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Cheat Codes for Life I Know at 36 That I Wish I Knew at 26

timdenning.com

21–30 of 81 posts

Re: Cheat Codes for Life I Know at 36 That I Wish I Knew at 26

#21
post #9

I'd expect that somebody who believes "The world wants you to be normal. F*ck being normal. That’s when being extraordinary becomes impossible." would probably treat service workers poorly (they're normal, F*ck them) but instead there is the advice "Watch how people treat service workers. It tells you a lot about their character."

I feel the opposite, being normal is highly underrated.

Depends on what attributes you attach to the word "normal" but I somewhat agree. The bad version tracks with "incurious" or "credulous" for me, the good version is aligned with "emotionally stable" or "grounded", although that doesn't feel too normal in 2022.

Re: Cheat Codes for Life I Know at 36 That I Wish I Knew at 26

#22

> When you work for yourself there’s flexibility with how much tax you pay, and most importantly, when it must be paid. > > That means you can earn half the salary from a job and still take home more money. Genius. Either this guy doesn't understand how income tax works, or I don't. (Or he's just lowkey recommending tax fraud)

>Either this guy doesn't understand how income tax works, or I don't. (Or he's just lowkey recommending tax fraud)

What you're missing is tax deductions.

when you operate as salary, you get no deductions and pay maximum taxes.

When you operate as sole proprietorship you can deduct 'business expenses'

Business travel and parking? Deducted.

Any new gadget or widget? Deducted.

It doesn't create new money, you have to still earn the money in the first place, you can't go buy a porsche but you'll be surprised at how many things you can get away with at least partially deducting and when you do this to a full extent. You end up paying little to no income tax. You take home more while earning less.

Re: Cheat Codes for Life I Know at 36 That I Wish I Knew at 26

#25
> When you work for yourself there’s flexibility with how much tax you pay, and most importantly, when it must be paid.

Not in the US in my experience. Switching from full time to contract/1099 work was a nightmare for me. You have to file and pay quarterly expected income tax payments. If you want to maximize retirement savings (401k etc) or even just get good healthcare you have to do all kinds of machinations to create a business with yourself as sole employee, etc. and increase the tax burden, filings and paperwork even more. It's an enormous burden and I honestly would rather just work full time instead of deal with this stuff.

Re: Cheat Codes for Life I Know at 36 That I Wish I Knew at 26

#26

Most of this reads like the pseudo-inspirational BS that people post on LinkedIn. Things that seem deep, but are so blindingly obvious and/or incredibly broad that they are of absolutely no value to the reader.

Indeed. In particular, I’ve seen variations of “Watch how people treat service workers” in this kind of content again and again.

It really makes me wonder who needs telling “If the person you’re with is rude to people, they might not be a nice person”.

Re: Cheat Codes for Life I Know at 36 That I Wish I Knew at 26

#28

> When you work for yourself there’s flexibility with how much tax you pay, and most importantly, when it must be paid. > > That means you can earn half the salary from a job and still take home more money. Genius. Either this guy doesn't understand how income tax works, or I don't. (Or he's just lowkey recommending tax fraud)

[deleted]

Re: Cheat Codes for Life I Know at 36 That I Wish I Knew at 26

#29
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have goals and people that aren't work related. Pursue your own personal interests instead of focusing on your work or career. He kinda gives it away at the end: > 36. When you stop having big dreams that’s when you’ve died, despite not being buried yet.

How do those dreamers support themselves?

13. Use money to buy your time back.
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