Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity • Hacker News Board

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#11

Post by yboris » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:13 PM UTC

> about answering one simple question: how can we use our resources to help others the most?

https://www.effectivealtruism.org/

Giving What We Can is a community of people who have pledged to give at least 10% of their income to cost-effective charities. I'm a proud member of 10 years.

https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/

Zell Kravinsky gave nearly-all of his $45 million he made from real-estate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zell_Kravinsky and a talk he gave https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvUcbcUMtXw

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#12

Post by vmception » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:17 PM UTC

FactolSarin wrote: post #10

vmception wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well this is mostly semantics: the quote does not contradict, most of the wealth was self-made. as in the profits accumulated during their lifetime, it doesn't say anything about how the first one million or any amount was made. your consternation requires you to have a fixed and shared definition of self made that is just not described at all here. it does leave a glaring hole about then which wealth was not self-ma…

I mean, it takes money to make money. It's a lot easier to get a hundred million dollars when you start out with 1 million to put in the stock market.

that's also my point.

oh, I don't find that controversial in case my lack of stated opinion prompted someone to fill in their own.

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#13

Post by tdhz77 » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:22 PM UTC

5350-uiop-1130 wrote: post #5

jsjsbdkj wrote: post #3

From the article: Most millionaires opt for stealth wealth. Their friends don’t know, their coworkers don’t know, their extended family doesn’t know. In a few cases, not even their children know! Wealth is accumulated through habits; at least in a free society like ours. At the moment, something like 1 out of 25 households falls into the millionaire category, most of it self-made. From the comments: Your right in Jac…

> "Wealth is accumulated through habits" > his wealth was inherited I really dislike these kind's of articles.

He gain wealth by having wealth. The opposite is true too... you lose wealth by not having wealth.

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#14

Post by woah » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:23 PM UTC

agent008t wrote: post #4

jsjsbdkj wrote: post #3

From the article: Most millionaires opt for stealth wealth. Their friends don’t know, their coworkers don’t know, their extended family doesn’t know. In a few cases, not even their children know! Wealth is accumulated through habits; at least in a free society like ours. At the moment, something like 1 out of 25 households falls into the millionaire category, most of it self-made. From the comments: Your right in Jac…

What percentage of those millionaires are house-rich? I.e. the house they live in just happened to appreciate significantly and is now worth over $1mm? Those people can still feel as if they are not wealthy at all.

They still have $1 million dollars more than someone without a house

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#15

Post by TheAdamAndChe » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:23 PM UTC

5350-uiop-1130 wrote: post #5

jsjsbdkj wrote: post #3

From the article: Most millionaires opt for stealth wealth. Their friends don’t know, their coworkers don’t know, their extended family doesn’t know. In a few cases, not even their children know! Wealth is accumulated through habits; at least in a free society like ours. At the moment, something like 1 out of 25 households falls into the millionaire category, most of it self-made. From the comments: Your right in Jac…

> "Wealth is accumulated through habits" > his wealth was inherited I really dislike these kind's of articles.

The two statements aren't incongruent. People who inherit money but spend it all because of bad habits don't accumulate wealth.

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#16

Post by achillesheels » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:24 PM UTC

borplk wrote: post #9

jsjsbdkj wrote: post #3

From the article: Most millionaires opt for stealth wealth. Their friends don’t know, their coworkers don’t know, their extended family doesn’t know. In a few cases, not even their children know! Wealth is accumulated through habits; at least in a free society like ours. At the moment, something like 1 out of 25 households falls into the millionaire category, most of it self-made. From the comments: Your right in Jac…

> "Wealth is accumulated through habits" is a great story to tell people but it seems very often to be complete BS. Yes. It's capitalist propaganda. If you are a highly paid heart surgeon or CEO you can "accumulate wealth with habits". If you are anywhere between flipping burgers to many other types of jobs there's just not enough money "coming in" for these things to make a huge difference. You can be more sensible…

My grandfather flipped burgers in high school and worked his way up to VP of a glass installation firm in the Mountain West, providing his grandchildren with a college education and a small nest egg.

