The American Dream is no longer a reality for people in their 20s and 30s — but there’s still a way they can give themselves ‘an unfair advantage’ to beat the system. Here’s how

“Wages, in real terms, adjusted for inflation, haven’t gone up in decades,” Pal explained in a YouTube video. He argues this underlying fact explains why “nobody is getting richer.”

It’s the reason why Pal says the new reality is that younger people are working grinding jobs that aren’t resulting in the savings they expected and leaving them worse off than their parents were in similar circumstances a generation before.

Pal identified many problems with the status quo that can be explained by the absence of wage growth — but he also has some suggestions young people can take advantage of to beat the system. Here’s what he had to say.

Young people are facing unprecedented struggles

Appearing on an episode of the YouTube show, The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett, Pal explained that when he was working as a young person, he was able to buy a house in a desirable area that cost around three times his yearly wages — but the chance to do that has disappeared thanks to property values growing so much faster than salaries.

“It’s tripled how expensive it is to buy your first house,” he said. Unfortunately, as he explained, this has far-reaching consequences beyond just having to pay rent for a while. Your house is an asset you can pass down, borrow against, or sell but you don’t get those opportunities if you’re priced out.

“The average millennial can’t afford to buy a house, so therefore their future self is poorer,” Pal said. He added that the slow growth in wages, combined with the fact people can’t buy properties, has led to many young people putting off marriage and having children. “Population growth is collapsing because people can’t afford it,” he said.

It’s not just the house, either. As Pal pointed out, with lower wages, young people can also buy less of the stock market when they invest, which affects wealth growth as well. The ultimate outcome, he says: This generation won't be as rich as their parents.

“And that’s a weird thing."

Recapturing the American dream

While Pal wasn't too optimistic about current trends, he did have some advice for young people coping with these headwinds.

“The first part of the game is income,” he said. “Without income, you don’t have the cash to do the other things.”

Pal said often the best way to make money is to become an entrepreneur, although he acknowledged this isn’t always an easy solution for everyone. Regardless, he sees your 20s as the time to give up on a work-life balance, put your head down and hustle until you’re in your mid-30s.

He suggests you learn as much as you can in this time, becoming an expert in one thing and a generalist on as much as possible. “Compete with yourself day and night to be the best you can,” he said.

As you’re learning, you should think about where you want to be in five years. Based on that goal, he says you can reverse engineer a plan to get there.