‘By age 30’: How the internet turned a finance guru’s advice into a meme

On August 1, Adcock who goes by the Twitter name Steve Millionaire Habits (@SteveOnSpeed), tweeted to his over 1 lakh followers, “By age 30, you should have a group of friends that talk business, money, and fitness, not politics and pop culture.”

By age 30 you should have at least 40 different tote bags you don‘t need but keep stuffed into one larger tote bag which is the one you‘d technically need the most but now can no longer access

— Dr. Sabrina Mittermeier (@S_Mittermeier) August 4, 2022

By the age of 30 stop judging others

— Faisal (@Faisi78703658) August 6, 2022

By the age of 30, you should have a city of museums you want to visit but haven't yet, an institution you hold a grudge against, several smart friends going for their PhDs, 5-7 potential projects in your DMS, and a complicated relationship to the concept of internships pic.twitter.com/s5OrW1NHOz

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— Lacey “Public Historian of Bob’s Burgers” Wilson (@LaceyWilson4) August 3, 2022

By the age of 30, you should have seen 4 drafts of the Data Protection Bill, have your Aadhaar card data leaked a dozen times, and experienced at least 1 internet shutdown.

— Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) (@internetfreedom) August 5, 2022

By the age of 30 you should own, not rent, OWN a bouncy castle. This is a time when you should be building equity. The only way to beat inflation is with inflatables.

— Yer Gal Friday (@FridayInHalifax) August 4, 2022

By age 30, you should know that people who discuss money, business, and fitness can also discuss pop culture and politics. These topics are not mutually exclusive.

Alternatively: by age 30, you should know it's okay to have multiple friend groups that discuss different topics. https://t.co/XMSJLCrNDT

— Obelis | The Recloseted Lesbian on Webtoon Canvas (@Obelis12) August 5, 2022

By age 30 you should go back to college pretending to be a student but are actually a spy, fall in love with the chemistry teacher, reform your half-brother, rekindle with your step-mom, take down a terrorist group and improve Indo-Pak relations by saving Project Milaap.

— Jackie J. Thakkar (@Juvenile_Jack) August 5, 2022

by age 30 you should have several henchmen, a sworn enemy, and a narrative foil

— SparkNotes (@SparkNotes) August 3, 2022

By the age of 30 you should be able to walk this empty street, on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams

— Josh Mings (@joshuamings) August 4, 2022

By the age of 30 you should have given up on at least 90% of your dreams, reconciled to your mediocrity and contemplated disappearing from this world at least thrice.

— peeleraja (@peeleraja) August 3, 2022

While his tweet gathered 35,000 likes, it also prompted a host of other tweets that started with “By age 30”. Responding to Adcock’s post, a Twitter user wrote, “By age 30, you should know that people who discuss money, business, and fitness can also discuss pop culture and politics. These topics are not mutually exclusive. Alternatively: by age 30, you should know it’s okay to have multiple friend groups that discuss different topics.”

Another person simply wrote, “By the age of 30 stop judging others”. Soon the tweet format of “By the age of 30” encapsulated everything from sincere advice to movie plots.

Mentioning the plot of Bollywood hit ‘Main Hoon Na’, a Twitter user wrote, “By age 30 you should go back to college pretending to be a student but are actually a spy, fall in love with the chemistry teacher, reform your half-brother, rekindle with your step-mom, take down a terrorist group and improve Indo-Pak relations by saving Project Milaap.”