Sorry, but you can't say that you're "not rich," if you're throwing over half a hundred thousand dollars into cryptocurrency. 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/27/60percent-of-americans-are-s...
I'm sure you're a respectable person, and you might not be wealthy by Valley standards, but you're definitely rich. The median American in the 45–54 age bracket has merely seven thousand dollars more saved for retirement than you had thrown into crypto.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/30/vanguard-how-much-americans-...
That means every tenth person in line at the DMV (a decent cross-section of society) is worth over a million dollars, and if you're in a major metropolitan area, much more.
You should take those headlines with a grain of salt because they grossly misrepresent the studies they are reporting on. Quoting directly from your article:
"The median 401(k) balance is just $35,345."
Most people who have a 401(k) work at more than one company in their career and rarely roll funds over into the new company's 401(k). It's more common to leave it or roll it into an IRA.
All we know is the median 401(k) account balance at Vanguard is $35k. Vanguard doesn't know about these people's other retirement accounts at Fidelity or Schwab or wherever. If their customers hold IRAs at Vanguard, those aren't accounted for. In the case that a person has multiple 401(k) accounts with Vanguard, it wasn't even clear if the account balances are summed together and counted as one account.
tl;dr These reports are always about average and median retirement account balances, which is not at all the same as average and median retirement savings.
I assume retirees prefer greeter jobs because those probably don't require lifting anything heavy, as a stocker or cashier might need to do.
2. Median doesn’t work that well here. They may not live in a median American town. You are probably uber rich in comparison to the median Earthling
I don't want to rub on your wound but you need to take some responsibility as well. You knew crypto was risky. You knew many exchanges have scammed and went under, taking their customer's funds with them. It's arguable that every crypto exchange is shady and it's inevitable that every single one them will fall.
You should also blame the laws because exchanges and most crypto are clearly securities. But our law makers have been slow to respond and have probably been paid off by crypto money.
In fact, the same crypto bros argue that they should NOT be regulated.
I don't know what your financial situation is but I'm not rich, and it is extremely painful to look at ETH trading at above $3000 and realizing my rainy day fund has been stolen by criminal nincompoops.
My personal values dictate that I be significantly more careful with money when it is someone else's money. Even if you gave me $20 to get you a Burrito, I'll get you the best deal, tip the minimum, and give you your exact change. I'd even give you a few cents more just in case because I don't want to be owing you anything.
So when a group of people behaves irresponsibly with people's money it boils my blood. He deserves every jail year he got, just on the hubris alone.