You have to adjust for inflation. A salary of $48K in the 1990s equals almost $100K by today's standards. Salaries and wages haven't kept pace.

Your son is currently in the top 5 percent of millennial earners...

I don't begrudge you or your son for your wealth. But it's incredibly irritating when you jump on blogs and pronounce financial advice that's 30 years old., and accuse people like me of wasting our money on coffee when I go to Starbucks once or twice a year...

My point is that most people can't afford to invest in the market. It no longer provides any kind of financial security for ordinary people. But there's plenty of financial "gurus" out there who want to pretend otherwise. They're the crypto bros and pumper-dumpers who want to use social media to manipulate stock prices and don't give two shits what happens to the "little guy."

Maybe that didn't come across. It might take another post to actually convey my exact thoughts on this.

Main argument: You can't use the stock market to make up for a generation of lost income due to wider, systemic circumstances. *Please* don't fall prey to some predatory stock/crypto dude who tries to get you to buy into their delusion, simply because it benefits them.

Yes?