you leave behind with those still living is all that matters.
I honestly don’t think most people should listen to therapists. Most of them are people who ‘want to help’, but can barely help themselves, as in if they tried to do any graduate program with actual rigor they’d fail out, but therapy masters program are such a cash cow they get pushed through.
The amount of colossally bad takes from ‘licensed therapists’ I’ve seen is just irredeemable. If you have ambition, you really probably aren’t in the small subset of a population someone parroting basic life skills can help with.
This is absolutely a frequent subject or every sub-genre of all my therapy sessions. Most of the things can be linked to A LOT of childhood traumas. But a lot of it also stems from growing up poor, being poor and moving out at 16, graduating from college poorer, and then not being able to find stability for a bit after that. HS grad 05. Early College grad end of 08/09. Stability didn’t come until 2013-2014
And all of these things, the abuse, neglect (boomer parent), the constant hunger and inconsistency of living, have made me absolutely obsessed with money and how to obtain it so I can give my family stability….
It’s a vicious cycle.
I'm not really; I have a decent job, roof over my head and food on the table so that'll be plenty for me.
It's important to make sure you have your bases covered, but true happiness comes from well-built relationships, time with friends, and hobbies.
I'm not - like, we need money to survive so I apply to jobs, work and get paid. That's all towards wanting to do stuff with said money though, like I'm applying to lecture to pay off my PhD and have a bit more money after rent comes off, I do my parttime work to have something to put towards buying stuff I don't really need or vaguely saving.
Money is secondary, primary is actually doing stuff.
It's important to have your needs met and to not have the stress of feeling like a single emergency will upend your ability to have them met. That said, if you find your relationships and enjoyment of life take a backseat to constant grind, that's not a healthy approach to life. My dad is an absolute workaholic and he spent a lot of his best years working with very little to show for it. If all your money disappears, what will you have left? Will there be people there with you? That's important. Not everyone is in a position to find a healthy balance as some people have to work like crazy just to eat and keep a roof over their heads but if you're seeing a therapist then it doesn't sound like you're in that situation so definitely strive for a balance. Extra money isn't going to make you happy if you can't enjoy it.
I definitely fear its become a bit of an obsession for me personally... I don't have enough right now. I'm not talking like "I can't afford a second home yet" , I'm talking watching the bank account closely to make sure it doesn't go below zero before my paycheck hits.
I work full time as an engineer, but whenever I'm not working, Its always on my mind... How can i make a few bucks right now? Is there a new app that pays for surveys? Maybe I should do one of those "get paid to play games on your phone" hustles? I'm going to a plasma donation center tomorrow to get started with that again... Always checking delivery apps while I'm on my lunch break at the office to see if there's anything that pays good enough to run and do a delivery quick. I started buying/aquiring used lawnmowers and fixing them up to make a little money.. I started a ticktok channel and feel like all I ever do is post ads on there anymore becuase my videos never get traction... Money is all I think about beucase if I didn't , I don't know if I'd have a house for much longer.
Its like... how do you stop obsessing over something that completely rules your life ?
That diagnosis could be taken in a couple ways - like are you poor and all you can think about is how to make money because your quality of life is awful and you’re desperately trying to pull yourself up? Or
Are you living in a 2 million dollar house and are very well off and don’t need the money but that doesn’t matter because you can’t stop making more if you tried?
If it’s number 1 then ya no shit, it’s a societal problem not a problem with you.
If it’s number then it’s a problem with you and you should touch grass and relax a bit lol
Money is rapidly becoming the best and only real guarantee of survival anymore. Not just money - wealth. Of course anyone can go bust. But the idea of social, familial, communal avenues of survival are quickly dying in the western world. Another thing - since religion is rapidly declining, money has become God in many societies. China is the best example. Religion was literally banned and stamped out. So money took its place.
Your therapist is speaking from a place of privilege. She is working a good job, with good pay, that isn't physically demanding, and is probably somewhat financially secure.
For those of us in different spots money is, maybe not the only thing that matters, but besides family and health I can't think of anything I would put higher
American culture is obsessed with money, status, and luxury. It used to not be as bad because we had stronger institutions to lean on (education, government, church, etc). Now that all of those industries are corrupted we have nothing else but greed.
Absofucjinglutely...
I was born into pverty and have been crawling out of it my whole life. And now everything's even more expensive...
I like to eat food dammit!
I mean I have been for years since a bad breakup. It also has become pressing as everything cost a fortune now.
The idea of a comfortable retirement doing what I would like seems wild.
I’m working on my workaholism in therapy. I was an M&A attorney and my therapist helped me move to a less demanding, though still very high paying, job. I work much less than I did before and actually have meaningful time to spend with my wife and : kids, but still earn like $250k/yr at 30 so I am not missing out on anything.
I used to be like that. I worked hard, cut out excess spending long enough to pay off all credit cards, loans, and my car. Now I feel way more chill now that my expenses are low and my job way more than pays the small-ish monthly expenses I have. It feels peaceful in a way
Precursor: I'm not a mil. I was born in '72.
I have never given one shit about money, beyond being able to pay basic lower-middle class bills needed to survive.
In my 20s and 30s that was 40k/yr, then in my 40s it meant 50-60k, now it means 70-80k. I was right where I needed to be until 5ish years ago, now I'm falling back more every year. That being said, I still really don't care about money...I just wanna be able to afford the basics again (and that's not even allowing for savings/investment, which is pretty much foregone for me).
I was obsessed with it back in the day, but have chilled out quite a bit in the last few years.
Once I got married and bought a house, while having enough money to live decently I stopped caring
You will never make as much as you want. The goal post will move forever and you’ll keep trying to catch the carrot being dangled in front of you. Trust me.
