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Independently Poor: A Twist on FU Money – a.k.a. “FU, Money”

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Re: Independently Poor: A Twist on FU Money – a.k.a. “FU, Money”

#31

Post by WilTimSon »

arcsin wrote: post #24

Coming at it from a different perspective, I did something similar to this by saving money on a US salary and then moving to a low cost of living country. I spent years at a time not working or even thinking about how to make money. I think almost everyone has felt the pain of financial and social obligation, but very few people have experience a total lack of such obligations for years at a time which leads to thing…

Well, there's always a healthy option in the middle. I'm not exactly up to speed on what the pay is like in the USA (which is where I presume most of the users here hail from), but getting at least $3-4k is enough to work remotely from some place like Thailand or a small European country. You still get the benefit of a traditional-ish social life, where you "go" to work every day, talk to people and then have some time to go out. Except that salary that would get you a passable living in London, Seattle or whatever other expensive city you inhabit, could get you much farther in a poorer country.

I do realise that this only applies to those who CAN work remotely but that seems to be a large chunk of the userbase for HN.

Re: Independently Poor: A Twist on FU Money – a.k.a. “FU, Money”

#32

Post by arcsin »

rapnie wrote: post #12
Joeboy wrote: post #4

Poverty is shit. I recommend avoiding it if you can.

The article though is not advocating to live in poverty, but rather to live with just the right amount of FU Money to be able to make free choices. After this threshold the perspective if one is rich of poor becomes one of mindset and not so much based on the superficial metric of one's net worth.

This is fair if you think freedom is the most important thing. Having more money has real objective benefits and most people are fine with giving up some freedom to have those benefits.

Re: Independently Poor: A Twist on FU Money – a.k.a. “FU, Money”

#33

Post by ido »

WilTimSon wrote: post #31
arcsin wrote: post #24

Coming at it from a different perspective, I did something similar to this by saving money on a US salary and then moving to a low cost of living country. I spent years at a time not working or even thinking about how to make money. I think almost everyone has felt the pain of financial and social obligation, but very few people have experience a total lack of such obligations for years at a time which leads to thing…

Well, there's always a healthy option in the middle. I'm not exactly up to speed on what the pay is like in the USA (which is where I presume most of the users here hail from), but getting at least $3-4k is enough to work remotely from some place like Thailand or a small European country. You still get the benefit of a traditional-ish social life, where you "go" to work every day, talk to people and then have some ti…

You don't even have to go to Thailand, there are plenty of minor towns in western countries that are very cheap (usually because there aren't any good local jobs).

Re: Independently Poor: A Twist on FU Money – a.k.a. “FU, Money”

#34

Post by tlarkworthy »

imheretolearn wrote: post #26
DoreenMichele wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the author. I'm disabled and the primary provider for my family of three, which includes two disabled sons. I absolutely didn't want to be poor. I'm still poor and I hate every minute of it. I wish desperately that I had more money and I am doing all in my power to resolve my problems and this has been true for years. "First world problem" or not, being homeless in a first world country is still a very real probl…

I am not discounting the fact that you have problems in your life. I know what it means to be poor because I have been poor in a 3rd world country . >> People who experience homelessness have an average life expectancy of around 50 years of age, almost 20 years lower than housed populations There are kids literally dying because they don't have access to healthcare. >> formal education on the topic of homelessness Th…

I dunno why your being so harsh. It's not a competition on who who had the most dreadful circumstances. FYI, the average life expectancy in Papua New Guinea is 64. Homelessness, even in a first world country, is objectively a bad situation to be in regardless.

I am thankful to the author for sharing her reality with me. I appreciate her lucidity which is a huge asset I think.

Re: Independently Poor: A Twist on FU Money – a.k.a. “FU, Money”

#35

Post by 082349872349872 »

Alexander: Greetings, I am Alexander of Macedon. If you be the philosopher they call the Dawg, let me know your wish, and I shall grant it.

Diogenes: Before your shadow fell on me, I had been lying in the sun. Step aside a pēchys or two, and I'll resume.

In The Dispossessed, the anarchist Shevek is surprised to find that his political polar opposite, Atro, has a kindred soul:

> "In some ways he was totally incomprehensible to Shevek — an enigma: the aristocrat. And yet his genuine contempt for both money and power made Shevek feel closer to him than to anyone else he had met on Urras."

more Διογένης: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23822425

Re: Independently Poor: A Twist on FU Money – a.k.a. “FU, Money”

#36

Post by olcor »

odshoifsdhfs wrote: post #18
olcor wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This so much. It felt so weird that this person was talking about poverty and blogging/reading on the internet at the same time . Few poor people in the third world would know what blogging even is, forget about even wasting precious resources like time, money for a smartphone and an internet connection just to read/write some ideas which few are ever going to read and you won’t be making anything out of. This feels…

While I don't disagree the 'real' poor can choose the alternative and agree with GP, I think you also have a very fatalistic view of 3rd world poor. I have family living in the '3rd world' and even there the poor have phones. Sure they are 20 dollars, 10 year old models running android 5.0 or something, but they still check facebook and whatever. They aren't probably blogging but they also read websites/blogs

I do agree with you on that aspect; in fact the proliferation of cheap smartphones and providers like Jio means that a lot of people are able to get their hands on actually decent hardware and a good internet connection if it is in their reach. Which is a great thing! In fact most of the tips mentioned is pretty much what a lot of people do in 3wc too, just replace Reddit with WhatsApp groups.

