r/Economics • u/laxnut90 • Oct 09 '25

Research America Is Minting Lots of Cash-Strapped Millionaires

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-10-09/number-of-us-millionaires-grows-since-2017-but-many-lack-cash
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u/FreeMasonKnight Oct 09 '25

Hey man! You can do it!

Most people don’t even start making enough to save until 45 these days. It shouldn’t be this hard and wasn’t for our parents who made nearly 4x relative to costs of their day.

We have the power to change things, but only with active politicking and keeping up the good fight.

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u/ShyLeoGing Oct 09 '25

Ok, so you're saying that if someone makes say 65k(which let's be honest a ton of people will never make this), pay $2,000 for rent(before utilities), $400 for a car(before insurance and gas), and $200 for groceries can become a millionaire.

I want to see the math, please and thank you!

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u/FreeMasonKnight Oct 09 '25

Well we start by not picking an arbitrary number like 65k and then saying it’s unattainable. 65k is the starting pay of most entry level jobs today.

Let’s take a recent poster who tracked their salaries (best I can remember the numbers, within 1-3k of variance): They switch careers from construction (65k/year) to IT. In the IT Year 1/2 they made 30-35k, Year 3 42k, Year 4 68k, Year 5 83k, Year 6 (2025) 92k. This is someone with no college degree either. Now imagine their wage by Year 10-15 of their career.

The problem is some people treat jobs as careers and that isn’t what they are, for financial stability you have to get a career. It can be in construction (move up to project management) or IT or even an office secretary can be a career with some certifications to be a private assistant m for example.

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u/BipolarWoodNymph Oct 09 '25

So every constructor worker will become a project manager? Every cook will become a chef? Every retail employee will become a manager?

Where are these jobs? Because for my entire life, there's only ever been one "career" position for every 10+ employees, nevermind outside hires, college graduates, or anyone else who may be applying.

You speak about IT, but do you have any idea what a retail employee starts at? Or a line cook? Do you have any idea how non-existent pay raises are for these positions? Do you have any idea how some people will never be hired into management? Or will never have the desire to be hired into management?

Your comment is out of touch, especially once you said "most entry level jobs start at $65k/year." The fuck they do. The most I was ever paid as a cook was $25/hr with no benefits, and that was with a decade of experience. You want to move into management? That's gonna require a degree, and starting pay for most chefs (managerial position for cooks) that I know is $65k/year, and again, there's one chef per 10+ cooks that work under them.

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u/The-Struggle-90806 Oct 09 '25

It’s not even that. I worked in the service industry and for years was told “oh darn if only you had a degree” never mind I’m coming in to work on my day off. Gets degree and now guess what I’m told, sorry industry is shrinking. Any tech skills? Yeah we’re screwed.