If you’re in Gen Z, I wouldn’t be so focused on getting rich. Sure, focus on your Financial health and do your best to earn a good living. But don’t overstress about getting rich. Don’t avoid work or making money, but don’t let your hair fall out trying to chase money. Right now, we worship the wealthy. But things are changing, and they’ll continue chasing. If you’re a bit older, your hands might be tied. You might need to make money in order to fund your lifestyle. But if you’re young, consider not chasing money as much, and learning to live with a bit less.
Gen Z is going to live long
Look it up. A lot of people born after 1996 are going to live to 100. I don’t think retirement is something that we should be thinking about, generally speaking. Learning to work hard and work consistently is going to be something that differentiates Gen Z winners from Gen Z losers. But that doesn’t mean people in Gen Z should focus too much on money. This is because over the next 50 years or so, people are going to get a lot richer, and the world is going to become a much nicer place to live in. This means that you won’t be able to lord money over people the way you used to. The changes will be gradual, but they will be dramatic. As people get wealthier, money will matter less for status than we could ever imagine. Technology will also be a great equalizer. You need less money than ever nowadays, provided your location independent. This is possible due to technological advancements allowing companies to bring products to “poor” countries at reduced prices.
As time goes on and global wealth increases, Gen Z will become surprisingly wealthy.
It won’t be noticeable for another two decades or so, but those out of Gen Z that have the mental strength to work are likely to become staggeringly wealthy. Look at this chart. In the USA, the top 25% of people in their mid 20s have a household net worth of around $130,000. This is a good amount, but not huge considering it’s the United States. But notice, by 75, these people have around $1,000,000. That’s not bad, no matter how you slice it.
The impact of wealth is understated by improvements in tech, this offsets inflation
Would you want to live in a big castle with no electricity and no running water? No? Well, that’s the extreme version of what I’m talking about. The next 50 years of innovation are going to be pretty wild. The future is already here. It just needs to be evenly distributed. The next 5-10 years will probably quite difficult for many. But the amount of innovation that will occur over the next 20 years is unprecedented. Mark my words. Even being in the top 20% of wealthiest people in poor countries will make for a wonderful life. The average American will hopefully be living in a utopia.
The next 10 years will likely see an increase in the cost of living, and a deflationary market for white collar work
Lots of governments have made significant progress in reducing inflation, but in order to see real growth it’s going to need to keep going down, perhaps into negative territory. Despite a lot of innovation, the global economy isn’t growing that quickly. You can probably see the signs of this everywhere around you, wherever you are. This means that the incumbents will have the power to raise prices as they wish. This is actually a good thing, if you’re smart. You will be able to beat others in white collar fields simply by outworking them, and moving to a better location, at least for the next decade. AI will make white collar endeavors easier, but the imbalance won’t go away for the foreseeable future. As a matter of fact, it will likely get worse as “poor” countries get wealthier. Creating content will continue to be competitive and become even more so with each passing year. Another good thing about incumbents raising prices is that you know where to invest, and what to work on. Get into food, IT, marketing, or healthcare and you shouldn’t go broke. Life coaching is iffy, to be very honest. It might get saturated.
Focusing too much on money will have negative returns
And I’m already beginning to notice them. Working too hard is really bad, and really dangerous. You want your workload to be reasonable, but manageable. If you want to live a truly well-rounded life, aiming for anything above the “top 5%” wealth bracket has a serious cost. I personally would aim for top 10-20%. You want to be well-rounded, and there are other things to do out there. You just want to focus on wealth rather than income. This will mean a lot of hard work, and a lot of waiting around when you’re a very young adult. It’s a worthy price to pay for success, however. It’s a great feeling when you begin to see the light. But once you know what you’re doing, learn to control consumption. Live in environments and choose hobbies which make it such that you don’t have to spend much. Life will be much more beautiful when you’re not using money as a crutch too. An average guy who saves his money can live a beautiful life, especially if he’s location independent.
What to do if you’re in Gen Z?
The answer is to still remain focused on “the bag”. You want to get into the top 20% of your country’s earners, wealth-wise. The fact of the matter is that Gen Z is really poor. This is true globally. The amount of money that young people have is so little, that you can really set yourself apart by just having even the tiniest bit of something. If you can make $50,000 per year blogging, $25,000 per year while you work another regular job, you’re ahead of the game even in the United States. The same thing applies with YouTube. You’ll have a far better life doing these things, at least on the side, than if you worked a regular job. Just don’t get fooled into thinking being an influencer is a path to easy riches. It really isn’t.
If you’re in Gen Z, try to be above average when it comes to your financial health. Pay attention to what’s going on and work hard. But once that’s handled, the work is mostly internal. It’s not hard to live a good life. You should just learn to manage your financial expectations as you work. That way, once you have money you’ll enjoy it sparingly, and when money doesn’t matter anymore, you’ll be really living. Just stay focused and disciplined. Hang out with the right people. Health over income. Have a plan and work hard, but don’t worry too much about money. If you’re able to surmount all the changes happening over the course of the next 5 to 10 years, things should get dramatically easier.
Thanks for paying attention.
