Land owning isn’t meant to be for serfs lol.
I had a friend from Germany who mentioned once that owning property there is very rare for most people unless they’re from very old conservative generational wealth. He said that houses and property often end up passed down in the same families over and over. He was well educated and happy with his career, but he never had any kind of expectation he would get to own property at some point in his life.
Not sure where you’re from, but it kind of feels like the U.S. is becoming more and more like that. Except, we also don’t get healthcare, and to even get the privilege of an education people are increasingly having to take on a level of debt that one would expect to take on as an investment in property even though there is no guarantee your investment will pay off. It’s concerning though, that when this is pointed out to people, it’s often cited as a reason you just shouldn’t bother with college.
Owning private property is becoming more and more a privilege reserved for only the elite, not an expectation or “entitlement.” Ok, well that kind of sucks, but I guess you don’t have to own property to have a decent life.
But, then it’s clear we’re supposed to accept that healthcare is somehow also becoming a privilege reserved for the elite and not an expectation or “entitlement?”
And, we’re hearing conservatives, often from backgrounds of generational wealth, talk more and more about abolishing the department of education. So, that means that soon we could be expected to view education of any kind (not just college) as something we’re not “entitled” to.
It’s also clear that many of the people creating these policies, and encouraging other people not to waste their time on worthless college degrees, were born into lives where our “entitlements” are simply their default expectations.
However, when they address their voters, it’s always the “entitled” and the “educated elites,” who are somehow responsible for their hardships, the overall decline in their quality of life, and the lack of opportunities and resources that have gradually become the default expectation for most Americans.
The “entitled” takers who want to be handed what can only be obtained through hard work and sacrifice that will pay off as long as you really try. And if it doesn’t, you shouldn’t start asking questions of “why,” like those educated elites, you should just accept that you must have done something, that those who have what you don’t, would have done differently, in order to rise to the top.
I’m smart enough to know that the reason I don’t own property and probably never will, isn’t because I haven’t tightened my belt enough, or pulled myself up by my bootstraps, or because of my worthless college degree that has brainwashed me into believing I’m entitled to something I’m not.
Neither of my parents went to college, yet they were always told the same bullshit when they asked too many questions about why the game always felt so rigged no matter how hard you tried.
Let’s all spend time learning about construction and planning and build our own housing!
There was once a time when people educated themselves not because they wanted a particular job in the economy, but because they saw value in education and wanted to participate in the human tradition of advancing the specie’s ability to understand and use nature. You didn’t need school to be a blacksmith, for example, but perhaps just an apprenticeship (experience).
There’s a point to be made here, about how this degrades the value of education. It’s great for capitalism, making survival—or “living well”—contingent on qualifications derived from paid education. But what have we lost in this process? It feels, to me at least, like we’ve created a culture where education is a mere lineitem on a checklist. How might that change what education is, what it’s expected to be, and what sort of innovation comes from it?
38 with a masters degree. No house in sight. Good luck. Remember, there is always [redacted].
Squatters rights?
We should go to college for free if we choose to and also be able to afford a house regardless of our employment type I agree.
Reasons for going to college…
Our president sucks balls in every way possible and you would like to be president and do good via the knowledge gained.
You would like to design spacecraft.
You would like to give others brain surgeries with successful outcomes.
Your bus in never on time and you would like to fix that or have a say in the reasons why a bus might be late.
You like cheese and would like to discover new types of cheese via biology and chemistry. Oh shit, you accidentally invented antigravity, there goes your cheese.
Depending on the field, going to college might not significantly improve your chances.
you guys are getting houses?
Yeah.
Honestly, I’m just avoiding having kids and hope we don’t start killing each other for food and water by the time I die.
What makes you think people with degrees can afford a house by 30?
I usually hear people say US wages are great, and yet we managed to buy a house in our 20s when I was on near UK minimum wage. That was a couple of years ago as I am not in my 20s anymore. But I can still save up hundreds a month without even trying very hard.
No degree, no driving licence. The internet gave me the impression it wasn’t this easy. I would acknowledge only having unstable work at best must suck a lot more though.
And especially after goibg to an US college.
All I heard so far, you will be even further away from reaching the house goal.I think people with degrees are less likely to own a house by the age of 30, because they studied longer and have to pay off debt first. The only reason i own a house is because i found one for super cheap and renovated it myself.
That’s probably the best strategy. Or buying a duplex and renting half of it. Either way now-a-days in America you gotta be willing to put ALOT of sweat equity in the get a shelter
Or buying a duplex and renting half of it
That’s just buying two houses to rent one though
You kidding me dude? I’m past 40 and not chance to own a house. Grad and masters degree, working in IT. Ah and uni was good and free. granted that was in the developing world, now living in 1st world, but still no house.
