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You don't really want a million dollars

ryanwaggoner.com

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Re: You don't really want a million dollars

#111

Post by edanm »

frossie wrote: post #71
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a Wordpress plugin called "WP Greet Box" [1] and this message is only shown to users coming from HN, not everyone. Also, you'll be happy to know that I get grief for it every time one of my posts lands on the homepage :) I understand your concern, but it's really just a reminder to vote the article up if you enjoyed it. I frequently read good articles and then forget to vote them up because something else catc…

For what it's worth - Every time i click on an HN story I also open the comment page (in two new tabs - I use the fabulous Tree Style Tab firefox extension to stop that becoming as insane as it sounds). That way after I read the story, even if I go away, the comment page is still open so I can upvote it when I am clearing up later. In that way I rarely if ever forget to upvote a story I liked. I don't particularly li…

Funny. I also always open the comment page and the article at the same time (no tree plugin though). And yet, I very often forget to upvote the article, since I'm usually eager to dive into the comments.

Interestingly, in this case, I saw the "please upvote" message, said to myself "ok let's go upvote on the comment page I have open", and still forgot to do it because I started reading comments.

This thread reminded me to do it. :)

Re: You don't really want a million dollars

#112

Post by dools »

I've just been skimming through all the comments here and I really think that a lot of you are missing the point of this article because you're focussing on that fact that you know just what you would do with $1,000,000 and how much of a positive effect all these things would have on your life.

You're focussing on finding edge cases of people who genuinely need exactly $1,000,000 to pay off a bunch of things that are holding them back that are to the value of $1,000,000 (but even then, there's plenty of places you can abscond to if you want to escape debt - you just may not be welcome to return :)

The essential message in this article is lateral thinking. It's about looking at the mountain in front of you and noticing that there is a way around it instead of having to climb all the way up to the top and go back down the other side.

Of course there are people and situations where this doesn't apply. The title of the article "YOU don't really want a million dollars" naturally invites these comments because he's addressing a large audience of people, many of whom may have legitimate needs for that amount of money.

If it were me writing it I would have maybe phrased it as "Do you really want a million dollars?" and focused on the fact that the question is addressed specifically to the guy at the store who wanted a million to solve "all his problems" in some abstract way.

That million dollars that will solve everything IS lazy thinking. It allows you to say "unless I have that million, I can't possibly solve my problems" without ever giving any real thought, or doing any real research, into whether or not there is an alternative way to solve your problems other than "getting a million dollars" which for most people is an impossibility.

I personally think that the author could have done a better job with this article because although I came to agree with it's premise after reading it twice then reviewing the comments, I was also initially thrown off the scent by listing all of the things I'd do with a million dollars if I had it.

Re: You don't really want a million dollars

#113

Post by whatusername »

Vivtek wrote: post #70
Alex3917 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The government says families in the top-third income bracket will spend $279,450 to raise a child born in 2005 through age 17 -- or about $16,000 a year." The reason that the government figures are wrong is that, to quote Parenting, Inc. again, they don't include the cost of "maternity clothes, new home purchases and moving expenses, childbirth education and newborn classes, prenatal vitamins and extra fruits and ve…

Whhhhat? You have to include your babymoon vacation in the cost of a child now? Good God, I had to buy a bigger house, does that count? This is more whining about how hard it is for the richest of the rich to get by in these trying times, isn't it?

I'm pretty sure the main costs of those "Million dollars to raise a child" reports are extra housing costs and lost income.

Re: You don't really want a million dollars

#115

Post by Psyonic »

henry81 wrote: post #12
byoung2 wrote: post #2

One of the hardest parts of just hopping on a plane to some exotic destination is figuring out what to do with your "stuff" back home. People think that with a million dollars they'll pay off the house, car, quit their jobs and travel the world. Instead, they should consider selling the car and house (or renting it out) and living abroad instead of traveling. I have stayed in the Philippines for months at a time for…

I have a collapsible table, inflatable mattress, laptop, and 24" monitor. Everything I own can fit in my car. I need more money. Sleeping on the floor was not fun. I have money, I'm just kind of uber frugal. It's a nice air mattress, though.

And at least one cable to connect that monitor. I hate cables... so many cables

Re: You don't really want a million dollars

#116

Post by waterlesscloud »

patrickaljord wrote: post #114

You're right, I want a hundred of them ;)

What's that line from the movie DISCLOSURE? "Give a man a hundred million dollars and you make a frustrated billionaire. "

Seriously, though...so what if having money doesn't satisfy you and leaves you wanting more? Why is it taken as a given that being satisfied is a good thing?

