Welcome to Z-Pack: a newsletter guaranteed to make sure you’re not the dumbest at dinner.

If this is your first Z-pack, welcome - I'm Zach.

I’m also chronically online, finding out how the world works, so enjoy the goods.

⬇️ Let’s get to it.

💵 Living paycheck-to-paycheck is B.S.

🚨What you hear from mainstream media & doomers:

• Majority of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck

• Most struggle to make ends meet

• Most have no savings

Reality (from the Federal Reserve, not your whacky uncle on Facebook):

• Typical US household has 5 weeks of income saved.

• Median American household has a net worth of $193k

  • Same household holds $8k in checking/savings

• 54% of adults have 3 months of expenses saved

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying everyone is living the gravy life, or that there are no real problems to solve still (i.e. housing crisis), but let’s not trick ourselves into thinking we’re worse off than we actually are, especially compared to not too long ago (the 90s).

Sometimes we need a reality check to keep us from going bonkers.

🚀 The end of extreme poverty

Recently, the Brookings Institution (an American think tank) shared how new data suggests that India has “practically eliminated extreme poverty”.

Which is why I've shared the bigger picture in the above tweet of how this fits into the broader trend we’re seeing of the decline in extreme poverty.

Max, the author of the tweet above, created Our World in Data, an awesome website that has created super helpful visualizations and breakdowns of data that is usually lost in the confusing pile of massive reports from organizations, like the World Bank.

 📉 Housing prices & rents can decrease!

Why is housing so expensive now? Because we, in general, don’t build enough housing. Plain and simple. It’s not the climate, interest rates, etc.

It’s a classic supply/demand issue.

But the good news: it doesn’t have to be like this. And already, the government is increasingly getting behind the mantra “Build, build, build” to address our housing crisis.

All we have to do is follow examples like Austin & Houston, TX, which permit and build WAY more housing than all the other areas that block new housing (for many silly reasons), like NYC, Seattle, etc.

💸 The biggest money-making machine in history

I mean this is nuts.

And everyday Americans are able to participate in the greatest money-making machine in history: the U.S. stock market.

Not only that, but thank heavens, it seems like we’re getting better at (somehow) reducing the number of recessions (again, despite all of the negative media).

🎢 Do you remember FTX?

In case you forgot, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was the CEO of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, that collapsed in 2022 and was later found guilty of mismanaging funds = lots of scandalous stuff.

Here’s a hilarious list of options that SBF was considering for getting himself out of trouble.

Thanks for taking the Pack,

Zach

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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice or recommendation for any investment. The Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.