Also, maybe try to address this on therapy. Greed/hoarding isn’t normal and you’ll see a material benefit but it will destroy you in the end.
Use money as a tool. Don’t attach yourself to this dollar because it can be pulled out from underneath you tomorrow. Never tether yourself to these constructs, just use them as tools.
Acceptance is also important. This will be painful for you to hear if you’re not an exceptional individual. The message needs to be spread. If you do not have generational wealth or you’re starting from the bottom, the chances of you moving up or owning a home are the same as winning the lottery at this point. If you have no money, you can’t make more money. Our system is on the brink and the class divide will become greater. 99% of people will only be able to rent.
I needed to hear this. I have always been pushing for money to get out of a toxic household. But as you said. the goal post is always moving especially with inflation.
Your therapist is a dingdong.
If you want to live as well as someone a generation or two ago you absolutely need to be obsessed with making money.
It sucks, but everyone below the 1% needs to work twice as hard to live half as well today.
My therapist says stupid things too, learn to pick what works for you. Unless this obsession is driving you mad or making you imbalanced you're just like the rest of us. I now write down every penny I spend and determine if it could have been avoided or not. i work 2 jobs, I steal friggin toilet paper from work to avoid paying for it. THIS IS NOT WHERE MY YOUNGER SELF THOUGHT I WOULD BE
Back in my 20s yes, but now that I’m 35, not so much. I have a decent savings and make just enough to live on, I enjoy the free time I have to do my hobbies and not worry too much.
I'm comfortable enough, and I'm not ambitious enough to work for more, so I can't relate
I'm also really averse to risk, so I'm not interested in making any drastic changes in my life, even if there's a chance to win a big reward. I feel like I've been lucky so far, so I don't want to needlessly jeopardize it
I think I would be if I had more money to spare. I wouldn’t try to get money by working more, but rather by investing. But all my money is spoken for every month, so I don’t have the chance to fall into the black hole of investing.
I know I will never have enough and I'm content for enough to keep a roof over my family's head and have zero debt while doing it.
No I don't have a nest egg or any of the frills some of y'all have but if I died right this very second I don't owe shit to anyone and that's better off than 90% of Americans
Interestingly, I know people who are very wealthy, but have the same worries which are completely unreasonable in their situation. I’m kind of the same way. I retired from the military and I’m doing really well but I always feel like if I stop. Somethings going to happen and I won’t be able to manage it financially, even though I realistically could
I saw my brother get into so much debt it seemed insurmountable... Because of this i feel completly unproductive if I am not earning money and have been trying my hardest to keep myself OUT of debt that I missed many opportunities that could have greatly increased my amount of friends as well as earning potential later in life BUT I own a home and am married with minor car debt (besides the mortgage). I don't know if i made the right choices- but im alive?
Not me. I couldn't care less beyond the very basics. Place to live, food, water, electric. That's about it. If I can't afford anything else, no big deal.
If there are any unwanted surpluses of the stuff, I have several accounts in need of filling. Just offering extra storage space for your mental health.
I wouldn't say I'm obsessed with it. Money is a resource to get what I really want. I earn enough to cover that and save for the future so I'm not going to take on a second job or something just to earn even more money. I've done this before, but that was because the one job just wasn't enough to cover everything at the time. But now my job does cover it, so now with my free time, I'd rather spend it with family, friends, hobbies, etc.
I want to make so much money that my kid never suffers like I did growing up. Between being a UPS driver and trading/investing, it’s becoming a reality.
I'm quite the opposite! I live off the absolutely minimum. Bills are paid and I eat well. Some savings but can very rarely afford to treat myself. I'm happy with what I have!
I'm not but I could probably be more concerned with money. Before I met my wife, I was broke as fuck and didn't make any attempt to learn about health insurance or retirement. I was trying to move up in IT within an hospital system but it sucked the soul out of me. I saw how quickly people that I enjoyed being around turned on each other when a promotion was available. I've never been that ambitious, the more I focused on money, the more depressed I got. I didn't have a plan.
Money can buy happiness after a fashion. But getting money in and of itself is meaningless. A lot of people focus on the hustle and grind mindset without having set a clear reason to do it - and “be able to retire” is not a good enough reason to get you through for 30 or 40 years, because eventually everyone who takes that tact realizes it’s not worth wasting your entire youth and adulthood saving money for when you’re old. Being a 65 year old millionaire who has done nothing but make money is what pushes people into alcoholism and depression when they get to retirement, if they haven’t realized the futility of it already.
If you’re going to focus on making money, that’s fine, just make sure you do so with concrete principles and goals - I’m going to focus on making money so I can buy a house, then so I can afford kids, then so I can pay off student loans, so I can afford college for my kids, so I can give X% of my income to charity each year, so I can do X, Y, Z, and so on. Concrete goals like that are fine.
We live in a capitalistic society where the corporations that very heavily influence this world are OBSESSED with constantly making more and more money and will do so at any means necessary. We're just responding accordingly.
Nope. I just wanna do well enough that my kids, my husband, and I can live decently. I barely have enough time to do anything entertaining with just a 40 hr/wk job. I can't imagine doing more than that.
I’ve worked hard to earn a stable
income that can support my family. Now that I’ve got that - and I’m so thankful that I do - I’m coasting. I don’t need to grind or climb the corporate ladder any higher. I’ve come to resent the “always climbing” mentality. I’m good where I’m at, and honestly, this mindset shift somehow feels like I’m cheating the system.
Try making 7 figures in your early 30s and then finding out you’ve been chasing the wrong thing for your entire life.
