My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

Post by deanmoriarty » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 3:03 PM UTC

endisneigh wrote: post #249

deanmoriarty wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t want to dismiss your question, but to be honest I don’t know how to answer it. Maybe if everyone did it new arbitrage opportunities would arise so that it would become more lucrative to move somewhere else where there is a demand for services that nobody is doing anymore? But I am not an economist so I am not interested in reading 50 pedantic comments about how my previous sentence is inaccurate. I do not con…

What...? You said: > rather than simply admitting that they willingly chose a different path in life, but they could have chased my same opportunities with largely the same financial outcome. But then you also say > I do not concern myself with non-practical (in my opinion) matters The "concern" is your own advice.

Post by actually_a_dog » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 3:05 PM UTC

yunohn wrote: post #157

dsomers wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an absolute joke. The United States has terrible class mobility compared to the Netherlands or Germany for example. You don’t have anything to support what you said other than a skewed perspective created by American centric media. Edit: I guess the down voters here hate facts. The US scores lower on social mobility than the majority of European countries https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Social_Mobility_In…

Given my experience in NL, I would disagree. I see a very clear class divide here, which is just mostly ignored by the middle/upper classes and government. Most of the population spend the majority of their income on rent, commuting, and essentials. Students also have lots of debt over the past decade (15k on average). Owning a car is expensive, but so is public transport (esp. for a family). Renting is expensive, bu…

Post by _dark_matter_ » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 3:09 PM UTC

yulaow wrote: post #178

supernova87a wrote: post #109

Here's 2 questions for the "FIRE" crowd. 1) To stop working when you hit a certain number seems to me to be falling into the faulty logic illustrated in Freakonomics -- when a taxi driver works every day towards a certain $ figure, he suffers on crappy days (keeps on driving to little benefit) when fares are just not coming, and cuts off his earnings on great days where business is pouring in like crazy. Instead, you…

I have so many hobbies I could occupy (happily) maybe 10 lifetimes before getting remotely bored. Why spend the only one I have "working" for others?

Post by hhmc » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 3:09 PM UTC

refurb wrote: post #214

whimsicalism wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody said it was "his fault" and that is obviously not the point of the acknowledgement starting the post.

So you agree he shouldn’t feel guilty.

Post by rubidium » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 3:12 PM UTC

refurb wrote: post #227

martincmartin wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest expense is college, at least in the U.S. If you retire before they apply, you may want to be conservative and set aside the cost of the most expensive college. MIT is $77k/year [1]. For two kids, that's $616k. And it increases faster than inflation, estimate 6%/yr. If you have enough money in the bank that you're financially independent, they won't qualify for need based aid, you'll have to pay the sticke…

Not going to lie, but Americans paying 100% of their kids college is kinda weird as an immigrant. My kid can take out loans and sure I’ll help, but hell no I’m not bank rolling multiple kids at full private school tuition. At least where I grew up a solid public school college was not an impediment to a good career. I’ve notice Americans tend to hyper-optimize - I love it when parents tell me they bought in Palo Alto…