A Savage Reality Check (PLUS the Income Tier Breakdown You Need to See)
This post takes a hard look at the idiocy of the status culture, hustle culture, and delusional financial expectations that far too many people fall prey to.
Young people today, Millennials and Gen Zs, as a collective, sincerely believe that they have it worse than the generations before them.
Much worse…
While I acknowledge that things are certainly more challenging in a different way for Millennials and Gen Z than it was for Generation X (my generation) and Baby Boomers, I am of the opinion that the economic anxiety the younger generations are experiencing is cultivated by the media and social media influencers.
Let’s begin with a harsh truth…
Most of you think you need to be rich because you have been conditioned to believe it will solve all your problems and relieve your anxieties.
The reality is that you really don’t want to be rich.
You simply want to stop feeling like failures — and you think money will fix that.
It won’t.
The obsession with “getting rich” is the biggest cope of the modern era.
Social media broke your brain and convinced you that a normal, comfortable life represents failure rather than success.
This post is intended to drag idiotic influences such as:
- Hustle culture
- Luxury influencers on social media
- Crypto bros
- FIRE extremists (Financial Independence, Retire Early, a lifestyle focused on extreme saving and investing to achieve early retirement)
- Every delusional 24-year-old who thinks they need $10M to be “comfortable.”
Buckle up…
🔥 1. “Rich” Isn’t a Number — It’s often calculated insecurity.
You think you need:
-$100k in your 20s
-$250k by 30
-$1M by 40
-$10M by 50
Who told you this?
Oh right — the same internet influencers who make their money selling you on the fantasy of making easy big money and the luxurious lifestyle it buys.
Meanwhile, your grandparents had:
- One car
- One income
- A small home
- Two kids
- Lawn chairs
- A retirement account that didn’t include a meme coin
…and they felt rich as hell.
Why?
Because their expectations matched the reality they could actually achieve.
Yours matches what TikTok influencers told you. Which only serves to ramp up your anxiety.
🔥 2. You don’t want wealth — you want relief from your own anxiety.
People say they want to be rich.
But what they actually want is:
- To not worry about bills
- To not hate their job
- To not feel embarrassed socially
- To not feel the need to constantly compare themselves to people they think are doing better than they are
You don’t need riches to achieve these goals.
You need peace.
Peace doesn’t require $10M.
It requires:
- Boundaries
- Financial literacy
- Fewer stupid purchases
- A lifestyle you can actually achieve and maintain
But “be responsible” doesn’t sell as well as “get rich.”
The irony is that it takes being responsible to build wealth.
🔥 3. Lifestyle inflation is why you feel broke, not your supposed lack of income.
Making $200k but living a $220k lifestyle is poverty with better furniture.
Most people aren’t underpaid.
They’re just allergic to the phrase:
“No, I don’t need that.”
If you controlled your lifestyle creep, you’d feel wealthy at half your income.
But you don’t want financial peace.
You want to impress people who don’t even like you.
🔥 4. Social media created a generation that thinks an ordinary life is a sign of failure.
A normal, ordinary life used to be:
- A mortgage you could afford
- A car that runs
- A spouse you love
- A job you don’t hate
- Having sufficient savings for emergencies
Thanks to Instagram influencers, now it’s:
- Rooftop brunches
- Biannual vacations to places like Cabo, Aruba, and Europe
- Luxury self-care
- $300 dinners
- Designer everything
- Impression management as a lifestyle (projecting the air of wealth)
Most of you aren’t financially struggling.
You’re struggling for attention and external validation.
🔥 5. The real flex isn’t in having wealth — it’s in not needing wealth to feel validated.
Anyone can chase status.
The real winners are the people who:
- Live quietly
- Live below their means (or at least within their means)
- Have “time freedom” (work-life balance)
- Don’t feel the need to perform for the internet (aka: clout chasing)
If you need wealth to feel worthy, you’ll still feel empty when you get it.
đź’° **THE INCOME TIER BREAKDOWN:
What Life Actually Feels Like at Every Level (Savage, Not Sanitized)**
💵 $30k–$45k: One Financial Shock Away From Disaster
You feel behind — because you are.
