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Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

tonywright.com

71–80 of 172 posts

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#71
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are not fucking terrified at the moment you're not paying attention.

Why don't you just put your money in a global index fund instead? No one forces you Americans to invest your savings in your own country..in fact, that seems like a pretty bad idea in the first place, since this means that when the economy is bad and it is hard to find jobs is the same time it is a very bad idea to take money out of your investments. Seems pretty obvious to me that the American economy as a whole has…

they say when America gets a cold, the whole world gets the flu.

Sure, the US economy is in pretty bad shape right now. but where else do you suggest we invest? this isn't a localized problem.

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#72
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are not fucking terrified at the moment you're not paying attention.

Why don't you just put your money in a global index fund instead? No one forces you Americans to invest your savings in your own country..in fact, that seems like a pretty bad idea in the first place, since this means that when the economy is bad and it is hard to find jobs is the same time it is a very bad idea to take money out of your investments. Seems pretty obvious to me that the American economy as a whole has…

Seems pretty obvious to me that the American economy as a whole has so much shenanigans going on that investing broadly in it is a bad idea. Is it really that hard to move your money to a foreign currency

The terrifying part is that what you say is true, but America is still the best place to invest. Burying pirate treasure on an uncharted island is actually starting to look good.

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#73
post #41

Does the rule that you should get out of the stock market when random people tell you stocks are sure to go up apply in reverse? If so, this is a pretty encouraging sign.

Not when we're in a great worldwide depression. When the US baby boomers, the world's biggest/baddest consumers, are retiring or being too expensive to be hired. When automation/free software have permanently reduced human worker needs. When the developed countries - the ones with trillions of debt and aging population - have willingly given up their factories to the emerging countries, and are desperately searching…

I get sick & tired of all this doom talk about a worldwide depression.

It's depressing.

If you play it smart then this 'depression' is an opportunity in disguise, more of a correction than a true depression.

The 1929 stock market crash set the stage for World War II, and it took until well after World War II before the world had finally recovered from it.

That was a depression.

The current situation is, compared to that, a mere bump in the road. As long as we're not seeing hyper-inflation, the general population still has food on the table and you can actually think about where you're going to take your holiday this year we're not even close.

The really bad effects of what is going on in the market are still limited to a number of markets, mostly financing and the more expensive consumer items.

There are knock on effects that hurt other industries but so far without the nightmare scenarios coming true.

One thing is for sure, the time of 'easy money' from stocks or real estate investments is going to be over for a while.

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#74
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure where you are getting your information from. Travel isn't cheap, food isn't cheap, and rent isn't cheap, if you want to live anywhere near town. Yes, great place to live or visit, full of life, great people, but not cheap. Maybe you want to look further east.

I'm from Copenhagen, a rather expensive city, so maybe I'm biased.

I have found Germany to be one of the most expensive places in Europe, certainly much more expensive than the US. It seems the further south you head, and the further east you head, Europe gets cheaper, with a few exceptions.

Curious to know what is cheaper in Berlin compared with Copenhagen, I am surprised there is much difference. Did not find much difference in Denmark when I passed through, and spent quite a bit of time in Stockholm, avoided light beers. Did not find much that was more expensive.

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#75
post #5

His premise seems flawed to me. He says people should forget about F@#$ You Money because you can't depend on it to grow in this bad economy. That's reasonable. But then he suggests you aim for “f@#$ you influence and credibility” because it "allows you to charge $30k+ for a 1 hour speaking engagement". But I know people who used to make $10k per speaking engagement and they aren't getting much work lately. In my exp…

I agree with you fully, the first thing to go when the economy isn't all that great is the stuff that you can do without.

So, no more lavish all employee trips to tropical islands and no more expensive speakers.

Time to get up and do some more work instead of talking about your previous successes.

And about dying penniless, who cares, you can't take it with you anyway. If you plan on passing your wealth to your kids better do it while you are alive and scale back accordingly. In plenty of countries that's the better strategy tax wise anyway.