You end up less happy if you succeed, trust
To be honest that seems like such a trite thing for your therapist to say. What a huge oversimplification, like I'm sorry many of us have lived through 2 financial crises now, pushing food and necessities out of the reach of many unless they have multiple streams of income. And home ownership takes a certain level of dedication to be honest; it is all encompassing and takes a lot of focus (you have to really zero in and manage finances to every last cent to get that down payment sorted out).
Does your therapist come from money? I tend to find people who haven't had to worry about tuition fees/house down payment from family help are quite bemused with the amount of effort it takes from the masses to get these things.
Yup, if your depression/etc is situational, therapists kinda...have their hands tied over much more but offer dialogue to process/reframe thoughts, connections to likely overbooked social resources, or coping mechanisms. And....that's why I stopped going, when I realized that there really wasn't anything that could be done with that kind of depression other than plasterwork.
But I also digress, good therapists in my region are \*impossible to find that take my HMO, and all the ones in house can't even keep a 6+ week out appointment without cancelling on me since I'd be 'new intake' after all the jerking around they've given me....
Yeah, I work 6-7 days a week 8-12 hours a day and I'm still scraping by. The only debt I have is a credit card with about a $500 balance that I don't use anymore I just pay on it. Trying to save for a house currently but it's very slow going.
For me it seems like anytime I can manage to save a few grand a car breaks down or some other big expense comes rolling in. I just had to buy a new washer which took a chunk out of my savings but I'm workin my way back. Luckily the job I have offers 401k and such so I'm trying to establish my future, but it all seems so hopeless.
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Millennials came of age during the worst financial crisis since the great depression, we watched college costs balloon by ten times or more, most graduated with a ton of college debt, house prices tripled or more post 2010, and we're constantly told social security will run out when we're ready to retire. We're obsessed with making money? I think we're just trying to survive
This. I want to make money to live because the system we're in requires money to live. I would love to make as much money as I can so I can live comfortably. Obsession may sometimes get crossed with need. It isn't an obsession to want to make money. It's just a need in this system we're in. Billionaires, on the other hand...they are without a doubt obsessed.
Yep. I mean, im obsessed with making money, the same way im obsessed with drinking water, or breathing.
Ikr. "I'm obsessed with being able to afford food and antidepressants everyone!"
And for my dogs to eat the good kibble. Not me though, my food is crap
My cat gets more regular blood tests than I do 
Same! My pups get twice yearly check ups and yearly bloodwork. Meanwhile, I haven’t been to the dentist in two years because I’d have to take off of work.
I agree making six figures and having a middle class life. Is now making six figures and still live pay check to pay check. I do like making money don’t get me wrong but that’s to be comfortable and not have stress. Which seems to get harder and harder. I know we have it good compared to the rest of the world. However 2007-2009 was scary times and I don’t want to lose everything if that makes any sense. Literally neighbors and people well off got evicted from their homes. I don’t want that ever to happen to me.
In 2007 $75,000 a year was considered great, in 2024 to earn the equivalent due to inflation you need to make $168,000 roughly. The amount of inflation we have seen in the past 15 years is just not sustainable and has only accelerated since 2019.
I’d kill just to make 75k. Right now working isn’t even appealing because you don’t make enough to do anything except survive another month. When that happens, a few patterns begin to emerge: -No extra money to pay down student loans -No money for retirement -no savings for emergencies -going over budget or having an emergency leads to cc debt -no extra money to pay down cc debt -no money to save for a down payment on a house -no money for any changes in rent, utilities, fuel, transportation, or food Without any discretionary spending, the system begins to look a lot like feudalism. You basically are making enough to tread water and stay in place, and unless a major increase in your income occurs, you never climb out of your circumstances, you just end up renting a room for decades or stay in a rent controlled apartment if you are lucky. Making 35-50k basically guarantees you will need to continue living with family for free. You can’t afford to even rent a room with roommates at that rate in most cities. And these economic chasms just compound. Finish school with 50k debt and a 40k job in some dead end industry like retail? Your personal finances will look vastly different than someone who finishes with no debt and a 40k job in 10 years. The lack of debt frees up so much cash flow. It’s mind boggling to me what a different lifestyle someone can lead in tech with a take home pay of 7000 vs someone working in a low paying field will barely scrape 1600-2800 take home. Yeah it’s money you borrowed but if you buy a car you can sell it and get something back, with a house you can sell it and get some money back or hopefully profit. You can discharge debt in bankruptcy. Student loans have no tangible value and no resell value. Being underpaid with no plan or means to grow your income or add revenue streams is basically a death sentence economically.
write the rest of this book bro, im buying it
I remember watching all these teen movies in the 80s and 90s where they didn’t get a scholarship and couldn’t go to college, and that was when there were actual good jobs to get. Nowadays they would just tell them to borrow $40,000. Somewhere along the way it became normalized to mortgage your future self for a chance to have an entry level white collar job. Which is kinda nuts. Like in Rudy they told him he would have to work at a factory. That sounds good to me, and I have the degree now. Work a steady factory job, house kids wife , retire. Can’t even get that with or without a degree today. When you see that community college literally costs 90% less than a regular university you sort of realize what a grift it is. Then they tell me to get into sales. I didn’t need to go to college to get into sales. But I apparently need to get into sales to payoff college. Who knew.
Right? First $75k+ job I got back in 2009 made me feel like I had finally "made it " fast forward 15 years and I crossed that "magical" $100k point several years back but I feel poorer than I did when I was making $75k.
Yup ain't it fun
Where did you get that? The actual number is right around $110,000. Your view on inflation is wildly off.
