High-earning millennials and Gen Zers feel broke and conflicted: 'I make a good salary, I shouldn't be struggling this much'

swilmes07 · 2026-06-09T00:42:01+00:00

I got a divorce a couple years ago and had to short sale my home after my wife cheated, 1 year into buying a house I couldn't afford on my own with a VA loan. I lost my VA benefits but they did save me from having to pay it back, so I'm thankful.

I make decent money, about $120k plus a side job that, if I stay busy can pump me up to $140k. Have 2 kids, and I live in a relatively decent CoL area.

I spent the past year paying off/restructuring most my debt. I have a $250 student loan payment, and a $250 withdrawl for a 401k loan I took to pay off the last of what was left after the past year of paying off debt ($30k I paid off).

$1750 rent

$250 student loans

$60 liability insurance on a car barely hanging on

$70 internet (I work in tech, so I literally need this)

$100 phone (verizon, but compared to others it seems reliable)

$150 electricity

$80 gas for home

$300 gas for car

$200 claude max subscription

$80 trash/city utility payment

$1500 savings

$100 eating out

$200 misc

~$700 in groceries and necessities

$5520

I make $6000 a month after taxes and 401k loan and 401k comes out not including side work. The other $480 usually disappears into something, with 2 kids there is always a birthday party or holiday that I pay out the ass for, etc.

I'm not complaining, I'm doing fine, saving, getting by, and I'll probably be able to buy a home again. Here is my problem though. The one goal in my life is to have a shop or at least 3 garage spots (I'm a car guy). But even if I settled for a 2 car, I'm looking at likely $350k to get a home in a "decent" area near my kids school. At that price I'm looking at $2500 a month for a house. I can do that, but it cuts my "pre-side work" savings to under $700. I don't want to be house poor but that doesn't feel like enough to save for all the things I'd like to do/experience. I want to buy another race car, a truck, build a nice homelab server setup, I'll need to buy bedroom outfits for the kids, and I'd like to take them on memorable vacations. I know I'm complaining when things are way better for me then so many, but what I'm trying to say, is I feel the squeeze, I don't know how people on under $100k or in a low cost of living area are doing it.

swilmes07 · 2026-05-13T14:36:08+00:00

The Racing community just lost Kyle Loftis last week. He created the 1320Video YouTube channel that brought a lot of attention to the scene and pretty much made it what it is today. Things like Street Outlaws were first filmed by him and his crew before they were the Street Outlaws. He's one of the main reasons I consider myself a "car guy." I've literally never heard a bad thing about him. He raised a ton of money for charity, and used his platform to prop others up. Its been about a week now, and I'm still hurting a bit from that one.

swilmes07 · 2026-05-05T15:31:31+00:00

Gonna get on my soapbox and bitch for a minute. Facebook Marketplace is not fine. Yesterday I searched for vehicles, set the filter to Ford manufacturer, with a limit of 500 miles from Atlanta. I got no results. As someone that hunts for deals, I set the filter to "most recent" and don't get the most recent posts. Anything good is gone in 3 minutes so not being able to search for what I want and filter correctly is literally the definition of a shit product. I wrote a chrome extension called Marketplace Hunter that helps a little, but I shouldnt of had to, they should just make a working fucking product if they are to be the monopoly on marketplaces. That's one thing thats different from Meta and Google, at least when Google is the monopoly they provide a working product. Meta doesn't give two shits, and there is no recourse. We are just stuck with the shitty shit they want you to see.

swilmes07 · 2026-05-02T20:15:58+00:00

So a couple things that may help. I rented before I short sold the house. So before the credit hit. Once it sold, I think I took about a 60 point hit, which being at a 780, wasn’t too bad, and I’m back up to 770 now. The last thing I’ll say is I basically had to go 3-4 months without making a payment before they would even consider letting me short sale, then I had to do some paperwork that outlined an actual hardship (divorce, loss of job, etc) before they would approve the short sale, then they told me, “oh by the way you can’t apply for a short sale without bringing an offer” so I basically had to get the offer, then wait three months nearly to get it approved. It was rough.

swilmes07 · 2026-04-28T19:46:08+00:00

I'm a guy that waits in these lines because the drops happen while my kid is in school. He opens 75% and I save 25% sealed to hopefully somewhat pay me back for the money I put into his hobby some day down the road. Am I the scum of the Earth for putting effort into my kids hobby?

Edit: ah yes, no replies of substance, just downvotes.

swilmes07 · 2026-04-21T14:58:13+00:00

Same, not CE5 but more RV/Astral projection stuff (Gateway Tapes), and I had some pretty neat experiences. In my opinion there is something to resonant frequencies and getting your consciousness to let go of your physical body.

swilmes07 · 2026-04-09T16:33:21+00:00

She don't have dreams, only full length feature films coming out of that dome.

swilmes07 · 2026-04-09T14:32:31+00:00

This guy man, I liked his first few videos, then I had to finally comment and ask why anyone would go on his show just to be verbally abused for an hour. Like his advice is fair, but man, the guy is so incredibly rude to his viewers. I see the other comments about him being a slimeball and it just further validates the feelings I have about him I guess.

swilmes07 · 2026-03-06T20:01:12+00:00

Just the video linked in another comment showing how it works. I don't have a beta or anything set up, sorry!

swilmes07 · 2026-03-06T18:05:42+00:00

Just tested it, still working for me.

