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How to get rich without getting lucky

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Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#161

Post by mmcconnell1618 »

zeth___ wrote: post #141
mmcconnell1618 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an inverse relationship between salary and the number of jobs available at that rate. I think you will find it harder to continue raising your income just by job hopping. You’re going to need to demonstrate you can deliver increasingly higher value to organizations in order to demand higher wages.

Thanks for the advice. How many new jobs have you taken in the last three years? I've had 8.

I agree with the strategy that hopping jobs results in faster income increase than staying put. I'm just saying that in my experience, there is a cap on how much you can make in any salaried job unless you are a very rare person. You may find it difficult to continue to raise your income by job hopping. You may need to think about selling value rather than time to exceed your current pay.

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#162

Post by sokoloff »

tomaha wrote: post #58
Aaargh20318 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know too many people that use their money to consume. All those dumb poor people wasting their money on food.

There is a difference between consuming and getting what you need to live.

Philosophically, perhaps. Economically? No.

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#163

Post by isolli »

pc86 wrote: post #120
whatshisface wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is a list of reasons that "enlightened" (i.e. not scrooge) people would want to be rich: - The ability to secure the best medical care for yourself and your family in a country where this takes money to do. - The ability to walk away from abusive employment relationships without a second thought or any stress. - The ability to engage in high-level economic actions, the kind that aren't designed for your failure.…

Assuming that "rich" means "don't need to work at all, for the rest of your life, to keep a roof over your head and food on your table," none of what you listed require being rich. > The ability to secure the best medical care for yourself and your family in a country where this takes money to do. I can only speak to the US but this is much more an insurance issue than a wealth issue. When I made $30k a year I had a…

> because I had good insurance through my employer

However, you only get this peace of mind without being rich thanks to Obamacare (whose days may be numbered...). Before, you had to be rich to self-insure against the following events:

- What if you lose your job? It could take you longer to find one again than whatever Cobra covers, or a pre-existing condition could make individual insurance unaffordable.

- What if your insurance is not as good as you thought, and you hit a lifetime cap?

- What if the insurance company managed to conjure up a pre-existing condition to escape their obligations?

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#164

Post by dgacmu »

whataretensors wrote: post #65
plop_ wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have advices for young people in long term investments ?

Don't listen to risk-averse engineers. You are young, invest in high risk things you believe in. Make it an active investment if you can. Recognize who is giving you boring advice(index funds), look at the risk levels in their life, and then disregard them if they don't take chances on anything. At a young age your risky investment % should be at it's highest. The exact amount will depend on your appetite.

Only make it active if you have influence on the outcome (i.e., starting your own business). If we're talking stock investing, you'll just get eaten. Which can be a good lesson, but it's one you can skip if you want and go directly to index funds. :)

You can use your money to generate passive income, or you can use it to get leverage (retaining more of a percent of your startup; taking a risk on a risky but better job; etc.). In either of those paths, do it smartly.

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#165

Post by nojvek »

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #158

The highest probability for success for the 'everyday person': - Earn as much as you can from your own work. Take a 2nd job, change to a higher paying job, ask for more responsibility and a raise at your current job, go back to school for a more lucrative degree, ... - Spend much less than you earn. Economize, share an apartment, buy an inexpensive car, shop at Trader Joe's and Costco, .... - Learn how to invest. Thi…

Health insurance is a must in US because the entire country systematically doesn’t give a shit about how inefficient it is. I guess some people make fat bucks at the expense of people’s lives.

My pay + company benefit == $650/month to Anthem.

I still end up paying $5000 for all pre-pregnancy costs out of pocket and the baby isn’t even here yet.

In Australia it would be 10% of that, purely because they got their shit together a long time ago.

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#166

Post by sokoloff »

dnomad wrote: post #125
siberianbear wrote: post #97

I got rich in Silicon Valley from my equity compensation. I bounced around various companies and startups. Two of them were successful and had public offerings. Of those two, one was spectacularly successful. Sure, luck played a role. But my pure grit and tenacity also played a role. Taking on hard bugs and solving them played a role: I solved a lot of hard bugs that others couldn't solve. Spending Saturday afternoon…

Sorry, but it's a bit rich when people who literally won the lottery call for hard work. The reality is you got lucky. There were probably many people who worked harder than you and saved more than you who will never enjoy anything close to your success. And that's okay. All wealth is based on luck or coercion (really, just coercion). This is trivially true if you understand what wealth is: claims on the labor-time o…

"I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson (apocryphally)

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#167

Post by gnode »

hyperpallium wrote: post #31

If we define rich as not having to work, it could be achieved with a low income, but low expenses. At an extreme, perhaps, self-sufficiency, using knowledge and technology (even robots?) instead of back-breaking stope subsistence farming. You would be rich, but also poor.

I think a better term is financially independent. I would say a better definition of being rich is having plentiful wealth such that you enjoy freedoms well above what's typical of the general population, or ones personal expectations. Being poor is the opposite; having wealth that limits your freedoms below your expectations. This is of course relative, but rightfully so.

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#168

Post by freehunter »

yayana wrote: post #116
whatshisface wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is a list of reasons that "enlightened" (i.e. not scrooge) people would want to be rich: - The ability to secure the best medical care for yourself and your family in a country where this takes money to do. - The ability to walk away from abusive employment relationships without a second thought or any stress. - The ability to engage in high-level economic actions, the kind that aren't designed for your failure.…

It doesn't sound like you want to be rich, it sounds like you want to move to northern Europe, probably Scandanavia.

Which you have to be rich (or at least well off by most American standards) to do. To move to Sweden, for example, either you need a salaried job with full benefits (including the health insurance and employer lock-in that the parent is looking to escape from) that's willing to relocate you to Sweden, or you need to have ~$25k in savings (~$35k if you're married, more if you have kids), plus proof of positive cash flow for whatever business you're undertaking in Sweden.

And even then, that just lets you live there. You don't become a citizen will full benefits for five years.

But once you meet those requirements... you're probably well-off enough that it doesn't matter anymore.

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#169

Post by bigpicture »

plop_ wrote: post #21
tomaha wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But one important part of their success was to invest their income. I know too many people that use their money to consume. Investing early in your life is what makes the difference. It's very easy to spend it on little things and claim to not have anything to invest.

Do you have advices for young people in long term investments ?

While not providing any specific investment advice, this is a wonderful, free resource for understanding the risks and benefits of long-term investing:

http://www.crsp.com/resources/investments-illustrated-charts

Check out the "Big Picture 2018" pdf, especially.

Edit - there is one specific piece of advice that you can see very clearly in the chart - reinvest your dividends!!!

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#170

Post by tomhoward »

whatshisface wrote: post #99
keiferski wrote: post #33

I’m going to take a contrarian view and say: figure out why you want to be rich, first. For most people, money is a proxy for respect, status, power, security, social skills, romantic attraction from others, free time, or otherwise. If you can ignore the constant “only rich people are meaningful human beings” message that is blared 24/7 from western culture, you might find that it’s easier to just go after what you w…

Here is a list of reasons that "enlightened" (i.e. not scrooge) people would want to be rich: - The ability to secure the best medical care for yourself and your family in a country where this takes money to do. - The ability to walk away from abusive employment relationships without a second thought or any stress. - The ability to engage in high-level economic actions, the kind that aren't designed for your failure.…

People seem to be forgetting this one: to better the world by building or investing in new companies that do good things for their customers, employees and society, or by contributing to important non-profit causes.
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