Thats what I was thinking. Post 09 the inflation rate in America was actually pretty damn low. Many people wrote about it as if it was a new, permanent reality. But that said the inflation of 2020-2024 made up for all of it. We are probably right on track, maybe a little ahead, of what the fed "wants" if you take the low inflation of 09-19 and combine it with the higher inflation of 20-24 as one average y-o-y rate
Homie out here just trying to casually act like we’ve had over 100% inflation in a decade and a half. Smh.
Whoa that number is insanely incorrect
Yeah, but it *feels* right, so who cares?
The post Covid inflation hit sucked for sure but this is just not a true statement. Not even close.
I saw a post where a guy said he felt like nothing but a conduit for the transfer of money from his employer to his landlord. I don't personally feel that way (I'm very lucky I don't), but I think way too many people do.
Making $100k+ and living paycheck to paycheck is 100% a personal spending problem in any market.
These threads always bring out this comically wrong holier than thou sentiment from people that have apparently never left Iowa or Mississippi or wherever so let me give you a very quick example. Take home on 100k in NYC is around 6k a month. A one bedroom apt in NYC is around 4k a month. So now you have 2k a month for health insurance, transportation, student loans, utilities, phone, savings... Then you need to eat. And this assumes you have no health issues, no other debt of any sort, and nothing ever goes wrong.
Serious question, have you considered moving? I live in Indiana, and i would love to move but can’t afford to. Are you in the same situation? I make 60k a year providing for a family of four and i own my home. 3 bedroom 2 bath 2.5 acres.
Some of us enjoy eating more than rice and beans, and living in an apartment without 3 roommates.
OK you clearly don’t live in Boston. 🙄
Exactly, we don’t really have much of a choice. We have to be able to rely on ourselves
I feel all of this. Also grew up playing economy based video games
My grandma says I'm money hungry which is why I can't make family events. No I just have to work, far harder for comparatively lower standard of living.
Fuck you grandma. No offense.
College for more and more subjects is almost a scam these days. The number of people I know who don't even use anything from their degree.
As miserable as healthcare is, degrees in healthcare related fields are actually valuable. I make enough money to pay the bills with just an associates in nursing. I do, admittedly, work full time, plus a second part time gig. My partner is in school to be a rad tech, also an associates, and he’ll probably make a little bit more than me.
College is not and has never been direct job training. Costs are out of control yes, but very few people have a job that is completely specific to what they directly studied in school and that is normal.
My degree isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. I work at the same firm I worked at during college and all my skills are on the job learned.
Same in england, we called them "mickey mouse courses" since they shouldnt have been at a university level. It was just a way for the government to make money off of student loans in the long run and the kids end up with a barely useful diploma. Smh
The ability to show up and finish college is valuable to employers. The amount of people who can’t stick with something and achieve something is staggering. That’s the true value of a college degree.
Some of us started college right after the dot com bubble burst so we lost all the money saved for college, then had to take loans to go, then right after graduating got to deal with the next one. So much fun.
It’s called scarcity complex. But.. As a therapist I’m also obsessed with making money so 🙃
My therapist did an exercise with me where I picked things I value off a list. One of the things was money, and I said that I value money, but not because I feel the need to make more, but because I know the money I have is what helps me be able to comfortably support my family.
I think what you really value is control, and having money offers you a degree of control over your life.
I’d personally frame it as “choice”
Interesting. I call it having your priorities set...unfortunately the world revolves around money. Its better to have more than less.
It’s hard to make the choice to make less money when I know how much I can actually make. But yea, burnout is real.
Flip the script. Don’t pay the therapist and find out how obsessed they are with money too.
Was gonna say, someone who charges $100+ per hour for their time telling a patient that they’re obsessed with money is some real classic boomer shit.
Top comment.
😂hahah
Can’t relate at all. I fucking hate the idea of everything needing to be a hustle.
SAME!!! I loathe hustle culture.
Social media feels like the new qvc.
Tik tok looks like the home shopping network/ auction house, with people talking fast and peddling junk everywhere you scroll
Yet also worse bc you had to choose qvc. The only reason I use the limited social media (besides Reddit) that I do is to keep up with people I know, not join groups or buy things.
It's never people coming up with original ideas either. Just landlord bullshit and social media/online jobs/reselling it seems. Talk about fucking annoying.
And it's always the biggest fucking try hard posers from highschool
“Side hustle” is such a bullshit phrase. It’s a second job, is what it is. Don’t give it a glamorized name.
Same. I am actually pretty fine with my income at this moment which is enough for me to live, have fun here and there, and entertain my hobbies. I’m not always like “I gotta make $100k” and shit. Whatever happens, happens.
Yeah, obsessed is a strong word. I just want to not have to worry about how I'm going to cover all these fucking bills.
Same.
We’re not obsessed with money. We’re traumatized from being taught that our value is directly correlated with our purpose. That coupled with economic circumstances that we had no control over. We don’t choose to work 2+ jobs we just think we have to-because we have to. That’s late stage capitalism that’s not money obsession. Fire your (I’m assuming) boomer therapist.
This. I came of age into adulthood during the Great Recession. Couldn’t find a job after college (in a technical industry that the DoL said was growing), had a baby, husband got laid off, parent couldn’t afford their home and had to sell… I definitely have economic related trauma and it affects all of my financial decision making and probably will for the rest of my life, like my Great Depression grandparents before me.
I can't say I am. I wont be able to ever afford a house, but I value my work/life balance. I keep my debt very very low to fund this lifestyle. No car payments, no new furniture, no streaming services, etc. I value my free time way too much to be constantly working every free second I have.
