Comments by "Comm0ut" (@Comm0ut) on "How the 2008 Financial Crisis Still Affects You" video.

  1. Financiers cannot ruin your life unless YOU enable that by making unwise choices. I met people who did fine during the Great Depression and listened to them. I would never for example get an adjustable rate mortgage. It's too late for old people but younger ones may benefit from my simple and VERY common example. I haven't felt a recession since 1981. Enlist or commission. Serve at least 20 years preferably in a specialty with many future employment options (preferably USAF or now the Space Force). If the .mil world is out get a government job then cling on like grim death until you vest retirement. A vested retirement is worth killing for. Some can manage it in good unions (IBEW, pipe welders etc). Others may choose the Merchant Marine. Look for gigs your peers do not since most people follow the herd off a cliff. Live BELOW your means all the time with no exceptions and become highly self-sufficient (I do all my home and vehicle repair and upkeep, anyone can and my wife is proof). Buy cheap property away from cities (cities are bad, don't live there) then pay it off while renovating it yourself. Don't buy a McMansion, buy the house you intend to retire in. Big homes don't really make your life better, they just add upkeep burden and higher property taxes. Don't buy new cars. Do focus ruthlessly on getting the most reliable and easy to maintain vehicle(s) that suit your use case. Don't buy new furniture (most of it's junk) except perhaps a good ergonomic office chair. Don't buy a new house. Do buy as much property as you can manage preferably in a SLOWLY growing area that's still zoned agricultural so you have freedom. (I can target practice or hunt on my own land, wrench what I like, keep backyard chickens etc.) Do learn to do nearly everything most people pay others to do for them. They're ordinary humans like you are. None of the above is exotic or difficult. A lot of it's fun and done right your only debt will be a modest mortgage. You don't need to live on the coast or in a big city or anywhere with high overhead. Let the suckers do that. I'm far from rich but retired at 47 and half my income is discretionary because I don't waste it on trifles yet have plenty of toys. Most people are silly and unfocused. Don't be most people. Hang out with people smarter than you are at what you want to learn. Have no useless or low-competence friends because failure really is contageous. If you live in a bad area scrape it off and LEAVE so you don't get taken down by toxic peers. Pick a skill that pays you to travel then go see the world or at least more of the US. Staying in one place is limiting.
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