> After I finished school, as a software engineer I bought a home and a car (by taking a loan) and effectively I had negative wealth. I mean, sure... but your

> After I finished school, as a software engineer I bought a home and a car (by taking a loan) and effectively I had negative wealth. I mean, sure... but your wealth was only negative for a VERY short period of time. Your car still had value and you could close that gap in probably a few months and be net-worth positive. I think there are way more people who are paycheck-to-paycheck at best. The average credit card debt in the USA is thousands of dollars. I don't think that's because people are just stupid with money, I think a lot of that comes out of necessity because they can't keep their head above water.