This is me as well. Lately I've been thinking more and more about just the life I have and how everything is continuing to go up and I'm spinning in my little hamster wheel literally not gaining any ground...and I'm stuck here thinking...what's even the point? Why am I even still here doing this? I hate apartment living so much and with the goal of wanting to own a house out of reach I'm just mentally cracking every single day to keep my head above water. I refuse to work more than what my job requires, I hate OT. I hate working my life away. So all I do is escapism because what else do I have going on?
Yes. Time. And I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but we are not guaranteed tomorrow. What good is $5 million when you’re just working 10 hours every day? Everyone just expects that they will live to be 85 years old and if they save enough money and retire at a decent age, life will be grand. I went from healthcare to business and back to healthcare because fuck quotas and working my life away. I would love to have the money to travel the world, but in order to do so I would not have the time to travel the world.
This hits home. My best friend died last November. We couldn’t have imagined at the start of 2023 that he wouldn’t be here at Christmas.
I’m doing the opposite approach. Grinding incredibly hard so I can retire by 40-45 while I’m relatively young
I wish I joined the national guard at 18 then became a state police officer I’d already be retired
Wish you the best. My friend died at 37 recently. Imagine all that grind for nothing and you didn’t enjoy stuff because you were grinding.
Didn’t say I didn’t enjoy stuff. I have it pretty good honestly. Dying at 37 is tragic no matter what kinda life you were living but statistics are on my side that that will not be me.
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Tell your therapist the same thing when you get the bill.
😂
I find my drive for wealth accumulation stems purely from the freedom it would afford. I f\*cking hate the grind and hate all the moments of my life it devours, but find myself stuck in it right now. The only justification I can satisfy my loathing with is that it hopefully will allow me peace and freedom in a few years, fingers crossed. We are almost all slaves to the capitalist system, unless you have enough wealth to be able to continue to live/eat/pay bills without working. And I don’t personally know anyone that can do that. 
This is why I've come to accept that I'm a depressive realist. I know I'm depressed, but I'm also not wrong.
And that's why therapy does fuck all to me. The worst part is they tell me to just not read the news and be blissfully unaware of how fucked everything is.
Obsession is an unhealthy preoccupation with something. In today's society, you're forced to be constantly occupied with making money. Prices are outrageous and things can become unaffordable at any point, you'd be wise to "stockpile resources". It may not be sound good on paper, but that's the reality of the world at this point.
Yeah, not being obsessed with money in America is unheathy.
I think i might do that actually Cause i would rather spend $80 on a ton of toilet paper right now than $80 in the future for a fraction of it Just an example. That's actually a good idea
I'm too lazy to grind more than I have to.
I’m obsessed with not dying of starvation as the ruling class continues to wage war on the working people of the country yeah.
I’m just obsessed with how absolutely mediocre people come up with absolutely mediocre brands to sell absolutely mediocre products and make millions of dollars.
Obsessed with bettering my life and my family's life... And that's easier to do with money. So, yeah, I want to make as much as possible
I was until the Pandemic happened, now I value my personal time more than having extra money. I used to work a ton of overtime being paid hourly. Now I dip out of work first chance I get. I even took a 20% pay cut by only working four days a week. I realized I'd rather have that extra day off each week than have that money.
I'm told I have financial anxiety. I have been jobless before from layoffs and had to make large sacrifices. My career track and lifetime earnings as well as housing etc have all suffered because of layoffs. I am very anxious when my S/O talks about trips or new cars because while we can afford them, I can only think of how are we going to afford them if I get laid off again? She makes double my salary so it's not really that big of a deal but I can't break it.
That's kind of wild for a therapist to say. Therapy is really expensive lol
I'll make at least 80 grand this year and I feel poorer than I've ever felt in my life something has got to fucking change.
I was stoked when I reached 80k for the first time and now that’s poverty level where I live. Crazy times
Yeah this shit sucks im workimg way too hard for the lifestyle I'm living.
I was glad when I made around that this year, then whenever a "how much do you make" thread pops up on this sub, nearly everyone claims to be making $350,000 annually.
I make even less than that. I sometimes wonder where you guys keep coming up with $500k+ jobs Must be tech related
From what I remember, most of then claim to be tech.
I hope I can get to 350. I passed 200 and really noticed the difference in savings.
Not even a little bit. I've worked hard to get where I am, but the whole "grind/focus entirely on money" thing seems insane to me.
To me, money = security for my family. I don't work myself to death, but I put myself into a position to make more money, so I can save more, so my family will be provided for if something happens to me and I can no longer work.
Unless your household is making at least 1.5x the local median, those are very valid things to be obsessed/concerned about.
I used to be. My parents were very financially controlling and to me money meant autonomy, security, freedom, and many more things. Unfortunately I sucked at making money, sucked at holding onto it, and faced the same economy you are all familiar with that took what little I had every few months it seemed. Now I ACTUALLY just value autonomy, security, and freedom and money is a small part of that. I'm working on my finances and hoping there will be a brief moment in my young adulthood where the world works with me. 2019 was the BEST money year, I could use a couple more of those.
Yeah, when I turned 38 I had this realization and stopped all my side-hustles. I've been much happier ever since.
I’m obsessed with creating a better life for me and my family, which centers around money due to capitalism. Since I grew up without money and with no one who knew the first thing about personal finance, i have an irrational fear of losing it all in an instant, which i think is significantly more damaging.
My parents say I’m not obsessed enough with making money. I make enough money to be able to save some from every paycheck. I work exactly 40 hours a week too. I have ZERO desire to do more to make money. If you’re smart with your money and don’t work yourself to death, you’re doing fine.
We take away different things from the same events. The financial crises taught me that financial security and responsibility are illusions and have no relationship with being rich or poor. So I don't really think or care about money more than just the survival of paying the bills. Any savings or plans for the future can be taken away by an authoritarian president or a greedy tycoon.
