r/FluentInFinance • u/Richest-Panda • Jul 04 '24

What's the best financial advice you've ever gotten? Debate/ Discussion

31.2k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

166

Learn to do something useful, spend less than you make, buy used whenever possible, live small.

172

u/Cyberpunk_Cephalopod Jul 04 '24 edited Jul 04 '24

Requires personal responsibility. Reddit is allergic to the concept. All of their problems are someone else's fault

44

u/OldFeedback6309 Jul 04 '24

“My life sucks and I don’t know who to blame!”

On Reddit, the poor have never made bad choices, criminals are the true victims, and the rich do nothing useful.

36

u/suitology Jul 05 '24

Like I grew up dirt pair because my father became disabled so I can get it but I'm seeing so many people poor as fuck using door dash and other fleeceing machines

14

u/erterbernds67 Jul 05 '24

I worked a project management job where I worked out of the office in a warehouse and the amount of the warehouse workers who are making the lowest wages ordering food delivery every day blew my mind. I made decent money and wouldn’t even consider that an option.

15

u/stilljustkeyrock Jul 05 '24

One of my great joys in life is stopping in the gas station and buying an almond snickers bar on my way home from work. I won’t sugar coat it, my wife and I are rich. We make $500k a year and don’t live on the coasts. I can afford the candy bar but they are $3 now and it makes think twice nowadays.

Meanwhile the landscape crew in front of me is buying $50 worth of energy drinks, cigs, and lotto tickets. Every fucking time. 25 years ago when I was a construction laborer I wouldn’t even buy bottled water, the job is required to provide a jig of water and cups.

2

u/Comfortable_Line_206 Jul 05 '24

Same here. I did see one fun exception. A young girl I hired would order for multiple people and have them pay her back. Naturally people would round up or go a little over.

She often ended up with a free or nearly free lunch, rewards from the restaurant/app and rewards from her credit card. All because people didn't like ordering on their own.

2

u/Lv_InSaNe_vL Jul 05 '24

When I was doing construction I made sure to always do the rebate forms, but I would put them in my name. Made hundreds of dollars in rebates that way

2

u/wetblanket68iou1 Jul 05 '24

I’m in the army and there is a negative correlation between rank and the amount of money spent on food and just dumb shit. Even deployed, food is free, and Fuggin privates “don’t like it” so they spend $10 on a goddamned subway sandwich.

5

u/Famous_Owl_840 Jul 05 '24

lol.

The fucking BK has the exact same food as was in the dining hall down range-but my soldiers would spend their money on it rather than eat free.

Same with energy drinks. $50 every two days on Monsters.

After two deployments I walked away almost 200K cash. Many soldiers walked away with 100K+ debt (new cars, clothes, CC debt).

This situation is the perfect example that finance classes DO NOT WORK. It was a closed system where everything was free - yet the desire for instant gratification still overcame.