/biz/ - Business & Finance

>Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering
>salary: $65,500 (5.4 years of experience)


A decade ago I graduated high school, I thought if I worked hard I’d get ahead. I went to college, studied the hardest subject I thought I could handle, mechanical engineering. I worked my ass off, graduated debt free while working through college, and even paid more per credit hour than business or physical science or education majors because engineering credits are more expensive (because engineers supposedly earn more after college).

5 years out of school and I’m coming to the conclusion I’ll never own a home. I live with my parents, I get zero push, I have no social life.

I’m completely fucked. I fucked my life up irreparably.

>>54776123
All gaps in the daily chart must be filled , we just don't know in what order , yes there is a gap in $9700 and 20k but we can fill it later after the bullrun , right now 33k , 42k and 62k seems to be the target.

>>54377995
Failed rhinoplasty surgery , the doctor fucked up on the metrics

>27 years old
>only 155k in liquid assets
>a huge chunk of other people my age are being promoted into management positions or senior software development positions and make my entire net worth as a single yearly bonus

Any other anons low income but cash “rich”?

I’ve got money but ONLY because I live at home with my parents, the second I move out is essentially be paycheck to paycheck. I make ~67k and have around 150k in cash, I’m already 27. On paper people see my cash and think I’m doing fine for my age, but the fact is I bring in about $4,000 per month and if I were to move out I’d need to spend at least $3,000 per month to keep myself alive.

I honestly think Low Income but Cash Rich (LICR) is worse than six figure hell and worse than being in debt with a high income. Cash flow is literally EVERYTHING, I wish I realized that earlier in life. Fuck.

>>54178474
huge sell signal, thanks

>only $141,000 in cash (in an FDIC insured account), $13,000 in a mutual fund, and a measly $2,200 in crypto
>everyone else my age has more
>priced out of home ownership because I only make $70,000

2008: Wall Street acts insanely reckless, inflates a massive bubble, enriches each other on the backs of the middle class, destroys the middle class’ ability to earn a paycheck and then gets bailed out while you lose your job and your house and millions in future earnings

2023: Tech companies act insanely reckless, do zero due diligence on basic risk management, don’t understand finance, receive interest free money for over a decade and pay 22 year old “developers” more than the local family doctor, then the “bank” they were storing their money in goes belly up and the tech companies get bailed out

Now everyone expects a fed pivot, meaning inflation won’t get quelled and the middle class will be completely and absolutely fucked by falling wages and the increasing cost of living. Meanwhile tech companies can continue to get infinite money interest free and can easily deal with inflation because they have no operating costs.

Tech companies are the new Wall Street. The same greed and know it all, better than you attitude destroyed the American economy and now they get bailed out as well.

OK now i'm scared , where are we going with BTC , should i sell ?

What does it mean for us? How are you preparing? Who will win in that environment?

I’ve noticed that, in bubble terms, a lot of people and industries that rely on on cheap debt are currently in the “complacency” stage, literally saying “we just have to wait for the next big rally”. Many of them are now calling their downturn a “winter”, I’ve heard “crypto winter”, “esports winter”, “VC winter”, “tech winter” used unironically to describe what’s happening. But none of them ever seem to grapple with the idea that the last 10 years may have been an economic anomaly and the way their industries functioned within that anomaly is never coming back.

I’ve also seen the idea that interest rates will go down to zero again soon floating around in Chud political circles, about how the fed will be “forced” to pivot soon, I even remember seeing Elon Musk alike 6 months ago say that the fed is making a huge mistake by raising rates because they were going too far and deflation was coming (only to get BTFO by inflation coming back in January 2023).

Unfortunately, a lot of people have short memories and short time horizons so they can’t fathom the idea that what we had is never coming back, but that seems to be where we are headed. A decade of high interest rates relative to the 10s and relatively high inflation.

Let’s break down a 100k salary in the Midwest and see what it gets you:

PRE-TAX
>$22,500 into 401k to minimize taxes
>$2,500 yearly for health insurance

That brings us down to 75k. In a typical Midwest state, 75k gross will bring us down to about 52k take home pay once taxes are taken out.

Now we have the essentials:
>$1,300 monthly for a 1BR apartment, $15,600 annually
>$400 monthly for food, $4,800 annually
>$150 in gas monthly, $1,800 annually
>$175 for electric/internet/water/utilities, $2,100 yearly
>$150 misc spending, $1,800 annually

So bare minimum, you’re looking at $26,000 annually to keep yourself alive and live like a total pauper in a shitty 1 bedroom apartment. You haven’t bought any furniture, you haven’t traveled anywhere but to and from work, you haven’t went out with friends, you haven’t seen a movie, you haven’t done anything except work and vegetate. You have zero positive life experiences besides staring at a screen.

