We all have those friends where we're like, how do you afford your lifestyle?

We all have those friends where we're like, how do you afford your lifestyle? We know what you do, we know what things cost, and the math just ain't mathin'. I felt the same way in my early 20s, especially living in Scottsdale. I would walk around, I would see the clothes, the cars, the $20 drinks, and genuinely be like, what am I doing wrong? But when I became a financial advisor at 23, my perspective of the world dramatically changed. I got to look under the hood of people's perfect lives, and what I realized is that most people can't actually afford their lifestyle. You're seeing is actually a mountain of high interest debt. Credit card debt in America is at an all-time high. Most Americans actually have less than $1,000 in savings, and something like a $500 emergency would be a crisis. It's also very apparent that most people weren't paying down student loan debt or contributing to retirement accounts. They were living paycheck to paycheck, and what was coming in was going out. You're never going to see the full story, and these people certainly aren't going to tell you the full story. So just remember, what appears to be a flashy lifestyle on the outside does not mean financial peace on the inside. So the message today is just stop feeling behind because you're living within your means. Playing this comparison game isn't going to get you closer to your financial goals. You know how much cash you have, you know where your debt sits, and that's all that matters.