Risk is required in any game. The riskiest game however is not playing.
The worst pain has to be the pain of wondering “what if?” Don’t settle for safety. It’s not real. We all end up dead.
The debt-to-income ratio for all homebuyers in the US just hit 40% for the first time in history.
Even in the 2008 financial crisis, this ratio peaked at ~39%.
This comes as total household debt just hit a record $17.1 trillion and credit card debt crossed $1 trillion for the first time ever.
Consumers are borrowing at a record pace all while savings are declining and rates are rising.
What's the long-term plan here?
I remember when I was at my lowest a few years back, I would scour the web for any source of light that would allow me to keep pushing forward.
Those searches would lead me to the most obscure, esoteric sources. A random Reddit post with only a few views that I'd recite as a daily affirmation. A page 7 Google link from an unknown forum, that then led me to an even more cryptic blog I'd read every night.
It's insane to think that somehow, these pockets of the internet barely anyone knew about, left such a palpable imprint on me. Changed my trajectory forever. Honestly saved my life.
Years later, you're "better" now, so you slowly forget the details of that period of your past reality. But every once in a while, a little reminder will happen to grace you.
You're trying to find something in your bookmarks, and notice that one article. You scroll through your camera roll to send someone a photo, and see a screenshot you don't recognize. Click it, and it's that one snippet.
Immediately, you're thrown into a time capsule. The emotions flood back. For a moment, you can feel a tinge of the intensity of how it once was, as if you were there again, and you just can't help but sit with the catatonia for a bit.
It's almost as if you had reconnected with an old flame, except it's literally just words. You never met that anonymous person who wrote those words, and they have no idea how much of an impact they were truly able to make, but it's like that person was there with you during the entirety of your journey.
Such a bizarre experience, filling you with simultaneous melancholy and contentment. There was no way you would've been able to come across those sources had you not gone through what you did. In a way, they found you when you needed it the most, disappeared from your everyday consciousness when you no longer needed it, and divinely show up in unpredictable ways when you might've needed it again.
You can't just pick up that magic at the Best Seller's section of Barnes & Noble. You can't just type in "I need inspiration" on ChatGPT and absorb that same level of resonance.
It had to be serendipitous, in only that manner, for only that period of time. Nobody knows, or will ever know. It'll never hit them the same as it hit you. It's part of who you are, and only you. That's what makes it so special. Recognize the beauty in that. You'll look back at today at some point in the future and feel the same way.
@e_emilyj@JosiahBates@MichaelMatteoRo You’ll be fine, I just finished BCS for the first time and was spoiled a couple of times but you never know really how things happen so it still hits