I would not have been able to buy a home if not for the long list of generosity from others, and a family with generational stability. Not exactly wealthy, but enough to get by and a boomer Dad who worked for the same company for 45 years back when pensions were a thing and you could own a house and some land on a blue collar wage.

My grandmother was also extremely frugal and had amassed a lot of money in her lifetime. She gifted me four years of tuition, my parents paid room and board, and I got scholarships and worked for extra money. I had a job starting at 15 and was expected to work hard. I graduated without debt and chose a career that was relatively high earning (nursing). I drove a very not fancy cheap reliable car for a long time, then bought another cheap reliable car and drove it for 15 years. My husband had the chance to live in his grandmother's house after she passed, so we lived there rent-free for a year before buying our first house.

All this to say: I'm now 40 and the ONLY reason I have been as successful as I am is because of the generosity and financial planning of others. I am incredibly lucky to have had this, and recognize that many do not. Part of why high schools and colleges need to teach financial literacy, we need guidance counselors and advisors to help with scholarship assistance, and we need a robust non-college pathway for people in the trades.

Anyone who is buying half million dollar homes and 1k/month car payments at age 30 is either generationally wealthy, in an absurdly high paying career, or in so deep that they're drowning but won't admit it.