I've really tried to do everything right (I have a master's, I have a career), but it just didn't work: I've had loads fun when I was a young guy (between 25 and 35) but I was still independant and reasonable, and I never hurt people or myself, I never did something so stupid that I would end up regretting it years later. I never had to deal with an insane amount of debt, I never put myself in a difficult situation, I simply had…a normal, simple life. I'm quite healthy, young looking, my body and mind are both doing ok which helps a lot…but that's it. That's as far as it goes.
The cost of life nowadays makes it IMPOSSIBLE for me to save any money or to buy a house. I've been trying to live frugally the last 13 years and it STILL didn't work. I'm careful about everything, I really am, but it's not enough. I make an ok amount of money for where I live, I honestly do, but it doesn't matter, life is too expensive, way too expensive.
The worst thing is my parents are dirt poor, they have nothing, so I'm not going to inherit everything, AND life is only going to be more expensive in the future.
The funny thing (if you can call that funny) is that I know it's not too late at all: If I suddenly had a decent business idea and if I worked like a madman during the next 20-25 years to make it work, I could potentially still become successful and retire comfortably (that's a lot of IFs though, so many things could go wrong)…but isn't that wrong to begin with? Having a job is supposed to be enough for you to have a future, but it's not the case anymore.
My gut feeling is that there's no more middle class anymore: yes, we earn more (or even much more) than the previous generation, and that somehow manages to convince some people that we're doing well. However everything is so insanely expensive that it doesn't matter, it's not enough. Most people should be doing ok, but that's a minority nowadays.
I'm not unhappy or sad, I'm just…scared I guess. It's insane to take a look at where we are now.
Damn, the future is scary, I'll tell you that.
NB: I forgot to mention it, and I'm not sure it matters but I live in France. So yes our salaries are significantly lower (a lot) BUT our cost of life is not the same: we don't pay for a 401k, our rent is lower, we don't need to commute by car so much, we don't pay for healthcare, we don't have hundreds of thousands in student debt, our interest rates are lower, we don't go through any subprime crisis, we have a real safety net so you can survive without working yada yada.
I think it's a very similar situation in several other European countries. We should be able to save money with all these perks, but life became way too hard financially speaking the last 10 years so it's very tough to become financially independant.