Economic Nihilism
What is economic nihilism? It’s the idea that the future is so bleak that there’s no point in planning for it.
Why invest for retirement when you don’t believe you’ll ever be able to retire? Why save money when the world is going to shit anyway?
My TikTok friend Econ with Sarah posted a video the other day about this mindset after another creator talked about a general sense of dread and doom. He noticed that a lot of younger people had adopted this way of thinking.
And the comments were shocking on his video. My fear? Some people are turning a blind eye to their future over YoloMania. But I would hope a lot of the worst comments were bots, teenagers, or virtue signalers who wanted to commiserate and bond over the shitty way the world is going.
Endless wars. Profits over people. Pollution. A growing divide, not just politically, but economically. A healthcare crisis. An affordability crisis due to nonstop inflation. A housing affordability crisis.
I get it. You know how I know? Because even I, someone who is retired at 41 and “did everything right,” look around and says, holy shit, things are bad. I’d love a house, but where I live, you can’t touch them unless you were born into tremendous generational wealth or sold an app for billions.
Last year I could fill up my hybrid SUV for around $30. Today it costs almost $70. What??
A pound of ground beef is almost $10, unless I see that sweet, sweet Manager Special discount because it’s about to expire. And when I do see those yellow stickers, this is key, so pay attention: because I invested so heavily in my 20s and because I live so far below my means, I can be that asshole who buys as many packs of ground beef as I can fit into my cart and tosses them in the freezer when I get home.
That brings me to something called the Poverty Tax.
When you don't have much money, everything can cost you more. You can't afford to buy in bulk at Costco, even though the price per item is cheaper. You can't stock up when groceries are on sale. You end up paying more over time simply because you can't afford to save money upfront.
And that Poverty Tax will only get worse for people in their 20s TODAY who refuse to invest NOW because they think the world is getting worse. And they’re right, the world is getting worse. But the ONLY way to prepare for that future is to invest and live below your means.
This does NOT mean never buy anything fun and don't enjoy your life. It means: BALANCE.
It means plan for the future, but live in the moment … sometimes.
I promise you, the LAST thing you want is to turn 60, wake up at 7 a.m., and get ready for work with no ability or means to retire. You hate the system so much? Live below your means, invest, and escape it as soon as possible. Otherwise, the bad future you imagine will be A LOT worse.
What you want is freedom and choice. But if you play into this negative mindset of things are bad, and they will get worse, so what's the point? I'm gonna do everything now, rack up debt, save nothing, invest nothing, plan for nothing, well, I hate to sound like an asshole, but … joke's on you, because you will be cheap labor for a corporation until you die.
You will be working as a Walmart greeter or the person at Costco who validates parking, not because you're bored and want to get out of the house a few days a week in retirement, or because you like it and it's fun, but because you HAVE to, because of the choices you are making NOW.
Take it from me, someone who has almost 900,000 social media followers and gets 200 DMs per WEEK. Most of those messages are from people in their 50s and 60s who felt like the world was ending 20-30 years ago, never invested, and now have no escape plan.
And no, I'm not saying everyone who invests in their 20s will be able to retire. I KNOW how expensive everything is. I KNOW that once you're done paying your bills, utilities, groceries, rent, childcare, healthcare, etc., there might not be much (if anything) left to invest.
And even if you can scrape together $50 or $100 or maybe even $200 a month, it MIGHT NOT BE ENOUGH to retire. But it will be something, and you'll be glad for that. I promise.