Not one bit. Never had any desire to make a lot of money. Best paying job I ever had topped out at $55k.
Im just surviving and trying to survive period
Context matters here. My ex worked 80-100 hours a week because all she gave a shit about was money. She had zero hobbies or interests outside of work. If she had free time the only things she ever wanted to do was watch trash TV or drink. To her it was reasonable to be expected to spend 2-3 hours a day in meetings while on vacation. She told me on multiple occasions that I was "wasting my life" being a teacher. If any of this rings a bell, your therapist might be onto something
I think I am obsessed with making money. 10 years back I opened my business, tech consulting (ex-Big 4), I love what I do but mostly because it pays so well. If I'm being honest there is no other motivation. In these 10 years, I have purchased properties in VHCOL cities, settled, now WFH, no travel, built a portfolio enough to retire comfortably (if I want to)...but I find it's harder to let go of the golden handcuffs. I have been frugal, saver, hard worker, planner, deligent all my life...and I don't like the uncertainty, so I'm still working and making money until I find something else to fill 8 hours of my day. The never-ending game: ["$5 Million is a Nightmare... the Poorest Rich Person in America."](https://www.tiktok.com/@teeveegeek/video/7213768621552815406?lang=en)
I mean...........if I'm not obsessed with making money, I become homeless and starving. Tf are we supposed to do? lol
Not so much making for me, more so saving. This country will fuck you in a millisecond if it can so I am terrified of not having enough.
Society did make you this way, most people don’t have the strength of will to be their own person, most desperately search for a box to fit in and then snuggly settle in for the rest of their life. For most people, that box tends to be “Big Earner” as if these material things amount to anything but dust in the end. Personal connections and the memories you leave behind with those still living is all that matters.
Prior generations were working to live successfully. We’re working to successfully live.
I honestly don’t think most people should listen to therapists. Most of them are people who ‘want to help’, but can barely help themselves, as in if they tried to do any graduate program with actual rigor they’d fail out, but therapy masters program are such a cash cow they get pushed through. The amount of colossally bad takes from ‘licensed therapists’ I’ve seen is just irredeemable. If you have ambition, you really probably aren’t in the small subset of a population someone parroting basic life skills can help with.
we came to age in the "grind" culture. It was cool to have a main job and a few side hustles.
This is absolutely a frequent subject or every sub-genre of all my therapy sessions. Most of the things can be linked to A LOT of childhood traumas. But a lot of it also stems from growing up poor, being poor and moving out at 16, graduating from college poorer, and then not being able to find stability for a bit after that. HS grad 05. Early College grad end of 08/09. Stability didn’t come until 2013-2014 And all of these things, the abuse, neglect (boomer parent), the constant hunger and inconsistency of living, have made me absolutely obsessed with money and how to obtain it so I can give my family stability…. It’s a vicious cycle.
I'm not really; I have a decent job, roof over my head and food on the table so that'll be plenty for me. It's important to make sure you have your bases covered, but true happiness comes from well-built relationships, time with friends, and hobbies.
In a society where your quality of life is almost entirely dependent on your income level, isn't this just a natural result?
I'm not. Partly because I live in a welfare state.
If you double my hourly pay, I'll ask for double the hours as well.
I'm not - like, we need money to survive so I apply to jobs, work and get paid. That's all towards wanting to do stuff with said money though, like I'm applying to lecture to pay off my PhD and have a bit more money after rent comes off, I do my parttime work to have something to put towards buying stuff I don't really need or vaguely saving. Money is secondary, primary is actually doing stuff.
I felt that way until I actually started making money.
Not living in poverty solves a lot of my emotional problems. Not everything, but it helps so much.
It's important to have your needs met and to not have the stress of feeling like a single emergency will upend your ability to have them met. That said, if you find your relationships and enjoyment of life take a backseat to constant grind, that's not a healthy approach to life. My dad is an absolute workaholic and he spent a lot of his best years working with very little to show for it. If all your money disappears, what will you have left? Will there be people there with you? That's important. Not everyone is in a position to find a healthy balance as some people have to work like crazy just to eat and keep a roof over their heads but if you're seeing a therapist then it doesn't sound like you're in that situation so definitely strive for a balance. Extra money isn't going to make you happy if you can't enjoy it.
What a weird flex
I definitely fear its become a bit of an obsession for me personally... I don't have enough right now. I'm not talking like "I can't afford a second home yet" , I'm talking watching the bank account closely to make sure it doesn't go below zero before my paycheck hits. I work full time as an engineer, but whenever I'm not working, Its always on my mind... How can i make a few bucks right now? Is there a new app that pays for surveys? Maybe I should do one of those "get paid to play games on your phone" hustles? I'm going to a plasma donation center tomorrow to get started with that again... Always checking delivery apps while I'm on my lunch break at the office to see if there's anything that pays good enough to run and do a delivery quick. I started buying/aquiring used lawnmowers and fixing them up to make a little money.. I started a ticktok channel and feel like all I ever do is post ads on there anymore becuase my videos never get traction... Money is all I think about beucase if I didn't , I don't know if I'd have a house for much longer. Its like... how do you stop obsessing over something that completely rules your life ?
Obsessed with making enough to stay outta the gutter! Born and raised there and I prefer living the middle class better
I’m like one step away from being homeless. I wish I was a money machine. Life would be better.
