There’s a gnarly case of financial nihilism growing in the USA right now.

Is it already in your household?

It’s true that things feel more expensive than ever and that the gap between the lower-middle classes and the upper end of the income spectrum is growing wider and wider.

And we sure don’t get the house prices that boomers got.

People find themselves thinking things like:

And while the emotion behind those statements is totally valid, a lot of people are taking that sense of financial nihilism and channeling it into unbelievably risky financial decisions.

73% of people who use sports betting, prediction markets, and cryptocurrencies say they're doing it “because they feel financially behind and think those investments offer a faster path to their goals than traditional methods.”

Those are quick ways to lose money, not to build wealth.

But what people are forgetting is that they have a whole toolbelt of viable financial investments that could build solid, real wealth over time…

They just take patience.

And not sure about you, but we would rather show our kids how to build something than teach them to bet on “catch up” gambles.

In today’s edition: 

✅ The Problem with Financial Nihilism
✅ The Top 3 Wealth Building Tools at Your Disposal
✅ What to Teach Your Kids Instead of Financial Nihilism

Bon apétit 🧑‍🍳

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Lately online (especially on X), it seems like everyone is focused more than ever on what they don’t have.

People seem obsessed with how impossible it is to “catch up,” and there’s a constant sense of urgency to “escape the permanent underclass” by making it big before AI takes over everything.

The tough part is that there is some truth to those statements.

Prices are higher than ever on everything from homes to groceries, and people who were invested in the stock market 20 years ago are living on a different planet from those of us who just started investing recently.

No wonder a sense of financial nihilism has set in, and no wonder people are turning to things like sports betting, prediction markets (think sports betting for everything), and memecoins. 

And it’s also true that AI will change everything, and we think that people who aren’t invested will probably be left behind by those who aren’t.

But guess what?

That has always been true.

You have more options now than ever for how you could go about your wealth-building journey.

And today, we’re going to focus on three tried and true methods.

We’re throwing gambling, sportsbetting, and memecoins in the trash (not all crypto though. Bitcoin’s still cool in our opinion). 

Here are the top three wealth creating tools in our eyes:

It might seem boring, but wow, does it work (historically speaking).

I mean, 401(k)s aren’t so popular for nothing!

Sure, you could put $20K on a basketball game and potentially lose it all.

Or, you could sock away 15% of your income (with a 4% match from your employer) for a few decades and retire as a millionaire. Literally just from 401(k) contributions.

Or, if you don’t have a 401(k), index funds work just as well.

Don’t believe us? Here, we’ll do a calculation of investing 10% of your income with a $63,795 salary (national average) with no 401(k) match to start.

* Assuming a 7% average rate of return:

It would take 31 years to reach $1,000,000 if you invest 15% of your income with a salary of $63,795.

And that’s not considering any raises, 401(k) matches, or higher percentages than 15%.

What if you have a 4% match?

It would take 28 years to reach $1,000,000 if you invest 15% of your $63,795 salary with a 4% match.

“Honestly, in today’s day and age, $1,000,000 isn’t much.”

Well, you could consider investing some money into individual stocks. That’s way more risky, but it also has potential for far higher gains than index funds do.

Or, you could check out the other two tools:

We know. It’s more expensive than ever to buy a home.

However, if you’re going to live in the same town for a long time and you buy a home within your means, it can be a great wealth-building investment.

That’s because you’re building equity over time. Sure, you’re also paying off interest on your loan for a while, but then after a certain point, most of your home payments are going directly toward your ownership of that house. 

While with rentals, you have to pay the recurring monthly cost of rent… without ever building ownership.

So if you buy a $300,000 home, after you pay off the 15-year or 30-year mortgage, you now have $300,000 added to your net worth (or whatever the home is worth at that time).

Renters don’t have that added benefit.

However, renters have an advantage over owners in another sense.

Because costs will be much lower for renters, they’re often able to put more money toward investing than homeowners are.

Think about it:

The key to doing more of the first two things on this list is the third: increase your income. There are three main ways to do that:

Starting a business carries a lot of risk, but the upside potential is huge. And if you don’t go into debt to start your business, even if it fails, you can just go back to your old career and build up savings to try again if you want.

And if your business succeeds, the payoff can be huge. For example, if your job pays ~$60K a year, but you were able to build a company to $400K in revenue a year and take home even just $120K of that for yourself, you’d double your salary. You’d also be at risk of losing it all.

“But that’s just like gambling!” Well, all investment carries risk. We’d just much rather build something like a business that contributes to society and our family’s wellbeing than to throw it all into memecoins or sports betting, personally.

If you don’t want to start a business but really want to increase your income, you should focus on progressing your career. Take more responsibility at your job, have those conversations with your boss, and gun for those promotions. 

If you don’t have a career with a clear track for growth, consider getting one:

If your main job doesn’t provide opportunities for growth but you don’t want to or can’t switch careers, you could consider getting a side hustle.

These make for a simple way to increase your income with any extra time you have… just make sure you calculate whether your hourly side hustle wages make it worth it!

The main point here is that the old ways of doing things still work. Don’t buy into the narrative that everything is over and that you have to gamble in order to get ahead. Or do, if you want—just know that we won’t be.

Cheers to getting 1% better each week! 🥂

We’d love to know, and we might share your response in the next edition!

Just hit reply and let us know.

Thanks for reading,
—Your friends @ Future Funders 🍽️

P.S. Forward this to someone who could use some hope about their financial future 😁