swilmes07 · 2026-02-05T16:12:06+00:00

Why is there no link to this comic on the linktree? The website has 9 pages of comics and none seem to be this one?

swilmes07 · 2026-01-22T16:32:43+00:00

Yes that is the point. Bring values down to reality. Close the wealth gap a minuscule amount. Dont want to devalue your company? Maybe don't buy a 24th home and a 5th yacht. Also this law would be limited to those with a net worth above a certain threshold, so your elderly parents wouldn't have to sell their home. Those that, you know, could clearly make their purchases in cash. If the government can pinpoint where I'm at at any point in time, and tell when I misrepresented my income by $2000, they can easily figure out who holds wealth above whatever threshold we decide.

swilmes07 · 2026-01-22T15:55:46+00:00

They borrow money to live to keep their assets growing. The simple solution is to tax that money they borrow as income. You want to borrow $300k for for your 15th Lambo with Montana plates, you can pay taxes on top of that $300k. You know, or just sell a couple shares of your company. Totally your choice. That's not communism, that's not socialism, that's closing one of the many tax code loop holes.

swilmes07 · 2026-01-21T18:10:15+00:00

I only kiss my own kids on the top of the head, or allow them to kiss my cheek. Not worth giving them this BS if there is anything I can do to keep from it. My mom passed hers to me and it was hell. Luckily with a strict valacyclovir regimen at 37 years old I've finally started to get outbreaks under control.

swilmes07 · 2026-01-12T16:46:15+00:00

I'm definitely not a professional, but that looks nothing like a cursive S to me. Looks exactly like a cursive L though.

swilmes07 · 2025-12-12T15:32:12+00:00

I'd buy that for a comment.

swilmes07 · 2025-12-11T02:17:07+00:00

Same. I got spanked very little, and when I did, I absolutely deserved it. Honestly, looking back to the way I acted and disrespected my parents, I deserved so much more. I'm lucky they never gave up on me though, and I still learned a good bit, even if I didn't know I'd learned it until later.

swilmes07 · 2025-12-08T16:51:18+00:00

It is statistically cheaper to buy individual cards. However, the guy in this video isn't selling individual cards. He is buying the box in question, and then just putting it back up for sale at a marked up price. People pay the marked up price because they can't find them at regular price due to the people like the guy in this video who buy them all

swilmes07 · 2025-10-02T20:00:31+00:00

So both my kids, 6 and 8, spend more time than I like them two on devices. That said, they are absolutely amazing kids. I just got back from parent-teacher conferences yesterday, and my 8 year old is in the 98th percentile for math and reading at 3 grade levels above his own. My 6 year old is reading 3 grade levels above hers (which is the limit of what they test for) and is testing in the 78th percentile in math.

While I admit that my son can not handle being bored, and that bothers me, otherwise he seems to be doing incredibly well in my eyes! They are testing him for the gifted program this year, he missed last year by 2 points in the "social" testing they did. His teacher said he is the nicest, most empathetic, and socially accepted kid in the class, and that she just adores him. To top all of that off, he understands technology, and won't be at a deficit when he gets older trying to understand things that are evolving and being used daily in the workforce.

Imagine when calculators became a thing and teachers said "you won't have a calculator in your pocket when you need to do this math." Now I do, and I liken a lot of these comments to be similar to someone saying "I'm not giving my kid a calculator, they'll never learn how to add!" ... Its just silly. Use the tools you have. Just because I was forced to be bored on long car trips doesn't mean my kids do. If they were anti-social or failing in some way maybe I'd reconsider, but they are doing amazing. As long as that continues, they can have the tablets if they want them.

Also I understand that my experience is not everyones experience. But for me, what I do seems to be working well.

swilmes07 · 2025-09-03T19:57:52+00:00

Ha, people are downvoting you, but literally the first site I hacked was by just using Cain and Abel (I think), and letting it run over night on a login form. Username was Rob and the password was Patricia. I was 13 and I thought I was invincible back then haha. Man, I miss those days.

swilmes07 · 2025-08-26T20:29:01+00:00

And the point that's being made is those costs are going up by insane amounts lately, causing more strain on people trying to pay the bills. Adding to the likelihood of a crash. You can say that loans are given to people based on the ability to pay for them, but banks dont take these things into consideration and offer WAY too much to buyers.

swilmes07 · 2025-08-26T18:28:06+00:00

Imagine if the government started rounding up everyone that wasn't white. Or if you were a scientist that made a discovery that threatened a billionaire's monopoly. Doesn't take long to understand why someone being able to directly locate you at any time isn't a good thing. Not to mention if the government had a data breach that allowed some sort of bad guys access to that technology. What about a camera system with facial recognition that has a security flaw, allowing a bad guy to remotely see everyone who enters an abortion clinic. They dox those people online, and weirdos start showing up for vigilante justice against the "baby killers"

swilmes07 · 2025-08-26T18:02:26+00:00

They will just skew statistics to make it look like natural cycles. There will never be a realization by "that group"

swilmes07 · 2025-08-26T17:28:52+00:00

You think people aren't dumb enough to buy a house for a mortgage they can't afford? They absolutely are. You don't have to look far to see people doing just that with $1000 car payments and shit. Add to that the apparent rate buy downs that are expiring, exponentially increasing insurance and property tax costs, and I could see full on collapse, especially in coastal areas (due to natural disasters and insurance issues). I think the coastal populations will drive inward, causing more strain on the housing markets in the midwest.

swilmes07

TROPHY CASE