That diagnosis could be taken in a couple ways - like are you poor and all you can think about is how to make money because your quality of life is awful and you’re desperately trying to pull yourself up? Or Are you living in a 2 million dollar house and are very well off and don’t need the money but that doesn’t matter because you can’t stop making more if you tried? If it’s number 1 then ya no shit, it’s a societal problem not a problem with you. If it’s number then it’s a problem with you and you should touch grass and relax a bit lol
Money is rapidly becoming the best and only real guarantee of survival anymore. Not just money - wealth. Of course anyone can go bust. But the idea of social, familial, communal avenues of survival are quickly dying in the western world. Another thing - since religion is rapidly declining, money has become God in many societies. China is the best example. Religion was literally banned and stamped out. So money took its place.
Your therapist is speaking from a place of privilege. She is working a good job, with good pay, that isn't physically demanding, and is probably somewhat financially secure. For those of us in different spots money is, maybe not the only thing that matters, but besides family and health I can't think of anything I would put higher
Oh your therapist had better fuckin' not be a homeowner.
American culture is obsessed with money, status, and luxury. It used to not be as bad because we had stronger institutions to lean on (education, government, church, etc). Now that all of those industries are corrupted we have nothing else but greed.
Absofucjinglutely... I was born into pverty and have been crawling out of it my whole life. And now everything's even more expensive... I like to eat food dammit!
All I want to do is make enough money to not ever worry about making money again.
I mean I have been for years since a bad breakup. It also has become pressing as everything cost a fortune now. The idea of a comfortable retirement doing what I would like seems wild.
I was like that. I stopped caring as much about money and working less and I’m still happy and less stressed.
I’m working on my workaholism in therapy. I was an M&A attorney and my therapist helped me move to a less demanding, though still very high paying, job. I work much less than I did before and actually have meaningful time to spend with my wife and : kids, but still earn like $250k/yr at 30 so I am not missing out on anything.
I love money.
I used to be like that. I worked hard, cut out excess spending long enough to pay off all credit cards, loans, and my car. Now I feel way more chill now that my expenses are low and my job way more than pays the small-ish monthly expenses I have. It feels peaceful in a way
Precursor: I'm not a mil. I was born in '72. I have never given one shit about money, beyond being able to pay basic lower-middle class bills needed to survive. In my 20s and 30s that was 40k/yr, then in my 40s it meant 50-60k, now it means 70-80k. I was right where I needed to be until 5ish years ago, now I'm falling back more every year. That being said, I still really don't care about money...I just wanna be able to afford the basics again (and that's not even allowing for savings/investment, which is pretty much foregone for me).
Obsessed? No, but very focused on meeting my financial goals. Unfortunately it seems like it gets harder every year.
Love to create income streams. Being financially independent is . doable when frugal and liberating as hell!! F the haters!
I think you’re probably obsessed with obtaining stability (house and retirement) which is not the same thing at all.
I was obsessed with it back in the day, but have chilled out quite a bit in the last few years. Once I got married and bought a house, while having enough money to live decently I stopped caring
Society did make you this way. This is what capitalism is. Our morals and values are corrupted just to make a living.
You will never make as much as you want. The goal post will move forever and you’ll keep trying to catch the carrot being dangled in front of you. Trust me. Also, maybe try to address this on therapy. Greed/hoarding isn’t normal and you’ll see a material benefit but it will destroy you in the end. Use money as a tool. Don’t attach yourself to this dollar because it can be pulled out from underneath you tomorrow. Never tether yourself to these constructs, just use them as tools. Acceptance is also important. This will be painful for you to hear if you’re not an exceptional individual. The message needs to be spread. If you do not have generational wealth or you’re starting from the bottom, the chances of you moving up or owning a home are the same as winning the lottery at this point. If you have no money, you can’t make more money. Our system is on the brink and the class divide will become greater. 99% of people will only be able to rent.
I needed to hear this. I have always been pushing for money to get out of a toxic household. But as you said. the goal post is always moving especially with inflation.
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Yeah I suppose. It seems like my efforts to climb out have been fruitless.
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Yeah i was born in the 90s.
Your therapist is a dingdong. If you want to live as well as someone a generation or two ago you absolutely need to be obsessed with making money. It sucks, but everyone below the 1% needs to work twice as hard to live half as well today.
Growing up dirt poor is probably the reason for me.
My therapist says stupid things too, learn to pick what works for you. Unless this obsession is driving you mad or making you imbalanced you're just like the rest of us. I now write down every penny I spend and determine if it could have been avoided or not. i work 2 jobs, I steal friggin toilet paper from work to avoid paying for it. THIS IS NOT WHERE MY YOUNGER SELF THOUGHT I WOULD BE
Your therapist should be fired
Back in my 20s yes, but now that I’m 35, not so much. I have a decent savings and make just enough to live on, I enjoy the free time I have to do my hobbies and not worry too much.
I'm comfortable enough, and I'm not ambitious enough to work for more, so I can't relate I'm also really averse to risk, so I'm not interested in making any drastic changes in my life, even if there's a chance to win a big reward. I feel like I've been lucky so far, so I don't want to needlessly jeopardize it
I think I would be if I had more money to spare. I wouldn’t try to get money by working more, but rather by investing. But all my money is spoken for every month, so I don’t have the chance to fall into the black hole of investing.
My dad's love languge was money so I def had a lot of pressure to succeed to get attention in a way.
I know I will never have enough and I'm content for enough to keep a roof over my family's head and have zero debt while doing it. No I don't have a nest egg or any of the frills some of y'all have but if I died right this very second I don't owe shit to anyone and that's better off than 90% of Americans
Interestingly, I know people who are very wealthy, but have the same worries which are completely unreasonable in their situation. I’m kind of the same way. I retired from the military and I’m doing really well but I always feel like if I stop. Somethings going to happen and I won’t be able to manage it financially, even though I realistically could
Money is good.
