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Today on the show, I want to talk with you about mindset. It's kind of an important topic, and I don't like that word. I just want to very rarely talk about it. But today I can think of no other word to use other than to talk about your mindset.

And my impetus for today is a just a short, fluffy little article that USA Today published that is being mercilessly ratioed on Twitter for allegedly it's out of touchness. Here's the headline of the article, or sorry, the headline of the tweet, which is being ratioed. The average adult in the USA spends $1,497 a month on non-essential items, all told that's roughly $18,000 a year on things we can all do without.

And then it goes on and it breaks down some of the things that the typical American spends on non-essentials, that's what they're calling non-essentials. $209 a month on restaurant meals, $189 a month on drinks, $178 a month on takeouts and delivery, $174 a month on buying lunch, $109 a month on impulse purchases, $96 a month on ride shares, $94 a month on personal grooming, $94 a month on subscription boxes, $91 a month on cable, and $84 a month on online shopping.

They go to the smaller numbers in the actual article, but that's what's included in the little graphic. Now, here's the thing, the tweet is being again, mercilessly ratioed. Currently, as I record this, almost 20 hours after it was published, they have 939 retweets and 6,200 replies, which is a pretty normal, or a pretty good ratio.

Ratioing of course, in the Twitter world for the uninitiated is when a comment is usually considered to be astoundingly bad and everybody just beats up on the original poster instead of wanting to share it with their friends. You know that something is spectacularly bad, evidently. Now, maybe I'm the dense one, maybe I'm the dunderhead here, but I don't think it's spectacularly bad.

Certainly it's not worth ratioing. I would usually just ignore fluffy stuff like this, but when you read the comments, man, if this is an indication of our future, I'll tell you two things. Number one, the future is not bright. And number two, the future can be bright for you.

Because it is stunning to me of how incredibly disempowered the average person is. First of all, why waste any of your time posting stuff on Twitter in response to a mainstream news article like this? And especially, what about making fun of it and complaining? Now, I get that some people enjoy it, but the comments on here are absolutely stunning.

You read so many of them and it's stunning. Now, I don't know how to figure out what my sample set selection bias is of a ratioed Twitter comment, but if this is in any way reflective of any major portion of the US population, collectively we're in for a rough ride and you can have a bright future.

Just, I'll pick and choose a few of these. One writer says this, "Absolutely censored hilarious about how millennials are both to blame for ruining the economy, for not buying as many luxuries, but are also to blame for their financial woes due to buying too many non-essential items such as," checks notes, "haircuts and socializing." Now, this is the kind of comment that I thought was funny because I thought, "Man, I read the article, I didn't think it talked about millennials.

I went and checked." The word millennial appears nowhere in the article. Nowhere, nor in the headline. It doesn't appear. But this poor dude is reviving a debate about how millennials, when millennials aren't even being talked about. Or listen to this exchange from a girl named Alexandra. "Personal grooming, you get fired if you skip that.

Ride shares, people got to get places. If you saved that $96 a month until you could afford a car, and in many places, a place to park it, you'd be missing out on so many opportunities in the meantime. At least four different items on this list add up to food, which is something human beings need to survive.

Online shopping, you're not specifying what people are shopping for. You can buy essentials online. People without, again, cars or places to park them often have to. These breakdowns are so biased in favor of a very narrow and specific vision of life. If someone's spending hundreds of dollars a month on car payments, plus gas, plus maintenance, plus auto insurance, plus parking, you're not going to call that non-essential.

But let someone spend $100 a month using the cheapest version of a taxi available, and that's frivolous. Okay." And then fellow commenter replies, "And even if you cooked nearly every meal, that's not super cost-effective if you live alone and travel a lot. I need to eat on the road.

I also like getting out of the house so I don't go crazy and dining alone and with people because I'm an adult with a career and a life." Another commenter responds to her, "People usually get takeout because they don't have time to cook. They're working late. They have to feed the kids.

They are honestly considering haircuts non-essential. The economy would collapse if people followed their advice. So this is clearly just manipulation." Previous commenter responds, "A lot of disabled people get takeout and delivery. When I was recovering from surgery, something I got again in a few months, I'm sorry, I would have starved to death without delivery apps.

Life is complicated and most of us are just getting by, if we're lucky. However, USA Today needs us to know that it's our fault for eating lunch. We could all be millionaires like those guys whose parents leave them money. I'm a temporarily disabled digital media hustler who needs to frequently buy my time back at best, has no spoons left to do anything at worst.