The issue here is that this is being given as advice, when a lot of this is standard operating procedure which comes semi-automatically for most people in this situation (this I do know, because you need hustle to even survive poverty in a third world country). Most people have multiple jobs by default; it’s not a discussion of if you can leave your day job here, it’s about how many jobs you can cram in a day, and that too without even the possibility of “maneuverability”. A mobile phone and an internet connection in such a situation is a rather significant investment even if it is widely available; it’s not something you can just get without thinking too much, which is what I feel the post reads like. While yes, the internet connections have become so good that you can watch YouTube videos for entertainment, few will be doing that without checking their daily limit caps first, and do it only when there’s nothing else to do. If you’re thinking of blogging/videos, you’re already thinking of it as an investment, if at all you reach that point. And this comes only when a person has escaped poverty, and has at least some sense of stability.

Add to it the plugs of Hacker News and Patreon at the bottom, and things start feeling very dissonant. Which is why I wrote about the potential target audience of the post.

Re: Independently Poor: A Twist on FU Money – a.k.a. “FU, Money”

#37

Post by [deleted] »

tlarkworthy wrote: post #34
imheretolearn wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not discounting the fact that you have problems in your life. I know what it means to be poor because I have been poor in a 3rd world country . >> People who experience homelessness have an average life expectancy of around 50 years of age, almost 20 years lower than housed populations There are kids literally dying because they don't have access to healthcare. >> formal education on the topic of homelessness Th…

I dunno why your being so harsh. It's not a competition on who who had the most dreadful circumstances. FYI, the average life expectancy in Papua New Guinea is 64. Homelessness, even in a first world country, is objectively a bad situation to be in regardless. I am thankful to the author for sharing her reality with me. I appreciate her lucidity which is a huge asset I think.

[deleted]

Re: Independently Poor: A Twist on FU Money – a.k.a. “FU, Money”

#38

Post by imheretolearn »

rapnie wrote: post #12
Joeboy wrote: post #4

Poverty is shit. I recommend avoiding it if you can.

The article though is not advocating to live in poverty, but rather to live with just the right amount of FU Money to be able to make free choices. After this threshold the perspective if one is rich of poor becomes one of mindset and not so much based on the superficial metric of one's net worth.

I beg to differ. I'll say the article assumes you even have access to FU money, which is what the real poor live with everyday.

Re: Independently Poor: A Twist on FU Money – a.k.a. “FU, Money”

#39

Post by frequentnapper »

imheretolearn wrote: post #30
odshoifsdhfs wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I don't disagree the 'real' poor can choose the alternative and agree with GP, I think you also have a very fatalistic view of 3rd world poor. I have family living in the '3rd world' and even there the poor have phones. Sure they are 20 dollars, 10 year old models running android 5.0 or something, but they still check facebook and whatever. They aren't probably blogging but they also read websites/blogs

Have you been to Africa? Or even rural India? The fact that you have access to HN means that: 1. You are able to afford to connect to HN 2. Are privileged enough to be able to read it 3. Your family also has the ability to do 1 if not 2 And let's assume for a minute they do have phones and an internet connection, which in itself is an egregious assumption(the real poor are the ones who don't even have phones). What a…

I fail to see the point you're trying to make. This post was written by a homeless person in a "first world" country so the target audience is people in those countries. Nobody is obligating whomsoever you consider "third world" to read or follow her advice...

Re: Independently Poor: A Twist on FU Money – a.k.a. “FU, Money”

#40

Post by tluyben2 »

WilTimSon wrote: post #31
arcsin wrote: post #24

Coming at it from a different perspective, I did something similar to this by saving money on a US salary and then moving to a low cost of living country. I spent years at a time not working or even thinking about how to make money. I think almost everyone has felt the pain of financial and social obligation, but very few people have experience a total lack of such obligations for years at a time which leads to thing…

Well, there's always a healthy option in the middle. I'm not exactly up to speed on what the pay is like in the USA (which is where I presume most of the users here hail from), but getting at least $3-4k is enough to work remotely from some place like Thailand or a small European country. You still get the benefit of a traditional-ish social life, where you "go" to work every day, talk to people and then have some ti…

Or a big EU country, just not a in a city. In Spain(/Portugal) you can live like a king (villa, swimming pool, huge garden, cars etc) on 3-4k/mo. And if you are an 'ok' coder, 3-4k/mo is not very hard to get remotely.
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