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Can Money Set You Free?

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Re: Can Money Set You Free?

#11

Post by brc »

This shows the author, his father and grandfather had the wrong end of the stick. His grandfather, wanting security, had traded his time and independance for security, and got neither. His father, wanting to ensure he had both security and longevity, got neither. The author, apparently seeing this as a failed experiment, walked away from it.

What he failed to realise that neither his father or grandfather ever got control over their situation. The continually worked for money by trading their precious time for security. It's that which made them unhappy, not the actual money.

The author, to me, is making the fundamental mistake of thinking that you have to work 40 hours a week for 40 years to have 'money', so the choice is between working like a dog or having nothing, not realising that their is another way. Can money set you free? Of course it can, but not if you're trading your free time for your money.

For most people, it is a choice between security of income and freedom to spend your time as you want. The most secure people on the planet are prisoners, but they don't have the freedom to do what they want. If you're prepared to accept a less-secure income (by being risky, ie, startups) then you're going to gain the benefits of freedom when/if it does work out.

Bottom line : if this guy's Dad had cashed out at a younger age and spent the last 20 years of his life doing things on his own terms, he wouldn't have died an unhappy man in a short retirement.

Re: Can Money Set You Free?

#12

Post by starkfist »

brc wrote: post #11

This shows the author, his father and grandfather had the wrong end of the stick. His grandfather, wanting security, had traded his time and independance for security, and got neither. His father, wanting to ensure he had both security and longevity, got neither. The author, apparently seeing this as a failed experiment, walked away from it. What he failed to realise that neither his father or grandfather ever got co…

There are few career paths where one can "cash out."

Re: Can Money Set You Free?

#13

Post by chc »

brc wrote: post #11

This shows the author, his father and grandfather had the wrong end of the stick. His grandfather, wanting security, had traded his time and independance for security, and got neither. His father, wanting to ensure he had both security and longevity, got neither. The author, apparently seeing this as a failed experiment, walked away from it. What he failed to realise that neither his father or grandfather ever got co…

Your comment reads to me like an extremely long variant of "Let them eat cake."

You really need to explain how working for a little while and then "cashing out" was a viable option for these men that they simply chose not to exercise.

Re: Can Money Set You Free?

#14

Post by zeynel1 »

"So Dad was a banker but he couldn’t bear talking about money..."

I think bankers deal more with "debt" than "money." I don't know if this has any relevance to the article and what the author is saying.

Re: Can Money Set You Free?

#15

Post by rortian »

chc wrote: post #13
brc wrote: post #11

This shows the author, his father and grandfather had the wrong end of the stick. His grandfather, wanting security, had traded his time and independance for security, and got neither. His father, wanting to ensure he had both security and longevity, got neither. The author, apparently seeing this as a failed experiment, walked away from it. What he failed to realise that neither his father or grandfather ever got co…

Your comment reads to me like an extremely long variant of "Let them eat cake." You really need to explain how working for a little while and then "cashing out" was a viable option for these men that they simply chose not to exercise.

Yeah with the added constraint that it was a pension that the Dad retired with.

Re: Can Money Set You Free?

#16

Post by sliverstorm »

zeynel1 wrote: post #14

"So Dad was a banker but he couldn’t bear talking about money..." I think bankers deal more with "debt" than "money." I don't know if this has any relevance to the article and what the author is saying.

I interpreted it in a different way; as an example, my father has zero interest and perhaps even scorn for discussing virtually any topic he's done for a living. Doing it for a living can ruin it for you.

Re: Can Money Set You Free?

#17

Post by _delirium »

thefool wrote: post #6

This quote was interesting to me, "That would be the end of the world for serious writers, who are not performers and who can’t earn a living giving concerts and selling T-shirts. Nobody knows how this is going to play out." There isn't an audience for successful writers to be speakers?

For very famous ones, yes, but it drops off pretty quickly. For most authors, the speaking gigs tend to be unpaid--- travel around the country doing book readings and such to promote your book. An exception can be nonfiction authors who can get onto the corporate workshops circuit, but my guess is that novelists aren't too much in demand there.

Re: Can Money Set You Free?

#18

Post by kragen »

chc wrote: post #13
brc wrote: post #11

This shows the author, his father and grandfather had the wrong end of the stick. His grandfather, wanting security, had traded his time and independance for security, and got neither. His father, wanting to ensure he had both security and longevity, got neither. The author, apparently seeing this as a failed experiment, walked away from it. What he failed to realise that neither his father or grandfather ever got co…

Your comment reads to me like an extremely long variant of "Let them eat cake." You really need to explain how working for a little while and then "cashing out" was a viable option for these men that they simply chose not to exercise.

I would agree with you if you were talking about coal miners or supermarket checkers, but the one guy was a dentist and the other guy was a banker. Even 80 years ago, dentists and bankers made more than three times as much money per year as regular people. If they couldn't retire after one-third the normal career length, maybe the fault was not in their stars, but in themselves: perhaps a failure of frugality?

Re: Can Money Set You Free?

#19

Post by wcarss »

While reading, I hit upon this sentence:

"Dad’s example made me feel that, if I wanted to write for a living, I had an obligation to try and do it, and I’ve been writing full-time since 1996, when my first novel did well enough to let me quit my day job as an editor at the London Review of Books."

particularly "my first novel did well enough to let me quit my day job"

... so, the money he made set him free from his day job so he could do what he was interested in. :/

Re: Can Money Set You Free?

#20

Post by Tichy »

kragen wrote: post #18
chc wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment reads to me like an extremely long variant of "Let them eat cake." You really need to explain how working for a little while and then "cashing out" was a viable option for these men that they simply chose not to exercise.

I would agree with you if you were talking about coal miners or supermarket checkers, but the one guy was a dentist and the other guy was a banker. Even 80 years ago, dentists and bankers made more than three times as much money per year as regular people. If they couldn't retire after one-third the normal career length, maybe the fault was not in their stars, but in themselves: perhaps a failure of frugality?

Or the people who make just one third are just even poorer. I have an income in the top 10% of my country, yet my feeling is it is only sufficient to scrape by in a moderately convenient way. Certainly not enough to retire early. Like to buy a house or apartment, I would probably still have to take a 30 year credit.
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