But according to these brain geniuses, I'm just wasteful. We could all be perfect, but we could have no desires or needs, work all day and night and save our money. But even then, the AI will beat us eventually." I can't read the tweet with a straight face. "Still, they can dream of..." "Still, they can dream of a subjugated population..." I'm going to do this.

I'm going to do this. "Still, they can dream..." Okay. "Still, they can dream of a subjugated population riddled with guilt over their own struggles until that day comes." Other comment... Okay, I'm a professional. I can do this. These are people. These are real people. Or maybe they're Russian bots.

I don't know. "It's so darkly hilarious because these are the same numbnuts who fill their diapers over why millennials aren't buying diamonds or buying fabric softener, but then whine about how the average adult is spending so much on other things. Give it a rest!" I've censored some profanity there.

I apologize. I can't even do it. This is again and again. And then someone else responds to those two people going back and forth. Bert responds with this. He says, "I'm following you both because this thread was 100." Okay. Friends, this is the world we live in. I don't know who these people are, but this is the world that we live in where nobody looks down.

And even if you want to have a debate about, I don't know, ride sharing and should that be a non-essential, probably not. But probably a mixture, right? Most of us drive our cars more than we need to. Most of us probably have more cars than is essential. Lots of people have a car payment that's not essential.

All of us could drive $500 cars. It's not essential. So of course, the whole word essential, the whole thing is put in scare quotes, even in the tweet of non-essentials, and identifying things. But trying to find one comment out of 6,200 comments where somebody says, "Hey, you know what?

I sat down and looked at my budget and figured out that I didn't have to spend $174 a month buying lunch." It doesn't exist in this thread. You've got thousands of people who are doing nothing but complaining about how this person is shaming poor people for their spending decisions.

And don't they recognize that we need to eat? After all, I need to eat. I mean, your heart goes out. Just think about how sad this poor woman's life is. I need to eat on the road. I also like getting out of the house so I don't go crazy and dining alone and with people, because I'm an adult with a career in life.

I mean, you feel sad about it, obviously, but I mean, this is not an uncommon thing. But does nobody sit down and actually think, "Huh, wait a second. Do I need to spend that much money on meals and on drinks and on takeouts and delivery and on buying lunch?" I mean, there's a reason why those four things are the top, because that's where most of us waste a ton of money.

But if you add that up, I mean, let's just ignore the validity of the data, all that stuff. Does nobody sit down and actually think, "Wow, if it were true, just pretend for a moment if it were true, there might be a more efficient way to live than spending $750 per month on restaurant meals, drinks, takeouts, delivery, buying lunch." I mean, there's almost no self-awareness.

There's almost nobody that sits down and says, "I wonder if there's a connection between cause and effect. I wonder if I might be a broke..." What did she say she was? "I wonder if I might be a temporarily disabled digital media hustler who needs to frequently buy my time back at best.

I wonder if the fact that I have no time might be due to the fact that I'm trying to work all the time and maybe I could take a break and cook something instead of spending all my money having other servants cook for me." I mean, that's what it is.

But even Ms. Alexandra originally, personal grooming, you get fired if you skip that. You're telling me that somebody needs to spend $94 a month on personal grooming? Now, what's funny to me is it's a very legitimate question to ask what's included in that. But again and again and again, you find people writing and talking about how, "Well, I'm not going to wear deodorant and I'm not going to cut my hair because I got to get my personal grooming and how ridiculous." $94 a month on personal grooming is ridiculous if you're trying to save money.

It's absurd. My wife and I spend between the two of us, what? It can't be more than $100 a year between the two of us on grooming. It's absurd. Now, you don't have to be as weird as we are, but $94 a month? Now, if you have the money and you want to do it and that's fun, you like to get your nails did and whatever else, fine, do it.

But it's certainly non-essential. At least, be honest, it's non-essential. $189 on... Anyway, I'm not going to get into that. The point I just wanted to drive at was simply how funny it is that this... Just the minor scandal that this is and about... It's crazy. And then what's funny is...

There's so many logical fallacies on here. Mike writes, "Yeah, who the censored needs lunch?" John responds, "Or," Chex notes, "personal grooming." You need lunch, buddy. Well, sometimes. Probably healthier if you skip breakfast, lunch. That's what all the intermittent fasting people say. But you need lunch. But you don't have to buy the most expensive version of it.

