5 Harsh Money Truths You Need To Know Now

While I hate to say it, there are a lot of harsh truths we have to accept in life. For instance, we have to accept that as we age, we can’t eat whatever we want and stay skinny like when we were young. Alternatively, we have to accept that when we ask a girl to hang out and she says “let me get back to you”, she ain’t getting back to you bro. Now, while frustrating these truths of life can be, none trump the truths that revolve around your money and if you ask me, here are the seven that you need to know immediately!

Truth #1: Financial Success Depends On When You Were Born

The truth is, a lot of your success in life comes from factors that lie outside your control. For instance, if you were born in a first-world country, you are infinitely more likely to be financially stable than someone born in a war-torn third world nation. Alternatively, if you were born to affluent parents then unless you are a total financial delinquent, you should be well positioned to never miss a meal in your life. Now, while these uncontrollable factors are probably pretty obvious to you, one that you’ve likely never spent a lot of time thinking about is when you were born.

I would assume that most of us are happy we were born in the first place but let me tell you that being born in different decades tremendously contributes to the level of financial success you will likely end up achieving. Anomalous situations aside, let’s compare the upbringing of someone born in the 1950’s compared to a millennial like me. For this older group, their life path typically involved growing up, getting a very affordable college education, rolling into a well-paying job with a defined benefit pension and riding the wave of stock market success to retirement. Basically, if you were well-educated during this era and weren’t a total mess with your money then becoming financially successful was a given.

Fast forward to my generation, the fortunate Millennial group, and I mean fortunate only because we are fortunate to be alive, and the fruits from this life path are much bleeker. Nowadays, we go to college and leave with tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt, only to find ourselves working jobs that pay us a pittance and leave us with little chance of ever buying a home or retirement before we are…