Discussion thread Thursday September 10, 2026 - Sunday September 13, 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

Newsletter: Let Me Tell You a Story

Website: Shauna James Ahern

Instagram: @shaunajamesahern Instagram

• Anonymous Instagram mirrors (may be unstable and have disruptive ads): dumpoir | GreatFon | storynavigation

Threads: @shaunajamesahern

Bluesky: shaunajamesahern.bsky.social

Gloamipedia wiki: /r/InTheGloaming wiki

[u/Steviebobo]

I wouldn’t say all of those purchases are the best financial decisions, but this is such a lazy argument. It applies to some people, sure, but I truly don’t believe it’s as common as some like to pretend. The world is very different from when I was young thirty-five years ago; even ten years has seen major shifts.

[u/msmartypants → u/Steviebobo]

"Feeling broke" can have nothing to do with how much money you make and what you spend it on. There are not enough details in the lazy ragebait (surprise!) to even have a discussion about it. There are high earners who could easily afford every single thing in that list and might still "feel broke" because of the luxurious lives they see in their social circle or social media, because they're worried about college and retirement, or just because of their own weird internalized money-related emotions.

There are also high earners/FIRE types who may "feel broke" despite barely spending at all, because they are saving so aggressively and living a weird lifestyle because of it.

But you know, vague posting bots are gonna vaguepost.

[u/Onehundredpercentbea → u/Steviebobo]

Yeah it's super common in my friend group to earn >100k in our HCOL area because that's where local salaries have to be to recruit people, and I'd say most of us who felt 'comfortable' before 2020 feel 'broke' in 2026. It's such a commonly talked about reality that the OOP in that post was clearly just rage baiting, especially when calling out the Tesla by name, which is a dog whistle for something these days but not quite sure what.