Re: You don't really want a million dollars

#117

Post by damoncali »

tptacek wrote: post #39
Alex3917 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost of raising a kid right now if you want them to have a typical upper middle class upbringing is somewhere between 800k - 1.6M (2007 dollars) from birth to age 17. The exact figure depends on whether you want to send them to private school, whether you are feeding them all organic food, and a couple other things. Even the most basic middle class (no after school sports, summer camp, etc.) upbringing costs $500…

It does not cost us anything resembling $66,000/yr (no, wait: 2 kids - $120k/year [?!]) to provide two school-age children with an absurdly privileged upbringing. I suspect college tuition is queering those numbers.

True, but take a more reasonable number like $20k/year/kid, factor in the time value of money and you can quite reasonably hit a future value of half a million or more to get a single kid to college (let alone through it).

In other words, what would you have if you invested the cost of children for 17 years? a shitton of money.

(Granted, $20k/year is a hefty spend on a kid where I come from).

Re: You don't really want a million dollars

#118

Post by gnaritas »

m4wk3r wrote: post #77
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you post some sources? I'm extremely skeptical. If you have three kids in America, you're telling me that parents need to make $100k / yr just to cover the cost of the kids, not to mention their own costs? And triple that for an "upper middle class" upbringing? Yeah, I'm really skeptical. The median household income in America is way, way less than that and I don't think most kids in America are living in the abj…

it's not that absurd when you consider opportunity costs. even if your actual expenses are only 10k/yr, at a 7% avg rate of return, after 17 years you're down 170k plus ~140k in lost interest. at 20k/yr you hit 340k plus ~280k in lost interest.

This presumes people who don't have kids save the money instead, which quite frankly isn't at all true. People who don't have kids in large part just never learn to tighten their budget the way parents do, they live a higher cost of living lifestyle; in short, they act like single people. Now you could say "oh but I'd live broke like parents do and save the money" but frankly I wouldn't believe anyone who said that for a second.

In fact, I'd bring up the opportunity cost of maturity that having children brings you that you'd otherwise be missing out on by not having them. Maturity that quite frankly, probably saves you more money than you'd lose by having the child.

Re: You don't really want a million dollars

#119

Post by gnaritas »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #3
byoung2 wrote: post #2

One of the hardest parts of just hopping on a plane to some exotic destination is figuring out what to do with your "stuff" back home. People think that with a million dollars they'll pay off the house, car, quit their jobs and travel the world. Instead, they should consider selling the car and house (or renting it out) and living abroad instead of traveling. I have stayed in the Philippines for months at a time for…

In late 2007, my wife and I sold our car, quit our jobs, put our valuables and personal records in a storage space, sublet our apartment (for roughly what our rent cost), and then spent three months trekking around Asia. It's really not that hard if you don't have pets or kids.

> It's really not that hard if you don't have pets or kids.

Which is a fucking enormous if. I'd bet at least half the people reading the post do have kids. Fuck, it's having kids that makes many dream of dropping everything and running away halfway around the world in the first place!

Re: You don't really want a million dollars

#120

Post by puns »

shock-value wrote: post #87
kenjackson wrote: post #22

I think Ryan misses the point for most people. I do want a "million" dollars for freedom, but it's not just to go to Thailand. In fact I don't really like traveling, but I'd pay a lot if you could teleport me instantly. I want the freedom to work on what I want to work on AND to buy what I want. I'm tired of saying, "I won't get that TV now, because in 12 months that TV is coming out". Or "lets wait 8 months for the…

What? Building an OS is just the cost of a laptop and test device (~$1000 at most), playing Madden costs you $60 + $200 console, the puzzle is just the cost of the newspaper, and depending on what you mean by "rewiring" and your level of know-how, that project shouldn't be out-of-this-world expensive either. Not anything like a million dollars, or even $15k for that matter. To be honest, I think your post illustrates…

> And if your point is that being able to do those projects and ALSO "buy what you want" (e.g. nicer TV and car) will give you much greater satisfaction from your life, you are clueless about human nature. You might get a thrill from these items in the short term, but eventually you'll just want more and better ones. You'll be in the same place (psychologically) as where you started.

You make a mistake in your point. The mistake is that you assume that he wants to achieve happiness by acquiring these material possessions like that new TV, an expensive car, etc. He won't, and he knows that. What he'll achieve is pleasure. Short term pleasure, maybe, but so what? Desire for pleasure is natural, and being in a position to get all the toys you want will satisfy that, and keep satisfying it.

It won't fill any holes in your soul or give you long-term happiness, but it's not supposed to. That burning desire to live better is what drives human progress. Look around and see how comfortable our existence is today compared to a thousand years ago. Cars, electricity, phones, heating, plumbing--so much convenience. None of that is necessary to exist, but it's something that makes living our lives much more pleasant. That new TV or car isn't going to give our lives more meaning, but it will make them more interesting and satisfying.

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