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

#101

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

jsjsbdkj wrote: post #80

zthrowaway wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Wealth is accumulated through habits" is a great story to tell people but it seems very often to be complete BS. I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet, but I encourage you to dig more into financial independence, and how living more frugally can help you save more money to invest in the right ways to generate wealth. There's plenty of books on these habits, "The Millionaire Next Door", and even some popular…

If you make 35k a year, what would you sacrifice to save up to become a millionaire? What if you need a car to get to work because public transit has been gutted in your community? What if you have kids? The whole "personal responsibility" myth is designed to fool comfortably middle-class people who still do labour all day into not resenting the elites who live solely off the surplus value of their labour. It tells y…

[deleted]

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

#102

Post by clairity » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

peterwoerner wrote: post #90

jimbokun wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not $188 million rich.

Not $188 million rich, but certainly $2-5 million rich.

something like 60% of people can’t reach 1 million let alone 2, given their position in the lifetime income distribution. i’d be all for changing policies with the sole focus of giving everyone the opportunity, but not the right, to reach $2 million in wealth by retirement age. that would require some wealth redistribution to start, and radical shifts in how we allocate income. since that disfavors the already wealthy, it’s hard to effectuate without sustained, concerted effort by the 99%.

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

#103

Post by bluescrn » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 4:32 PM UTC

pge wrote: post #21

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…

Compounding is also a huge factor in cases like this. If you make (or inherit) money early in life, even if you don’t add much principal, 70 years of compounding does wonders for wealth creation.

The wealthy enjoy compound interest while the less wealthy suffer compound inflation

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

#104

Post by lotsofpulp » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 4:33 PM UTC

HEmanZ wrote: post #38

cik wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 costin…

And most people don't flip burgers. The median household income in the US in 2019 was $68,000/yr [1]. In the part of the US I am from, and the parts I have lived most of my life, this affords an extremely good quality of life with plenty of room for intelligent financial decisions. So crying "this doesn't apply to people with really low incomes" is true to an extent, but that's only a fraction of the population. Goin…

>The median household income in the US in 2019 was $68,000/yr [1]. In the part of the US I am from, and the parts I have lived most of my life, this affords an extremely good quality of life with plenty of room for intelligent financial decisions.

It depends what you define as a good quality of life, but I don't know of anywhere in the US where $68k comes anywhere close to protecting your family from an unexpected medical or legal expense, especially one that causes a disturbance in the income stream. Personally, that disqualifies it as a "good quality of life".

The biggest weakness is once you get into the 50 to 65 year age range. Your odds of health issues or economic conditions decrease your chances of having decent employment, especially with subsidized health insurance. Your insurance premiums also rise to about $22k per year at the silver level, with a $17k per year out of pocket maximum.

And you have no assistance until age 65 when Medicare kicks in. So if you get don't have an employer with deep pockets after age 50, and you get into a healthcare crisis, all of the assets you've saved up are now in play before Medicaid will save you, and now your family is left with not much. This is the reality for many, many Americans at $68k per year, no matter where they are in the US.

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

#105

Post by sidlls » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 4:33 PM UTC

dionidium wrote: post #57

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…

About 20% of millionaires inherited their wealth. [0] (It may actually be far less than that, if you interpret "inherited their wealth" to mean "inherited over a million dollars." [1]) Almost 70% of those with ultra-high net worths are self-made. [2] [0] https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0810/7-millionai... . [1] https://www.chrishogan360.com/investing/how-many-millionaire... [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/0…

These articles are all exceptionally light on details.

A good example: Zuckerberg is considered "self-made," right? Except he had a wealthy father (dentist) with wealthy social connections who funded his company. It is at best misleading to claim Zuckerberg is "self-made", in that it completely elides substantial luck and money he did not, in fact, earn, to get where he is.

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

#106

Post by misiti3780 » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 4:33 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #100

misiti3780 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why is that not possible - warren buffet didnt inherit money and became a billionaire. it's possible to get very rich on compound interest.

Buffet’s dad was a federal congressman with his own investment firm, and grandparents were owners of a grocery store. Not saying he didn’t work for any of it or didn’t deserve it, but you’re not going to be Buffett by socking away 20% of your pay in a retirement account (you might be nominally if US gov keeps printing money, but not in real terms). He certainly is an outlier in terms of intelligence and work ethic, b…

he is certainly and outlier, and probably a bad example, but i read his biography and if i remember correctly he started investing money he made on is paper route in stocks early on.

It's true your probably not going to make 188M, but even a lot less than that is still rich.

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

#107

Post by ihm » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

yboris wrote: post #11

Related: Effective Altruism is a movement & community of people focusing on the effectiveness - > 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…

Effective Altruism is very confusing to me as it seems to only address the symptoms of poverty and not the root causes.

In a very abbreviated version, that root cause being that our society requires that some labor in terrible conditions for little pay because it is necessary to maintain profits. And, those people having little power to oppose this state of affairs compared to those who perpetuate the status quo, nothing changes.

Individual acts of charity like these are inspiring, but you will never get enough people/money on board with your program through the kindness of their hearts. It’s like trying to change the direction of the wind by blowing and trying to convince your friends to blow as well, except it’s even worse because those who have tons of money (as a class) will actively act to keep the system going.

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

#108

Post by JustSomeNobody » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

vmception wrote: post #72

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> alimony? child support? Alimony implies marriage. In marriage all the money earned belongs to both parties. If there's only a single earner and the other is a nurturer, so what? It's still both party's money. Alimony is there to help the nurturer transition back to an earner. Child support is, well, you made them, support them. Simple.

What point did you think you were making? Money paid in alimony has nothing to do with money earned in marriage. The divorce division of marital property covers that. Alimony supports the lifestyle. Would you consider a recipient self made or not. Would you consider a recipient of child support self made or not.

The point I am making? One cannot say someone is not self-made simply because they're getting alimony or child support without acknowledging the contributions during marriage.

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

#109

Post by misiti3780 » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 4:35 PM UTC

sidlls wrote: post #99

misiti3780 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compound interest is a thing. If you are fortunate to have a job that allows you to save money, and you put that money in the S&P 500 it will double every 7-10 years. His wealth was inherited, but if you start to invest money in your 20s, and you invest every month at dont touch it, you will most likely get rich if you live to be a senior.

Yes, if you are fortunate enough to have a job that allows you to save money--that's less than half the working population of the US, where the median bank account value is under $6k. Someone with a bank account that low isn't investing $2000/year starting at 20 years old to achieve a $1M (pre-tax) portfolio at age 67. That's the whole reason people object to these "just start saving and compound returns will make yo…

I know the the numbers and I agree.

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

#110

Post by kapp_in_life » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 4:37 PM UTC

mikepurvis wrote: post #24

woah wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I mean yes, but when you've built your life in a place, it's little comfort being a "millionaire" if the only way to cash in on it is to pull up stakes and move hundreds of kilometers away.

If you cash out for a million dollars I'm positive you could find somewhere to rent in the city you currently live in. Maybe not a kilometer away but certainly fewer than hundreds.