But if you are ego-centric then I can understand why you’d be bitter.

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#17

Post by cik » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:25 PM UTC

borplk wrote: post #9

jsjsbdkj wrote: post #3

From the article: Most millionaires opt for stealth wealth. Their friends don’t know, their coworkers don’t know, their extended family doesn’t know. In a few cases, not even their children know! Wealth is accumulated through habits; at least in a free society like ours. At the moment, something like 1 out of 25 households falls into the millionaire category, most of it self-made. From the comments: Your right in Jac…

> "Wealth is accumulated through habits" is a great story to tell people but it seems very often to be complete BS. Yes. It's capitalist propaganda. If you are a highly paid heart surgeon or CEO you can "accumulate wealth with habits". If you are anywhere between flipping burgers to many other types of jobs there's just not enough money "coming in" for these things to make a huge difference. You can be more sensible…

That's exceptionally untrue - though it can be true in context. In the city beside mine, renting a place downtown, and working in the grocery store it's very possible to save $500 per month. For reference, minimum wage is the equivalent of $1700 USD, and renting a one-bedroom, all in will cost roughly $454 USD. With cellphone (250GB of 5G speeds) costing the equivalent of $15 USD, and groceries and electricity costing another $350, there's still plenty of space. Investing that money in the S&P at its historical rate, for 45 years will yield $2.3 million (rounded down).

Now, quality of life would be rubbish. But it's technically possible.

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#18

Post by economusty » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:25 PM UTC

jsjsbdkj wrote: post #3

From the article: Most millionaires opt for stealth wealth. Their friends don’t know, their coworkers don’t know, their extended family doesn’t know. In a few cases, not even their children know! Wealth is accumulated through habits; at least in a free society like ours. At the moment, something like 1 out of 25 households falls into the millionaire category, most of it self-made. From the comments: Your right in Jac…

He had to have some good habits to grow the portfolio.

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#19

Post by malandrew » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:27 PM UTC

FactolSarin wrote: post #10

vmception wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well this is mostly semantics: the quote does not contradict, most of the wealth was self-made. as in the profits accumulated during their lifetime, it doesn't say anything about how the first one million or any amount was made. your consternation requires you to have a fixed and shared definition of self made that is just not described at all here. it does leave a glaring hole about then which wealth was not self-ma…

I mean, it takes money to make money. It's a lot easier to get a hundred million dollars when you start out with 1 million to put in the stock market.

> It's a lot easier to get a hundred million dollars when you start out with 1 million to put in the stock market.

This statement could only ever be uttered by someone that has not tried to do this.

100x increase in any endeavor is extremely exceptional. It's as hard to do as turning $10,000 into $1,000,000.

The only thing having a larger starting amount helps with is that it opens up types of opportunities you did not have before that require greater starting capital and are outside the stock market. Those additional opportunities are as hard to capitalize on as the smaller opportunities that only require $10,000, especially since you need not only money but a lot of people with expertise that you can trust.

But within the stock market, a 100x return is something very few people in the market ever achieve.

The only place where having money clears some significant initial hurdles is probably getting to the first $10,000, maybe the first $100,000. This is a hurdle many have cleared in their lifetime and they still haven't succeeded in turning it into $1 million to $10 million, respectively.

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#20

Post by mikepurvis » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:27 PM UTC

FactolSarin wrote: post #10

vmception wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well this is mostly semantics: the quote does not contradict, most of the wealth was self-made. as in the profits accumulated during their lifetime, it doesn't say anything about how the first one million or any amount was made. your consternation requires you to have a fixed and shared definition of self made that is just not described at all here. it does leave a glaring hole about then which wealth was not self-ma…

I mean, it takes money to make money. It's a lot easier to get a hundred million dollars when you start out with 1 million to put in the stock market.

It's also survivor bias— having a million bucks gives you the cushion to take those riskier bets, and the people for whom that works out are the ones we read about. There are certainly others who gambled away mom and dad's money into nothing.