Every bill feels like an audit of your life choices.
You’re not living, you’re maintaining.
A flat tire can ruin your month.
Dating is hard because lifestyle differences show instantly.
But…
If you’re single, smart, and disciplined, you can still build from this level.
Most people don’t — they cope-scroll on Instagram instead.
💵 $50k–$65k: The “I’m Not Poor, But I’m Not Safe” Zone
You have stability, not comfort.
Bills get paid, but you feel one level below the life you want.
You can date, go out, enjoy life — but everything is calculated.
Lifestyle creep hits hardest here.
This is the most psychologically dangerous tier because you feel like you should be doing better.
💵 $70k–$100k: The Underrated Sweet Spot
This is the middle-class paradise too many people at this level don’t appreciate.
You’re fine. Really.
You can afford almost everything that actually matters.
Vacations are possible.
Savings are possible.
Stress drops dramatically if you keep expenses reasonable.
But social media convinces you that $100k means you’re “broke.”
You’re not.
Your expectations are broken.
💵 $120k–$160k: Comfortable — Until You Ruin It
At this tier:
You can have a house, a car, dinners out, vacations, kids…
You can build wealth.
You are in prime position to retire normally.
But most people at this level self-sabotage by:
- Buying an ultra luxury car
- Chasing status
- Moving into a home that is too big or more expensive than they actually need
- Inflating their lifestyle more than necessary in order to “feel rich”
- Comparing themselves to people making triple their income
At this tier, and in most places in the United States, you are wealthy, but only if you can remain humble.
It’s a self-imposed hell if you’re insecure.
💵 $180k–$250k: High Income, Low Peace
On paper, you’re “rich.”
In reality?
Taxes can punch you in the throat if you don’t understand them.
Expenses can scale with every raise.
Your friend group now includes people making triple your income, so you will feel broke again if you’re insecure and/or fall prey to social media influencers.
You are likely working too much to truly enjoy the lifestyle you’re paying for.
This is the tier where people start saying:
“I need a million a year.”
No.
You need boundaries.
💵 $300k–$500k: You’re Wealthy, But Your Life Probably Owns You
Now we get to the “rich” tier. Meaning, this is the level where you are considered wealthy virtually anywhere in the country.
Here’s the truth…
You have freedom if you choose it. But most don’t.
Work likely consumes your identity.
You’re likely feeling afraid to lose the lifestyle you’ve built, which creates its own unique form of anxiety.
You likely barely see your family.
Your stress is chronic, but that’s socially acceptable.
You likely feel like you’re constantly sprinting to maintain stability.
Are you rich?
Yes.
Do you feel rich?
Almost never.
The people you’re comparing yourself to are in a completely different stratosphere.
That’s why this tier is miserable for insecure people and magical for people who are content with where they are and have a healthy work-life balance.
🔥 THE FINAL REALITY CHECK
Most people don’t need more money.
They simply need fewer illusions and to temper their expectations.
To live well, you don’t need:
- Millions in the bank
- Luxury goods galore
- Status
- Unlimited income
- A penthouse
- Passive income, though this helps and is built when you’re young to enjoy when you’re older
- The fantasies sold to you by luxury lifestyle influencers
All you need to lead a healthy, happy, fulfilling lifestyle is:
- Realistic expectations
- A sustainable and unique lifestyle (live within or slightly below your means)
- Financial discipline
- Emotional maturity
- The courage to stop performing like you have wealth you don’t actually possess (“faking it till you make it”)
“Rich” isn’t represented by a large and arbitrary number.
Rich is being able to say:
“I have enough — and I don’t need to chase anyone else’s definition.”
That’s the kind of wealth most people never achieve. It’s also the kind of wealth you don’t have to crush your soul to obtain.
You just have to be intelligent enough and prudent enough to realize you don’t have to emulate what you see on social media.
Most of those people are faking at being wealthy.
Real wealth doesn’t have to announce itself.
-The Rational Ram
The Rational Ram 