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#76
post #67

Repost but a quote from George Foreman about longshoremen. What is real wealth?: Mr. Foreman, who stared down financial collapse as an adult despite a troubled, impoverished childhood, said he knew real wealth when he saw it. “If you’re confident, you’re wealthy,” he says. “I’ve seen guys who work on a ship channel and they get to a certain point and they’re confident. You can look in their faces, they’re longshoreme…

in entertainment and sales, confidence is almost everything. The thing is, outside those fields, confidence is dramatically less useful. (granted, sales skills have a pretty wide applicability, but my point is there are jobs that don't involve much sales, where confidence doesn't matter that much.)

Confidence doesn't have to tie directly to the work you do. One aspect of confidence is knowing that you have the skill to find work, or the smarts and personality to get a new job and learn the necessary skills quickly. A person like that never needs to fear poverty, which is one aspect of wealth.

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#77
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are not fucking terrified at the moment you're not paying attention.

Why don't you just put your money in a global index fund instead? No one forces you Americans to invest your savings in your own country..in fact, that seems like a pretty bad idea in the first place, since this means that when the economy is bad and it is hard to find jobs is the same time it is a very bad idea to take money out of your investments. Seems pretty obvious to me that the American economy as a whole has…

Which country? Europe is worse-off than America, China likely has their own bubble. Japan has been in a funk for 20 years. Russia has recently been cracking down on political freedoms in a worrisome way, there's no guarantee that you'll be able to take your money out once you put it in. Same for many Latin American countries.

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#78

A couple of folks are tossing in that you can get 2-4% returns nowadays. Here's the historical rate of inflation (scroll down for the recent years): http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/historical-in... Looks like about 2-4%. :-(

If we get deflation, as many people are predicting, then you can get several percent "interest" just by holding your money in cash. That's built into the interest rate expectations for a lot of securities right now. You wouldn't see these near-zero interest rates unless people were expecting the dollar itself to become more valuable in the near future.

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not when we're in a great worldwide depression. When the US baby boomers, the world's biggest/baddest consumers, are retiring or being too expensive to be hired. When automation/free software have permanently reduced human worker needs. When the developed countries - the ones with trillions of debt and aging population - have willingly given up their factories to the emerging countries, and are desperately searching…

I get sick & tired of all this doom talk about a worldwide depression. It's depressing. If you play it smart then this 'depression' is an opportunity in disguise, more of a correction than a true depression. The 1929 stock market crash set the stage for World War II, and it took until well after World War II before the world had finally recovered from it. That was a depression. The current situation is, compared to t…

"all this doom talk about a worldwide depression." Pretty sure I'm one of the only few posters here that would say the words 'great depression'. and 'voldemort'.

"It's depressing" I know it is. But we as a population have to realize we are in a depression, not just a run of the mill recession like the mass media would have you believe, so we can react accordingly and not doom our future offsprings to even greater suffering.

"As long as we're not seeing hyper-inflation, the general population still has food on the table and you can actually think about where you're going to take your holiday this year we're not even close." Hyperinflation, not yet. 25% unemployed in the last depression, but they had soup lines to not go hungry. US has ~20% unemployment, and we have food stamps/unemployment benefits mailed to our house. As for the holiday..well you and I, we're in the lucky 80%.

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#80
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come back and tell me about dumping all your money into tax-free municipal bonds in two years.

What is the reasoning behind your comment?

See btilly's comment that mentions them. There is a lot of chatter about bankruptcy. It's still just chatter, with a small number of exceptions. Let us all hope it stays that way.

Mind you, I'm not guaranteeing they'll all go away, but it won't take very many bankruptcies for your returns to go below inflation. (Or worse.)

I might invest in specific municipalities, if that's possible for a mere mortal investor, but I wouldn't think it's necessarily a safer assert class than anything else right now.

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