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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”

#131

Post by abnercoimbre »

Nextgrid wrote: post #123
StavrosK wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work remotely and live in a low cost of living country, but find that's not very true for me. I always have my own projects and hobbies to work on, and I love working on them whenever I want to. I feel pretty motivated and fulfilled with that, so I don't get the feelings you mention. Not having a job can sometimes feel like you don't have a long-term purpose, but I think that's mostly because we've been used to wor…

I think the original post referred more to the social impacts of the situation to which I can relate to. You can indeed work on your own projects/hobbies but I find it's harder to find people to connect with if your situation is so different.

> You can indeed work on your own projects/hobbies but I find it's harder to find people to connect with if your situation is so different.

Aren't we just in a transitional period? Digital nomads are fairly normal by now, even though they're (currently) a minority. A growing number of countries have visas and residencies for these folks and this group organizes special events all the time.

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

#132

Post by jcun4128 »

meddlepal wrote: post #71
jcun4128 wrote: post #7

I briefly experienced "freedom" for a few months where I just stopped paying my bills(no expenses). This was dumb later on eg. cc law suits/tanked credit score. But I had the ability to do so(friends/cheap housing/internet access). I learned how to build full stack websites, I was chasing the dream(high traffic ad-revenue based websites). Meanwhile was in the process of failing out of school/fear of how I would pay m…

... what did you think was going to happen by just not paying your bills?

Yeah I was escaping, going to court for a CC JDB lawsuit was not fun.

And also tanking my credit score/tainting myself "permanently" is also not great. I was dumb with money earlier in life.

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

#133

Post by Joeboy »

gwern wrote: post #127
Joeboy wrote: post #65

> I also really like the scene in Titanic where the rich guy tries to buy his way into a lifeboat and gets told his money won't be worth anything at the bottom of the ocean. In reality of course, first class passengers were more than twice as likely to survive as third class ones.

Speaking of fact vs fiction in _Titanic_, https://www.econlib.org/the-anticapitalist-mentality/ the other week happened to mention: "'On 14 April 1912, Benjamin Guggenheim, Solomon’s younger brother, found himself on board the Titanic, and, as the ship started sinking, he was one of those who helped women and children onto the lifeboats, withstanding the frenzy, and at times the brutality, of other male passengers. T…

I don't know if you read the comments to that link, but one of them links to a deleted scene where Guggenheim gets fairly sympathetic treatment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUrJ_Huk5so

I guess the scene was deleted because 195 minutes of Titanic is plenty.

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

#134

Post by nemetroid »

bane wrote: post #114
granshaw wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like old age medical expenses is the biggest fear - have you all considered emigrating to a country with govt provides healthcare to address that possibility?

Yes. We plan on retiring outside of the U.S. primarily due to the medical nonsense making our expected cost of living much lower in old age.

Do you plan on living and paying taxes for a substantial amount of time in your target country?

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

#135

Post by justnotworthit »

nemetroid wrote: post #134
bane wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. We plan on retiring outside of the U.S. primarily due to the medical nonsense making our expected cost of living much lower in old age.

Do you plan on living and paying taxes for a substantial amount of time in your target country?

How would they retire in a country without following its immigration laws? You're tattle telling on behalf of no one.

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

#136

Post by quicklime »

Joeboy wrote: post #106
Wildgoose wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's a complete myth, probably propagated by the Titanic movie. Third-class women (& children of course) were MORE likely to survive than a male in First-class.

First-class men were about twice as likely to survive as third-class men, and first-class women were about twice as likely to survive as third-class women.

For those that are interested, here are the survival rates, broken down by men/women/children in first/second/third-class/crew: https://www.anesi.com/titanic.htm

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

#137

Post by rumanator »

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #115
rumanator wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main problem with this blend of "liberating experiences" is that they are all fine and dandy when you're in your 20s and 30s. When health concerns start to kick in and your ability to generate income is hampered by the fact that you've decided to pay no attention to your career then that's where the consequences of your decisions start to catch up with you. It's like those hedonists who choose to spend their life…

You speak of health concerns down the road, but I have concerns over the health of my soul right now. I do not want to get to old age and realize that I've just been doing pointless shit for money my whole life, just to stay safe, meanwhile building someone's stupid dream instead of my good dream. Where are those advertising campaigns I worked on so hard, putting in extra hours to hit the arbitrary deadlines? Gone, f…

> You speak of health concerns down the road, but I have concerns over the health of my soul right now. I do not want to get to old age and realize that I've just been doing pointless shit for money my whole life, just to stay safe, meanwhile building someone's stupid dream instead of my good dream.

That's where the hedonism road leads you, but whose trip just takes you 20 to 30 years instead of 60 or 70 or 80.

The ant and the grasshopper fable was written down by Aesop over 2 thousand years ago. This isn't new. Just because you come up with an excuse about "soul health" that doesn't mean that you aren't volunteering to enter a world of pain by neglecting your livelihood and ability to generate income.

And please do realize you do have influence over your career. If you chose to work on uninspiring projects them... Don't, and instead search for projects that you feel are more rewarding. Demand for skilled developers is so high that anyone remotely competent has to fend off recruiters lining up to pay salaries that are way above any nation's median wage.

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

#138

Post by DoreenMichele »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #99
Kye wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Related: how has your experience with buymeacoffee been? I used Ko-fi for a long time, but BMC keeps popping up.

I actually mostly stopped using it because it wasn't getting results for me. I removed it from most of my sites and this link got overlooked.

Though I will add that it occurs to me that if I was using a broken link across most of my sites, that could explain the poor performance. Duh.

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

#139

Post by Kye »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #138
DoreenMichele wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually mostly stopped using it because it wasn't getting results for me. I removed it from most of my sites and this link got overlooked.

Though I will add that it occurs to me that if I was using a broken link across most of my sites, that could explain the poor performance. Duh.

My experience with various donation-themed money collectors is they don't go far without active promotion. The problem I had with Ko-fi is they run right through to your PayPal account, and PayPal likes to flag payments through Ko-fi as requiring shipping. After a while I had to manually set "doesn't need shipping info" on every one, and it wouldn't release the funds for weeks. It's easy to get people to send by PayPal because PayPal is easy, but Stripe requires getting a card out. Donations cratered the moment I turned PayPal off.

As much as Patreon frustrates me for a long list of reasons, it's low-pain on both ends since it handles the link between payment and your bank account. The numbers are smaller, but people stick around and don't expect anything extra from you. Even if they pick a benefit-having tier.

I made an account on Buy Me A Coffee, but it seemed like a less refined Ko-fi and I wasn't sure if I missed something.

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

#140

Post by DoreenMichele »

Kye wrote: post #139
DoreenMichele wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though I will add that it occurs to me that if I was using a broken link across most of my sites, that could explain the poor performance. Duh.

My experience with various donation-themed money collectors is they don't go far without active promotion. The problem I had with Ko-fi is they run right through to your PayPal account, and PayPal likes to flag payments through Ko-fi as requiring shipping. After a while I had to manually set "doesn't need shipping info" on every one, and it wouldn't release the funds for weeks. It's easy to get people to send by PayP…

Given that the link was broken, I am thinking I may put it back on various sites of mine as an option and see if it works. I still don't have enough income yet and having more payment gateways seems to open up options for people to pay how they prefer.

I prefer PayPal for tips (and Patreon for something I can count on at the start of every month), but if that means some people aren't tipping who would if there was another payment gateway, then I am leaving money on the table. That's something I can ill afford to do given how cash strapped I routinely am the last half of every single month.

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