>>81831879
The average citizen has no influence over the policies of the nation. Place the blame at the feet of those responsible. Some intellectuals decided importing millions of poor, uneducated people was good, because reasons, and convinced politicians to do it.

>>60586420
Sure I'll go first.
>around ~$250K in TDA stock portfolio in end of 2019 and ~$100K in cash for downpayment on home.
>Probably doubled that to around $700K range by early 2021 when I switched to IBKR to use those low 3-4% margin rates
>nearly $1M mark by end of 2021
>got BTFO in 2022 & 2023 but kept buying the dips.
>Portfolio peak was at Summer 2024 at around $1.2M before I took out around $300K for down payment on RE in 2024. But magically back to $1M again this year because zion don wants to pump the markets.
>Missed the RE boat in 2019-2023 so mortgage rate at ~5.5% in 2024
>RE value risen since 2024
>luckily borrowed money with business during pandemic at <4%
>biz inventory is PM related and PM has sky rocketed
>didn't need to jump job since I'm the boss. Had to work a lot of OT during 2020-2023 since workers had so much power in the job market.

I don't think I've "made it" but I certainly tried my best to take advantage of a pretty chaotic few years. Could I have done better? Maybe gotten into crypto, made less bad investments here or there, or been more aggressive in borrowing or whatever? Sure but overall I think I did good. Not great. Not excellent. C+/B- grade probably.

For those that didn't invest, then I'd understand why they think it's a clown world that is going to shit because there was a pandemic, then war, then a lot of inflation, full of scam coins/spacs/longtermUStreasuries/fiat, very little stability, then rising debt costs, and lots of events coming out of left field.

Oldfags check in; feels good to be too old for the draft