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I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

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Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#221

Post by mariojv »

rayiner wrote: post #131
joshbaptiste wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once he placed the ring on her finger he accepted her terms .. as an American who hasn’t grown up with Asian cultural norms I would never marry someone with an obligation to take care of their parents also in America.

What kind of American? Multigenerational living is still routine among African Americans and Hispanic Americans, and pretty common among rural white Americans. The median distance an American lives from their mom is just 18 miles.

Fascinating piece of data. I found a source here which breaks down the "distance from mom" statistic further by region: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/24/upshot/24up-f...

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#222

Post by wayoutthere »

badpun wrote: post #125
wayoutthere wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I’m in a similar boat. I did the whole “make it rain” thing for a few years by dripping in designer clothes, fancy restaurants, etc. But that lifestyle made me way more anxious as impostor syndrome kicked in. Having money doesn’t really solve problems; there’s always someone with more who will make you feel poor. Buy a Gucci bag and it’ll feel like half the world is dripping bespoke Hermès. You can’t win. I l…

> Buy a Gucci bag and it’ll feel like half the world is dripping bespoke Hermès. You can’t win. This is fascinating. I suspect 99% of people simply don't care and can't even tell a $50 purse from $5000 one, and this Gucci vs Hermes rivarvly is only relevant for a tiny minority of sad snobs. Like the other poster said, good for you for ditching this.

Right; the whole mindset is about trying to impress the people you deem “above” you and climb some bullshit social ladder that means about as much as Instagram likes. But you know in the back of your mind, they’re just as lonely and looking for validation as I was.

It’s kind of ironic: these days, within my private world, my job and the money I make cause people to distrust me at first. Most of my friends make less than a quarter of what I make, so I have to be careful about new purchases (e.g. a friend of mine had been saving for a $2500 guitar which I could easily have bought on a whim — but I got a way cheaper one so as to not make her feel like shit because she is far more dedicated to her music than I am). At the same time I can’t buy my friends things like that because it distances me and makes them feel they owe me. I don’t see it like that — I feel the amount of money I make is arbitrarily unfair because I blindly made a career decision 20 years ago that worked out from me. But they do, so I have to be sensitive.

I still wear the flashy clothes, purses and shoes in a work context because they make me feel like a confident bad bitch and I’m client-facing. But I do it for me rather than the external validation (ok, and maybe a bit of imposter syndrome).

Also it’s entirely the same with the men so this isn’t a sexist thing — it’s just bespoke suits, shoes and watches for the guys. And a class ring on your finger if it’s from an Ivy. And this is true regardless of the kind of “business” — go to the music world and it’s all streetwear with $500 Supreme t-shirts and $2500 limited-edition sneakers; and the tech world has hoodies, bicycles, cars and the latest bleeding-edge tech. It’s all peacocking.

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#223

Post by unreal37 »

bradlys wrote: post #69
unreal37 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that hard. She rents the house she lives in for more than the cost of her mortgage. She makes income from that there. They don't own a car. Her husband gets a free bus pass from work. No housing or transportation expenses. So what's left? Food? Her husband works in tech (first Amazon, and now Google!) and saves 100% of his income. And they live off hers. They have like $1.7 million saved from his Amazon stoc…

But it's incredible amounts of luck combined with having a partner who works for a series of big well paying public companies. Being able to buy a house and rent it out for more than you pay is /hard/ because it's based on luck. No one in a major tech hub could start and do that right now. Houses in the bay regularly sell for $10k/month in total cost but rent for $5-6k. And then immediately say goodbye to 40%+ of you…

Her and her husband lives, cooks, eats and sleeps in a single room of their house.

They rent out the rest of the house including the living areas and kitchen.

That's some massive sacrifice. That's not luck. That's the willingness to give up massive amounts of comfort in exchange for money.

Not many are willing to do that.

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#224

Post by thatfrenchguy »

luckylion wrote: post #65
thatfrenchguy wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do though, you’re just not aware of it. When you look at the cultural life of French cities for example, it’s 1000x richer than the cultural life of an American city the same size. And one could easily argue they don’t cover « the basics ».

That may well be, but that's just one aspect France has generally always been known for (whether it's accurate, I don't know). New musical styles, for example, mostly came from the US in recent decades. Whether Broadway can be compared to Paris' musicals, I don't know. I just don't see the explosion that you'd expect. Europe should have Star Trek technology if that was the case ;) And sure, you could argue that they…

« Has generally been known for », is your cultural biases showing.

Spend a year in France (or Germany for that matter), you’ll realize that the social safety net isn’t as good as it is, but also that a lot of things you wouldn’t notice. France has a shit-ton of food innovations you’ve never heard of, great universities, the world record on rail speed, vibrant local theater life in almost every town. You just can’t know about those things if you’re not there, just like people outside the US have no idea what life is like in the US.

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#225

Post by tasuki »

Cyph0n wrote: post #219
tasuki wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree that a studio apartment is _extreme_ frugality. Not many years ago, it was standard for people to live on much less space per person than these days. > I would honestly never live like this, regardless of my financial goals. Yes you would. If your financial goal was to have enough money to put food on your table, you'd care less where that table was located.

> I disagree that a studio apartment is _extreme_ frugality. Not many years ago, it was standard for people to live on much less space per person than these days. And I also disagree; I have lived in a studio before. But in this context -- owning a 4 bedroom house yet deciding to rent out the remaining rooms to live in one of the bedrooms -- it is indeed extreme frugality. > Yes you would. If your financial goal was…

> Or do you just have trouble sticking to context?

To be fair you wrote "never", not "within this context".

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#226

Post by chillwaves »

pedro_hab wrote: post #130
chillwaves wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would certainly hope that 300 years of techonological progress would offer the basics to a "peasant".

I believe the peasant's king would be just as astonished. Do you think our world isn't incredible, and by far the best a human could ever hope for so far?

> by far the best a human could ever hope for so far?

Wow. I am without words.

All I can say is, some people have bigger imaginations than others and being a slave to capital is not always paradise.

The bit about the king completely misses the point. Again, I would hope that in 300 years, technological progress UNDER ANY SYSYTEM would afford "miracles" in the eyes of kings or peasants. jfc.

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