The "generational wealth" aspect plays into this as soon as your parents are not on board with the idea that starting a startup is a non-crazy thing to do. (The problem is: They don't necessarily watch the same motivational speakers on youtube that their children watch.)
My own personal experience: Most of my highschool friends were able to build houses. As you say, usually the thing that does it is support from parents. For example, the parents might move into smaller/rented accommodation for their retirement and sign over the family home to the children who then take out a loan to fix up the place and live there. That kind of thing.
But the way my parents look at it: Giving money to a child who is trying to do a startup is like giving money to a child who is a drug addict. They see it as a surefire way of destroying wealth, so they hold on to it until I "come to my senses" and get a safe job in a bigcorp.
So, it doesn't matter how cool I and my college friends think it is to start a startup. If I was a conformist, the math just wouldn't add up, as my path to a nice big house is blocked, at least until very late in my life when I've had a successful exit or come into the generational side of the wealth aspect as part of an inheritance.
> Most of my highschool friends were able to build houses. As you say, usually the thing that does it is support from parents. For example, the parents might move into smaller/rented accommodation for their retirement and sign over the family home to the children who then take out a loan to fix up the place and live there. That kind of thing.
In the US, there is a world of difference in cost between building a house and renovating a house. Easily in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Lots of people can refinance an existing structure and renovate it, very few can afford to demolish and build new.
> …at least until very late in my life when I've had a successful exit or come into the generational side of the wealth aspect as part of an inheritance.
Couldn’t your startup make something that generates income so you can do things like own a house?
Making something that people actually want to pay for isn’t a bad way to earn a living as opposed to waiting on a big payday which may never come.
My own personal experience: Most of my highschool friends were able to build houses. As you say, usually the thing that does it is support from parents. For example, the parents might move into smaller/rented accommodation for their retirement and sign over the family home to the children who then take out a loan to fix up the place and live there. That kind of thing.
But the way my parents look at it: Giving money to a child who is trying to do a startup is like giving money to a child who is a drug addict. They see it as a surefire way of destroying wealth, so they hold on to it until I "come to my senses" and get a safe job in a bigcorp.
So, it doesn't matter how cool I and my college friends think it is to start a startup. If I was a conformist, the math just wouldn't add up, as my path to a nice big house is blocked, at least until very late in my life when I've had a successful exit or come into the generational side of the wealth aspect as part of an inheritance.