When I was 7 my parents owned a house AND bought a beach house.
what happened to all the money your parents had from those houses?
If they’re anything like mine they squandered it on expensive shit they didn’t need. Mine even sold their nice old house to have a new smaller one built in a cramped housing development with an HOA and they broke even. I don’t know wtf they were thinking.
Only good way to get a house by age 30 is to become a plumber, electrician or other type of job that pays well with minimal study and save up while living at parents or sharing a flat with 3 mates.
Then you need to save heavily and invest in stocks and/or bonds with the saved money so you can beat inflation. With around 30k saved per year it’s possible to get pretty early onto the property ladder.
Going to college and living somewhere in NYC for example will get you nowhere close to 30k a year with student debt and if you have a kid you’re screwed.
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I got an MS in a STEM field and wasn’t able to buy a house until I was 36, supervising multiple employees, and married to someone who also contributed.
you’re lucky, what major was it, i had a friend who got the MS version of BS degree, no job, but she had a partner so shes pretty much fine, since she already gave up searching for a job like less than 6 months.
a lot of people it takes years to find a job. esp if they are picky. my brother has been unemployed for 3 years but only because he’s a snob and refuses to work for a non-elite company.
cherry picking yea is a problem too. does he have experience in the field, he shouldve gone for any job thats in field. some people have been searching for years but dint cherry pick and they left eh field as a result of the low job prospects. the longer your bro waits, the less likely he will get hired, because time between your school(job gap) only increases, if his study was in tech, it would be foolish for him to not take a tech job, lol. my bros are in tech and it took them at least 1 year to find a job in tech, this was pre-pandemic of course.
other stems have a much harder to time getting into.
I’m over 40 and could only buy a house somewhere in nowhere land with massive commute needs.
It’s not feasible and I earn way over average salary.
What is “way over average”?
i know people in their late 20s that are buying houses on salties of like 80k-120k. I make like 45ish on average, but people my age are buying houses
I make 150K and to buy an affordable home that isn’t a teardown, say under 600K, you need a two hour commute from the downtown area. Anything inside an hour of the downtown is more like 800K+ and being bought up by people with family money or 300-400K yearly incomes. someone making 45K in my city needs to live multiple people to a bedroom to afford rent.
But it’s all about where you live and the incomes. Where I live 150K income puts you only in the top 20% of households. And I don’t have family money backing me like most of my peers in the housing market. Most of my friends got 100-200K gifts from family to buy their homes.
53% above average of my country.
Buying a house without signing up for a lifetime crippling dept is plain impossible in large cities.
To get into a cost range where my wife (same salary) and I feel comfortable to take on a loan requires us to move roughly one or two hours train travel out into the countryside.
You dont have to go to college to afford a house by 30.
Likewise, going to college alone does nothing to ensure you’re going to get a job that can afford a house.
If anything I suspect it may hinder your chances. 3 years not earning and debts to pay back.
The hard reality is that if you are pursuing higher education and you’re not also part of the culture of connections and schmoozing and socializing and having your parents party with the parents of faculty members and deans and heads of this and that, your chances of getting a job with your degree are about the same as your chances of just lying on linkedin.
Speaking as someone who landed a corporate tech job from lying on linkedin, and seeing friends with degrees flipping burgers if they’re lucky.
Louisiana baby. 2100 sqft 0.3 acre 4 bed 2 bath recently renovated for 130k
Exactly and those sorts of deals are everywhere.
Now is the house in some place you would want to live. Well that is another question.
Yeah. But that one would me living in Louisiana.
Op thinks we can afford a house by 30 if we go to college.

I think the non-college route yielded better than college for my age cohort. First dude I knew who bought a house was like 19 and he’d been working at Costco for 4+ years. 2008 happened and suddenly this young man had a stable job and savings and looked great on paper 🥲
People I know with most real estate are 2 kinds.
- inherited everything.
- stayed in hotel Mama for free for years while not studying, but working as plumber/contractors/mechanic etc starting age 18-19. By the time they moved out age 26-30 they were already loaded, renting out multiple apartments.
Both required parents, either they had to be wealthy and die early or decided to gift capital early; or to be super supportive, fun (tolerable) enough to keep living with after 18 and not asking you to pay rent.
36 and counting…
42 and counting… I actually have some small hope of trying to buy a house next year though. Not in my home of America though, it’ll be as an expat, and contingent on a foreign bank extending me credit. Not a sure thing at all, but… I’m hoping? There might actually be a path forward? Maybe?




