The American Dream nay Nightmare

Dear girls,

Despite dad and my best effort, all your life you'll be submitted to a barrage of marketing and messaging that tells you that you should live a certain way.  Even at 7 and 4, you watch TV and movies that sneakily entice you to buy toys and things. That's why I like PBS.  No commercials.  We try to keep this away from you guys, but taking y'all shopping is a nightmare.  An exercise in saying 'No, you can't have that.'

It seems that everything in our society is about buying more, getting more, having more, earning more, more more more.  And that's really unfortunate, because it sets you guys up to accept a way of life without question.  A way of life where it's weird to save money and try to be financially independent.  You're the odd person out for saying 'no, I can't afford to do X' or 'I'm saving my money to invest, I don't want to buy the new fancy toys'.

And so you end up with people, like your dad and I, who are in debt because we made decisions without really considering the consequences.  Debt traps you and makes you a slave.  You lose the ability to CHOOSE your life when you're in debt, because debt needs to be paid off.  That's the struggle I'm having right now.  How to make decisions that make sure we can still pay down our debts, but that also don't put our lives on hold, and give us the opportunity to make the most of our time with you.  Because time is the one thing you can't get more of.  And the pair of you grow up so darn fast.

Below I've shared the 3 simple sounding rules to make sure you're in control, and not your money choices.  Money is a tool, and I'm hoping by the time you two are on your own, dad and I will have taught you how best to use it.

Love,
Mom

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I'm listening to The Simple Path to Wealth by J.L. Collins and his advice is really really simple.  I'll summarize.
1) Avoid debt, because no debt is good debt no matter what they tell you (I'll tell you about what is good debt, fur real, someday, as getting debt to by an income producing asset is actually a good way to go).
2) Save as much as you can, hopefully at least 50% of your income.  This will be a combination of how much you earn, and living a frugal lifestyle.  This one is all about running your life on your priorities and values.
3) Invest what you save in low fee index funds.

That's it.  Item 2 is the hardest and will require you to make unusual choices that other people and society will pressure you about.  It will require you to know your priorities and values and if they don't mesh with societal norms, to resist the pressure to give in.