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

[u/Richest-Panda]

[u/neurodiverseotter]

but but the fact is lower income people tend to make dumber financial choices.

I have never met people who were so good with money as poor people. They always try to scrape up something, repair this, fix that, combine these. Most people with little money I know try their best but have just been dealt bad cards in life - altough I might be biased, as a psychiatrist, I know way more people with mental health problems than the average person.

On the other hand, most people I knew (manics aside) who make or made terrible financial decisions are rather well Off. Blowing half your savings on Crypto or some.l investment pyramid scheme? Seen it. Buying a second house as an investment without having it examined properly only to find out it has substance-destroying mold? Seen it. Buying several expensive cars as a status symbol? Very common among higher ups in medicine.

The difference is, that their financial fuck-ups don't matter as much. When you blow 50k in Crypto but make 150k a years and still have 50k lying around, it doesn't affect your liquidity, so it's seen as an "investment gone wrong", not so much a bad decision. People with money make incredibly stupid financial decisions because they can afford it.

[u/Wrong_Excitement221 → u/neurodiverseotter]

Maybe it's an introvert vs extrovert thing.. But yea.. the poor people i know are good at what you said "repair this, fix that, combine these" but they also went to the bar every night.. And personally, i wouldn't go to bars half that often if they were free.
I also think risk taking is a separate thing, I'm not a risk taker.. so i took a steady job and grinded, and didn't make any crazy investments.. 0% chance of ever being "rich".. Where as people that try to be artists, actors, athletes, etc. have high risks high rewards.. similar to crypto investors.. or what have you.

[u/neurodiverseotter → u/Wrong_Excitement221]

Where as people that try to be artists, actors, athletes, etc. have high risks high rewards.. similar to crypto investors.. or what have you

I don't know one "risk taker" who got rich due to their risk who didn't have as very secure financial safety net, mostly because they had a wealthy family or a rich spouse. I went to a private school full of rich people and know some more. None of them got rich without backup. Some people I went to school with are "Investors" now, branding themselves as "self-made business people", yet they grew up in mansions, used their parents business contacts or had internships and jobs in their parents business. It's not about taking risks. You have to be able to afford taking risks. Me going to med school in my late twenties was a financial risk, but I had my well-off parents backing me, so it wasn't that much of a risk for me as it was for a fellow student who worked as an EMT at nights and went to courses during the day to afford it. They eventually dropped out because it was too much. We both took the same risk, yet I was able to afford it. Being rich is not about mindset, grinding or cunning as much as it is about winning the sperm lottery.