What do you have to show for it? You’ve got about $2,000 left over every month. A measly $25,000 left over after you do the bare minimum, living like a literal serf. There’s your “6 figure salary” in the famously cheap Midwest, bro.

Invest every penny of that $25,000 for 20 straight years and average 8% growth every year and you’ll just finally be a millionaire, 20 years after we’ve already established a million dollars is barely any money. A six figure salary is complete fucking garbage in 2023, even in the Midwest. Imagine we ran these numbers in California or something LMAO.

Oh, and not to mention it’s extremely difficult to actually get a 6 figure salary in the Midwest in the first place, most careers here won’t even push you into that range until you’re in management.

The six figure salary meme is finally dead.

A basic 1 bedroom apartment, in the Midwest, rents for about $1,400 a month. Utilities will cost you about $200, fees and such an extra $100. You’re looking at around $20,000 a year just for shelter.

In the Midwest, you’ll generally have to pay about $30,000 in taxes, so now you’ve already eaten up half of your salary in just rent and taxes and you’ve gotten yourself a basic 650 sq fr 1 bedroom apartment.

Now you’re left with $4,000 a month for everything else. You’ll need a car, which will be $600-700 a month minimum in 2023, if you eat a really basic diet you’re looking at $400 a month. Now you have to pay for gas to get you to work, $200 a month. Health insurance is another $250 a month. You’ve already chewed through $1,600 of your $4,000 spending budget, leaving you with $2,400. You still haven’t gone out to eat, done anything for entertainment, gone out with friends, gone to the gym, saved for retirement, or saved up for a down payment in a home.

After it’s all said and done, you might have $500 left per month, and what have you gotten from your “six figure lifestyle” in the Midwest? A basic 1 bedroom apartment, a cheap car, and $500 bucks at the end of the month.

What the fuck tradies? Is this real?

You’re telling me the average dude in the US with a basic full time job makes more than 90% of welders in the US? Why would /pol/ lie to me about the trades being so amazing?

I know a lot of you are socially isolated NEETs, but the last few years were unbelievable in terms of wage growth in a few select fields. People in finance and tech were literally 2-3x as much as they were in pre 2020 times, and what a lot of people don’t realize was that inflation was already showing signs of boiling over in 2019 before COVID hit. Salaries really started skyrocketing in 2019.

It’s not a coincidence that house prices are basically 800k minimum in high cost of living places, the wages there are literally skyrocketing. I don’t think this inflationary surge can end with layoffs of a lot of these people. So many fucking dimwits got pushed into the 160k+ range because of the last 3 years. If you’re a Midwest or southern anon this might seem like bulls hit but it’s not, money was literally flying around.

Time is up it seems.

I got the wrong education, a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering. Very experienced (12+ years) Mechanical Engineers make 120-150k depending on cost of living, which is just around the amount (currently) needed to keep your head above water as a middle class family in most states in the US.

With the 40 year trend of declining interest rates finally breaking and inflation coming back, risk assets will likely have a terrible decade or more. This option, to just buy some random shitcoin and pray, has basically been gutted. Many /biz/anons have not yet seen the writing on the wall for this one.

Likewise, intellectual work is very likely to get rocked by general advances in software and artificial intelligence over the next decade, creating an unstable and lackluster employment situation for many workers with skills like myself. Pay will likely stagnate or decline.

I have run out of options, I have fucked myself out of getting a high paying job so early in the game due to me picking the wrong degree.

300k is about the point you’ll start to feel a bit of relief as the amount of money you have can come close to generating the income you need to survive. You can do a decent amount with 300k as well.

If you’re not there, you need to fight, scratch, and claw your way up. Scrimp, save, work extra hours, just fight like hell to get to 300k in liquid assets.

You can barely do anything with a $100,000 salary, even in the Midwest. It’s like $5,600 a month take home, and it’s $1,500 (but closer to $2,000) for a basic bitch 2 bedroom apartment.

We’ll both win

Heard it's tighter and more pleasurable than vagina. How can i profit from this

What if he pivots ?

>>53027535
it's common sense to buy alts when BTC ''bottoms'' retard.

>>52974706
Ok but this is not ICP.