I understand it's frustrating getting started in adult life, but I hope you reconsider your stated view points, Joe. I'll grant you that some people have it easier than others, no doubt. Financially speaking, if you come from a well-off family that have business and/or political connections, you don't do anything to completely screw up and get disowned, then of course your family can help get you an education, and aid in helping you make connections to get a decent job. Welcome to this thing we call Earth. Tell me where this doesn't apply in this world?
But let's look at it from a different perspective.
First, what if you were one of the unlucky ones, so to speak, to be born in a third world country, and destined for a life of poverty, famine, genocide, wide-spread disease, dictators, warlords, or some other horrible circumstance threatening your very existance, or at the very least controlling what opportunities you have to lead a successful life? I think you're current life on a shoe-string budget with the freedom to make your own decisions should be looking pretty good right about now.
So, by many people's standards, in their world of poverty and desparation, you would look like a wealthy person who gets to eat whenever he wants, drive a car for crying out loud and go wherever you want, express your opinions and religion freely, congregrate for a political event, or for entertainment (concert, movie, whatever), vote for your elected leadership, etc. (insert benefit of living in America here), those people could look at you and say you don't deserve to have been born into such luxury, when they can't have any of those things that you take for granted.
Now, another thought. Let's say you make it, win the lotto, somehow get your desired business off the ground, over the years have a successful career w/ one or more companies, somehow find your way in the world to make a decent living. Let's say one day you have kids, and they're decent kids, and you care for them, wouldn't you also want to provide them with every conceivable edge to get started in life? Help them either financially, or in good planning, to get into the best available schools, and either directly or indirectly help them get the best job they can, or start a business, and see them be successful? How would you, or your future children then feel, as your children make it through school and become successful in this world, when they hear someone less fortunate complain 'how easy your kids have it' or that your kids 'don't deserve that kind of success' etc.?
Point is, there's someone always less fortunate than you, we should appreciate what we have. There's always someone more fortunate than you, and you always appear more fortunate to someone else, namely the previously mentioned people that are less fortunate than you. The more you buy into the culture/class war, and continue with resentment to those who have more than you, the more you empower those less fortunate than you to harbor resentment towards you.
Again, it may be tough now, but you are one of the lucky ones to be in this country, and surely worked hard to get through school, but regardless, are still fortunate to have had the opportunity to do so. The world is at your feet. Find out what you love to do and do it. If money is important to you, then also find out how you can make a profit doing what you love, or in the mean time at least like a little, and start working. Keep working and periodically evaluate your progress and future direction, and you can do anything you set your mind to.
You can either invest your time and energy in creating your desired environment to live in, or invest your time and energy in things that you know will never get you where you want to go, and proceed to complain about it.
As for myself, in case you want to know, I had a troubled childhood so to speak, was more or less taking care of myself at 12, aside from paying for shelter, and at 16 had a choice to pay rent to a single parent who had enough of their own problems, or be independent and pay rent for myself. Despite being a previously good (A) student, in gifted and talented programs, and scoring high on various intelligence testing, my family life led to me leaving high school at 16, and having to make this living arrangement decision. I chose to move out of state to a city with more opportunity for young people, and move away from an extremely negative environment.
You think you have it bad? Try being 16, working 80 hrs a week for minimum wage to pay 1/2 the rent on an apartment somewhere out of state from where you grew up, w/ no family to lean on whatsoever. I continually worked to find better jobs and learn new skills. I quickly learned that I did not want to have most jobs, seeing people twice my age making a buck or two more an hour than I was. I then learned that no matter how 'HARD' you work, that won't make you successful, unless you are working 'SMART' and working in the right vehicle. In oter words, you can be the best toll collector in the world, but the toll collector job only pays so much. However, if you are working towards a goal if being in a vehicle (career or business) that has potential to earn significant income, then working smart and hard in that vehicle will eventually pay dividends.
Then I met people who went to college, and proceeded to fail in life financially for a few reasons, they only went to school to get a job of a certain type, not to learn how to be successful in life, so education in and of itself, is no guarantee of success. Formal education can be an excellent foundation, but it's what you choose to do after you leave school that will determine how successful you are. You have to continue learning, from your job, your environment, and if you're lucky, find a mentor that has something in life that you want. If you can't find a mentor directly, then find one that you can read about, or read from. Check the fruit on the tree, if you don't see, or like the fruit on the tree, don't pick it. In other words, don't take financial advice from broke people.
You can choose to either enter a profession or business with a drive to make a profit and build that career or business to make money. Or you can find something you're passionate about that may or may not lead to extreme financial gain, but put more of an emphasis on saving and investing. Or you can have a primary profession or business that pays your bills, and you can get into a side business, like real-estate or something to build your savings and create wealth. Or you can do some combination of the three. Point being, there's more than one way to be financially successful in life, but as someone already said, TIME is your friend in this case, especially when it comes to compounding interest.
I haven't done everything right, I wish I would have found a way to save more earlier. But I did not give up, and after learning that sales people didn't always need to have the education credentials to make a decent wage at a large company, I found my way into tech sales, doing something I enjoyed, and while I survived a few layoffs, eventually gained the experience to start my own business on a shoestring budget, enjoying residual income off of my efforts for years at a time, while continuing to build the business. Now, I'm looking at other forms of investment, like real-estate, to further solidify my financial future.
I say all that, to say that it looked pretty grim for me at 20yrs old, and I'll admit it wasn't easy, but I'm glad I chose to work to change my circumstances, keep a generally positive attitude in my long quest, rather than complain about being under them, and never overcoming them.
As you become more successful, you'll realize that there are a lot of people out there that want to redistribute your wealth. A society that pursues this path will fail, every time. Once you take from the producers to the point that it eliminates their desire to produce, you fall into chaos. I think you are discouraged by successful people that you don't feel deserve that success, but you may also be concerned about people who don't work or make an effort to be successful, and end up sucking off the system on one level or another, thus taking money out of your hard earned check to pay for their medical bills, court costs, financial aid, etc. We all need to pull our own weight in this world, and we need to vote for people who recognize responsible behavior should be rewarded, and we should not penalize our citizens for being productive, and write and maintain laws that encourage individuals to work and build wealth.
Much success to you and your future ungrateful and undeserving children, and may they be more successful in life than you are, as that is the ultimate compliment to a good teacher
Regards,
Karz