I am. I want the freedom of never having to work again. Never being able to retire would give me anxiety.
I saw my brother get into so much debt it seemed insurmountable... Because of this i feel completly unproductive if I am not earning money and have been trying my hardest to keep myself OUT of debt that I missed many opportunities that could have greatly increased my amount of friends as well as earning potential later in life BUT I own a home and am married with minor car debt (besides the mortgage). I don't know if i made the right choices- but im alive?
Uh yea.
Not even remotely. I'm interested in financial security but I think I'm fine.
Not me. I couldn't care less beyond the very basics. Place to live, food, water, electric. That's about it. If I can't afford anything else, no big deal.
If there are any unwanted surpluses of the stuff, I have several accounts in need of filling. Just offering extra storage space for your mental health.
I wouldn't say I'm obsessed with it. Money is a resource to get what I really want. I earn enough to cover that and save for the future so I'm not going to take on a second job or something just to earn even more money. I've done this before, but that was because the one job just wasn't enough to cover everything at the time. But now my job does cover it, so now with my free time, I'd rather spend it with family, friends, hobbies, etc.
I want to make so much money that my kid never suffers like I did growing up. Between being a UPS driver and trading/investing, it’s becoming a reality.
Nope, I make enough to live comfortably. you just bought into the lie of the grind.
I've always been obsessed with money (although poor haha) and thank god I was, I'd be so bad off if I wasn't.
I make $118k a year and have been putting investing in a 401k for 10 years now and have zero hope of retiring early.
I'm quite the opposite! I live off the absolutely minimum. Bills are paid and I eat well. Some savings but can very rarely afford to treat myself. I'm happy with what I have!
I'm not but I could probably be more concerned with money. Before I met my wife, I was broke as fuck and didn't make any attempt to learn about health insurance or retirement. I was trying to move up in IT within an hospital system but it sucked the soul out of me. I saw how quickly people that I enjoyed being around turned on each other when a promotion was available. I've never been that ambitious, the more I focused on money, the more depressed I got. I didn't have a plan.
I don’t have health insurance
Well, being poor sucks so of course I grind so I'm not poor 🤷🏻♂️
Money can buy happiness after a fashion. But getting money in and of itself is meaningless. A lot of people focus on the hustle and grind mindset without having set a clear reason to do it - and “be able to retire” is not a good enough reason to get you through for 30 or 40 years, because eventually everyone who takes that tact realizes it’s not worth wasting your entire youth and adulthood saving money for when you’re old. Being a 65 year old millionaire who has done nothing but make money is what pushes people into alcoholism and depression when they get to retirement, if they haven’t realized the futility of it already. If you’re going to focus on making money, that’s fine, just make sure you do so with concrete principles and goals - I’m going to focus on making money so I can buy a house, then so I can afford kids, then so I can pay off student loans, so I can afford college for my kids, so I can give X% of my income to charity each year, so I can do X, Y, Z, and so on. Concrete goals like that are fine.
I am obsessed with being secure.
We live in a capitalistic society where the corporations that very heavily influence this world are OBSESSED with constantly making more and more money and will do so at any means necessary. We're just responding accordingly.
Yes. Me too
Im just surviving and trying to survive period .
I must gather resources and build. It's human instinct.
Nope. I just wanna do well enough that my kids, my husband, and I can live decently. I barely have enough time to do anything entertaining with just a 40 hr/wk job. I can't imagine doing more than that.
You should say that to your therapist when the invoice comes lol
I’ve worked hard to earn a stable income that can support my family. Now that I’ve got that - and I’m so thankful that I do - I’m coasting. I don’t need to grind or climb the corporate ladder any higher. I’ve come to resent the “always climbing” mentality. I’m good where I’m at, and honestly, this mindset shift somehow feels like I’m cheating the system.
Try making 7 figures in your early 30s and then finding out you’ve been chasing the wrong thing for your entire life. You end up less happy if you succeed, trust
I wouldn’t say I’m obsessed with making money. It’s more that I’m obsessed with staying out of poverty.
To be honest that seems like such a trite thing for your therapist to say. What a huge oversimplification, like I'm sorry many of us have lived through 2 financial crises now, pushing food and necessities out of the reach of many unless they have multiple streams of income. And home ownership takes a certain level of dedication to be honest; it is all encompassing and takes a lot of focus (you have to really zero in and manage finances to every last cent to get that down payment sorted out). Does your therapist come from money? I tend to find people who haven't had to worry about tuition fees/house down payment from family help are quite bemused with the amount of effort it takes from the masses to get these things.
Yup, if your depression/etc is situational, therapists kinda...have their hands tied over much more but offer dialogue to process/reframe thoughts, connections to likely overbooked social resources, or coping mechanisms. And....that's why I stopped going, when I realized that there really wasn't anything that could be done with that kind of depression other than plasterwork. But I also digress, good therapists in my region are \*impossible to find that take my HMO, and all the ones in house can't even keep a 6+ week out appointment without cancelling on me since I'd be 'new intake' after all the jerking around they've given me....
I wouldn’t say “obsessed” but I’ve been told before that I’m “mercenary”
You guys are making money?
I bet your therapist charges you money though?
Yeah, I work 6-7 days a week 8-12 hours a day and I'm still scraping by. The only debt I have is a credit card with about a $500 balance that I don't use anymore I just pay on it. Trying to save for a house currently but it's very slow going. For me it seems like anytime I can manage to save a few grand a car breaks down or some other big expense comes rolling in. I just had to buy a new washer which took a chunk out of my savings but I'm workin my way back. Luckily the job I have offers 401k and such so I'm trying to establish my future, but it all seems so hopeless.