"Pull yourself up by your bootstraps".
I know a guy, diagnosed with a learning impairment at a young age, started working for a farmer in high school, learned a skill from him (farmers have all kinds of skills), went to community college to improve that skill, had various jobs doing construction or demolition, they trained him to operate heavy equipment. He is now making $40/hr, more if he is willing to go bigger, and can't even buy alcohol yet.
So for all those saying it can not be done... YES IT CAN. But it does not happen overnight; it takes willingness to be a servant for a time, motivation to learn and take responsibility, and a vision for what you can do. Attitude makes a huge difference.
I know multiple stories of people working fast food, put in the leadership/manager track. Once you have established manager experience, you can go a lot of places and move up easily.
How many years of working at $40/hr would be required to buy a median house where this guy lives? Because ultimately the dollar amount matters less than the purchasing power.
An experiment I did the other day I found very informative was to "forward-test" my early 20s to see if what I did then would pencil out today. I inflation-adjusted what I made at the time and looked at present market values for apartments I lived in and houses I owned to determine if I could have made it all work today. And I found I couldn't, and it wasn't even close.
After that little experiment I decided I'm completely unqualified to give someone currently in their early 20s advice on what to do.
"Pull yourself up by your bootstraps".
I know a guy, diagnosed with a learning impairment at a young age, started working for a farmer in high school, learned a skill from him (farmers have all kinds of skills), went to community college to improve that skill, had various jobs doing construction or demolition, they trained him to operate heavy equipment. He is now making $40/hr, more if he is willing to go bigger, and can't even buy alcohol yet.
So for all those saying it can not be done... YES IT CAN. But it does not happen overnight; it takes willingness to be a servant for a time, motivation to learn and take responsibility, and a vision for what you can do. Attitude makes a huge difference.
I know multiple stories of people working fast food, put in the leadership/manager track. Once you have established manager experience, you can go a lot of places and move up easily.
How many years of working at $40/hr would be required to buy a median house where this guy lives? Because ultimately the dollar amount matters less than the purchasing power.
An experiment I did the other day I found very informative was to "forward-test" my early 20s to see if what I did then would pencil out today. I inflation-adjusted what I made at the time and looked at present market values for apartments I lived in and houses I owned to determine if I could have made it all work today. And I found I couldn't, and it wasn't even close.
After that little experiment I decided I'm completely unqualified to give someone currently in their early 20s advice on what to do.
Possibly 8-10 years if he lived modestly.