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The art and science of spending money

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Re: The art and science of spending money

#81

Post by monero-xmr »

PopAlongKid wrote: post #60
monero-xmr wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reliable way of creating a huge fortune from scratch is to start a business. Many failures for me before it worked out.

So it isn't so reliable after all, according to your own testimony.

There are many reasons to start a business. I like doing so because the most honorable path IMO is serving others - I make more money the more I provide people what they want. They voluntarily give my businesses money. That’s far superior to being paid by taxes, stealing, inheriting it, and so on. Voluntarily receiving money from people who desire the services of my businesses is the best thing I can provide humanity. Becoming wealthy was a consequence of serving a huge amount of people well.

The latter part of my life will involve various ways of using my wealth in ways I see benefit society. This will be very unique to my own style.

Re: The art and science of spending money

#82

Post by sanderjd »

lazybreather wrote: post #3

Lower middle class kid to now a slightly upper middle class person here. Migrated from small towns to cities. I think this falls into majority category. Wow! I don't experience even one of those points the author mentions. In fact quite the opposite. It is unsettling to feel even mildly rich or show the world that I am doing well. Maybe I am not in the majority after all. Or the article is so very rooted in western d…

Yes. This is my experience as well. I don't really relate to any of this status seeking through wealth stuff.

I'm curious where you're from. I'm from a small town in the midwest. I live in a cosmopolitan urban area now, but I always wonder if this sort of thing is a coastal or city culture that I still don't, and maybe never will, understand.

Re: The art and science of spending money

#83

Post by jandrewrogers »

rsynnott wrote: post #53
sc077y wrote: post #45

Very interesting article. Following the articles logic, you should be able to deduce a country's Social mobility based on the number of exotic items (such as supercars) you see in public. Furthermore, it becomes apparent that Europe has lower Social mobility than the United States. You will seldom see exotic sports car in the streets in Western Europe because most of the wealth are from well established institutions…

Western Europe has generally higher social mobility by most metrics than the US (mobility between income cohorts, education level vs parents, etc). The US probably does have more people becoming really, _really_ rich, though, and also has slightly different social norms around money and the showing-off thereof. (That said, this is mostly differences at the margins. The mean price of a new car isn't much different bet…

Social mobility is the wrong metric. The economic mobility in the US -- the ability to increase your absolute income -- is far higher than in Europe. Countries with compressed wages have high social mobility, almost by definition, by low economic mobility. Since the US experiences very low wage compression compared to most countries, it will never be "socially mobile" but will have anomalously high wages for a large portion of the population.

Re: The art and science of spending money

#84

Post by sanderjd »

63 wrote: post #12

I've been struggling with knowing how to spend money now that I have it. I don't even have that much, just slightly above a median salary but that's so much more than I've ever had before. I spent all of college wondering if the current semester would be my last and now I can just pay off my loans in a year if I really want to. It's incredible but also really unjust because I know so many people are experiencing what…

You should have kids - never wonder what to do with your money again! :)

Re: The art and science of spending money

#85

Post by sokoloff »

imtringued wrote: post #54
sokoloff wrote: post #28

> Frugality inertia: a lifetime of good savings habits can’t be transitioned to a spending phase I think a lot of financial planners start from a base assumption that their clients will be happiest if they spend their accumulated wealth. That’s not true in my case (at least as far as I can self-analyze). Whatever we don’t spend isn’t lost potential for us, but rather is future potential for our kids. Taking only the…

>Whatever we don’t spend isn’t lost potential for us, but rather is future potential for our kids That's extremely lazy. If your children follow the same pattern then no one will ever benefit. It was all for nothing. So your kids will spend the savings but when will they spend those savings? After your death when they are in their 40s and 50s and long past the point where they need your help or while they are still y…

It's a matter of capacitance and safety against being broke. Being broke and needing services at age 95 is a pretty bad spot to be in. Dying at 85 instead of 95 and, as a result, dying with $1-2M in assets isn't nearly as bad.

If the present is any predictor, I'm sure we'll spend adequate time and other resources (financial and not) with them while we're alive, but in order to minimize the chance that we'll become a financial burden to them, we're very likely to live in a way that will unavoidably present them a surplus at the end.

If that's lazy, then we're proudly lazy, and we come from a long line of lazy people.

Re: The art and science of spending money

#86

Post by mythhouse »

wrldos wrote: post #46
imtringued wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently you didn't pay attention in economics class. Human wants are infinite.

Nope. I've got everything I want. It's not a lot. I'm collecting a ton of money now that I don't know what to do with. Promoting wants is the foundation of economics however.

> I'm collecting a ton of money now that I don't know what to do with.

Why not increase your desires.

Re: The art and science of spending money

#87

Post by toast0 »

luxurytent wrote: post #36
tehCorner wrote: post #24

> Frugality inertia: a lifetime of good savings habits can’t be transitioned to a spending phase. Coming from a poor family and knowing the hard way the issues of not having money I've been obsessed with saving money since I got my first paycheck 8 years ago and I always thought "at the point I would earn current salary + x I will start enjoying life more and stop worrying about money" but that never happened. 8 year…

This is me and I struggle with it on a regular. We are quite comfortable (on my single salary I can cover mortgage, private care for my kids, and good food), but I feel behind -- because I came from a poor family who scraped on a regular. My parents still work their fairly simple factory jobs as they need to pay off their debts (albeit they are below 65) What I'm trying this year is ensuring I can allocate a certain…

You don't have to spend the "free to spend" money, and you shouldn't feel bad for not spending it.

Maybe collect the unspent amounts into an "Emergency Fun" fund, so you can dip into it if you have a crisis related to fun (gaming device breaks, see something really cool that you want to have or do, etc)

Re: The art and science of spending money

#88

Post by toast0 »

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #63
ant6n wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can buy any meal at any restaurant I want and I never care about the price. It’s a glorious feeling. I eat whatever I want. Unfathomable My budget for food used to be limited by money, now it’s limited by calories.

And time. Restaurants are very time consuming.

Depends on when you visit them. If you go at peak, the wait times get pretty bad. If you go not too long before the peak, things usually go much faster as it may be fully staffed already. If you go between peaks, things get slow because the kitchen may not be fully staffed or is also working on prepping for the rush.

Re: The art and science of spending money

#89

Post by mym1990 »

paulpauper wrote: post #79

It's too easy to overspend. It's effortless to give people money. It's much harder to earn money. Hence, being frugal is a good idea generally.

Especially in the day of fairly abundant credit where one is often spending against future income and not what is currently in the bank.
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