Anyway, here's what I see. To bring it down to some themes. Forgive me for losing control. To bring it down to some themes. First, you have to be able to read things like this and recognize it for what it is and then look at your own situation. Somebody writes here, says, "I don't even make $1,400 a month total right now." Lindsay responds, "That was kind of my thought." Paula writes, "Right?

It's clear they're trying to 'poor shame' with this and say that all our money problems are based on cable TV and eating out (apparently every meal) but for me all this says is that USA Today thinks the average American is pulling in $150,000 to afford all that." If you don't make $1,400 a month, this advice is not for you.

I guarantee you're not wasting $1,800 a month or $1,500 a month if you're making $1,400 a month. This is just random fluffery. Look at it and ask yourself, "Am I wasting any money out of my $1,400 a month?" Because I'll tell you what, somebody making $150,000 a year can certainly afford to waste $18,000 a year because they like their coffee, they like their drinks, they like their lunch out, and they like their $94 a month on haircuts or whatever else personal grooming means.

If you're making $150,000 a year, you can afford that if you want to. But you can't if you're making $1,400 a month. You've got to be able to take information and look at your situation and say, "Does this apply to me?" It's funny, this thing about poor shaming, this whole cultural thing that somehow shaming is a bad thing and/or shaming is somehow something you're supposed to avoid.

Pay attention to your own results. There's a big difference between things that are your fault because of your decisions versus things that have happened in your life that are out of your control. Poor shaming nonsense. Here's the point. Friends, we are living in a society where again and again when people talk about a non-essential thing and say, "Oh, the average American is wasting $1,500 a month," you can't believe the number of times where someone talks about, "Oh, but what about the billionaires?

What is their wasting payment? How much money are they wasting?" A billionaire can afford to waste as much money as they want. But what's implied in that is, "Why don't we take some more money from the billionaires?" Here's the other thing. When you live in a society of people who are so weak and so incompetent, I mean, here's Ames, "I'm no big city lawyer, but poor shaming the middle class doesn't seem like a winning social media strategy USA Today." And then Stephen writes, "The economy would implode without the average adult spending on these leisurely items." I don't know what to say.

I guess repeat those two themes. If this is at all reflective of even a modest segment of society, we got big trouble ahead. But you can deal in this mess if you're just halfway intelligent and you look around and save a little bit of money, you can become fabulously rich.

Because here's the reality. The average American does waste $1,500 a month. I don't know if it's this stuff that they wrote about or whatever, but the average American does. The United States economy is swimming in money. It is swimming in money on all sides. And the majority of us need to be made fun of.

The person who is the best at this is Money Mustache. His tone, one of the reasons why he has done so well is he had the proper thing. He did the right thing to mock rich people, six-figure income earners, upper half, upper quartile income earners that are wasting $1,500 a month instead of getting rich.

Those of us who have been in that situation deserve to be mocked mercilessly as Mr. Money Mustache so effectively does. And hopefully that mocking will wake us up to look down and say, "I am behaving stupidly. I should change." I'm not going to mock the poor lady earlier who was struggling to make $1,500 a month or whatever it is.

I'm not going to mock that person. But this doesn't apply to you. This doesn't apply to you. But it sure does apply to a lot of us. So when you read information like this, first be entertained, but recognize we live in a world that is swimming in money for the majority of us.

Not for all of us. A lot of us are struggling. But for the majority of us swimming in money and it's our own stupid decisions that are leading to our poverty for the majority of us. No. USA Today, they didn't even say majority. They're very politically correct. Many of us, that's their comment.

I'm not really sure how to wrap this show up other than to say two things. There is a large mob with pitchforks assembling in a town square. I mean, just listen to these. John writes, "The media does nothing but lie continuously. It's disturbing and sick." Bario responds, "Um, exactly how much do the 1% spend?

Articles like this are a distraction to the dirty truth." John responds, "I'd like to see a corresponding article. The 1% could be solving world hunger every month, but instead they choose yachts and the Met Gala." Zach writes, "Cool character takedown of the working class. Can you do a similar article on how much money the 1% spends on frivolous things?

Fancy clothes, yacht maintenance, fourth or fifth homes? I bet we could replace all our bridges with that money." It just goes on and on. So be warned. We'll see what happens, but be warned. When you have this many thousands of people and you cannot find a single person who says, "Huh, I wonder if I'm wasting money." Hard to know what the future holds, but be encouraged because when you have this many of your fellow members that can't see a distance, your fellow citizens who can't see a little bit of a distance between spending $750 a month on restaurants, drinks, eating out, lunches out, however these were categorized, versus saving a little bit of that money, right now the US economy is a wash in money.

Unemployment is at the lowest it's been for decades, which means that if things aren't working for you right now, you've got a problem that needs solving. Now, I don't know what that problem is. You might have a personal problem. You might be disabled. You might be, I don't know, some major thing that's causing you major problems.

You got to get that fixed because if things aren't working for you now, it's only going to be harder in the future. There's no magic wand that anybody can say is going to solve all financial problems. If you've got a serious problem, health issue, disabled, something like that, you got to do your best right now because the US economy is a wash in money right now.

If you're a competent person and if your life isn't working well right now, if your business is not going well, if your job is not going well, if you're not well employed, if you're not saving money hand over fist, you better carefully look at what you're doing and try to figure out why it's not working for you because it's hard to see how things get better from here.

You've got right now cheap money everywhere. You've got low unemployment everywhere. You've got stock market through the roof. How do those things continue consistently in the next decade? This is the time to be cutting back. This is the time to be saving. This is the time to be stockpiling and getting ready because at some point those trends will turn.

At some point, money will be more expensive. At some point, and unemployment will go up. At some point, stock market will go down. Who knows when? I don't. You probably don't either, but you can at least feel that. So take a moment of introspection when you read something like this.

Don't blame it and say, "Okay, #BernieBro, got to vote in a solution." How are you going to vote in anything better than today? Look at your own life and say, "Is there anything I can be doing differently now?" Because if I can't be doing, if I'm not doing well when things are going well, how do I expect to be doing well when things aren't going well?

This is time for introspection. Don't do what these 6,000 commenters are doing. Think a little bit. If you and I can't get rich in America, it's hard to see how it works anywhere. I mean, just simply, especially on expenses. We can all face challenges with income and there are some structural expenses that are high in the United States like taxes.

But when you get to expenses like stuff, this last weekend I bought some plastic boxes for the children's toys because they were cardboard boxes and they were just making a mess and I got tired of it and said, "That's it." I went and paid retail for plastic boxes. My wife's comment was, "I don't know if I can get used to not having this stuff on the side of the road." In America, it just sits there on the side of the road, free, free for you, free food, free boxes, free everything, just sitting there.

If you can't do that and figure out how to lower your income or your expenses, I don't know where you do it. Last thing is this. Recognize that there are some people who are just truly ignorant and your heart goes out to them because how do they function in a modern world?

One commenter writes here, Bizzabel writes this, "The average US adult, I'm sure, doesn't make $1,500 a month, especially in low-income states like Oklahoma." I repeat, this person says this, "The average US adult, I'm sure, doesn't make $1,500 a month, especially in low-income states like Oklahoma." Now, what's amazing is that somebody could think that and believe that.

First of all, of course, it's easily most obviously disproven. The median household income in the United States of America is $61,000 and an adult, it's very hard to live. How could you not make $1,500 a month and live? It's tough, tough. Possible, no few people, disabled, living on $700 a month, it's possible, but it's wildly inaccurate.

And yet this is what a competent, I guess I shouldn't necessarily use that adjective, but an adult woman believes. So the financial literacy that we face is so low, it's hard to know what to do with it. Anyway, I'll stop complaining. I just want to point out to you this.

Pay attention. If this ratioing of just some of a silly little thing is reflective, just pay attention to that. Watch the mob with pitchforks. Number two, this is the time. This is the time to cut back. This is the time to save. This is the time to make more.

This is the time to change jobs. If you haven't changed jobs in the last couple of years, but you're not making as much as you think you need to or something like that, this is the time. If you're not buying the stuff while it's that you need, while it's cheap, this is the time.

This is the time right now. Things are good. If they're not good for you, make sure you understand why. Because in the future, things will not be good. My hope is if you do the right things today, that even when things aren't good, things can still be good for you.

I guess today I'll advertise my how to survive and thrive during the coming economic crisis course. If you haven't taken it, you really should. I don't know what to say other than that. Go to radicalpersonalfinance.com/store. If you are interested in a rational, thoughtful plan to help you survive and thrive during the coming economic crisis, it's available for you at radicalpersonalfinance.com/store.

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