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The real use of money is to buy freedom

paraschopra.com

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Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#81

Post by yummyfajitas »

guard-of-terra wrote: post #75
yummyfajitas wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Middle class" in India does not mean what you seem to think. The vast majority of middle class Indians are poorer than most Americans living in poverty. Read my link - 95% of Indians are poorer than the bottom 5% of Americans. Unless the author defines "middle class" as "top 2%", the fact that he grew up "middle class" is meaningless when comparing his lifestyle to an American one. A stat to illustrate the point - 1…

"Poorer" doesn't mean much. First of all, you should factor in purchasing power; second, constant expenses which are the killer. In most countries, especially poorer ones, you don't have to own a car to be in the middle class. Neither you have to pay for gas, car itself and parking/garage. You can realistically move by foot and/or mass transit. Disclaimer: I think I'm in top 5% in my country, probably earn more than…

Clearly you still haven't read the link I provided, which provides numbers after adjusting for purchasing power.

I'd provide you with more statistics showing how wealthy poor Americans are (http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf), but clearly you aren't going to read any numbers.

So instead, go watch about 4 minutes of Delhi Belly (good movie, BTW, vastly better than typical Bollywood crap) which always confuses first world types:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrJS6R-FT-o

(Sorry, couldn't find the whole scene in one video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3dkCVXcAVg

That's life for middle class professionals. (Admittedly, a group of non-misfits would have filled the buckets.)

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#82

Post by menubar »

officemonkey wrote: post #43

Everybody just loves the word "freedom," like it's some magical super-juice which is the be-all and end-all of the American experience. We will all be free of obligation, pain, responsibility, and any other positive or negative thing soon enough. Instead of the pursuit of freedom, we should dedicate ourselves to obligations that honor ourselves and others. You don't really want "freedom," you want an obligation that…

I define freedom as choice.

You can choose what you want to do rather than being bound to someone else's agenda.

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#83

Post by graeme »

Freedom has been my main goal for money. As my business has grown I'm happier, but I can see the monetary goalposts shifting as I go.

I started two years ago. My initial goal was to build recurring income. I wanted enough to cover expenses, as an initial goal.

Achieved that. But I saw I was vulnerable to sudden expenses, or a temporary decline in business. So I wanted an emergency fund.

Achieved that. But then I realized I had student loan debt that I would soon have to pay interest on, as I was earning more money and wouldn't qualify for debt relief in the near future.

Had a really good autumn and achieved that. Then I noticed that I might have to pay more taxes, because my previous tuition tax credits may run out in 2013.

Achieved that, which brings me to the present. I only achieved much of that savings through tutoring. I charge a high rate, but it's not scaleable. So now my current goal is increasingly recurring revenue so that I don't have to sell my time directly.

Why am I writing this? At each one of these stages, I had the feeling "If I just achieve this goal, I'll have enough". It was a silly belief in retrospect – it would have been obvious to an outsider that I still had challenges to overcome.

Yet presently, I have the feeling "if I double my recurring income, I'll have enough". But I'm certain that once I achieve this goal, I'll see another reason I ought to earn more. Probably the next goal will be "if I just achieve X, I can make work optional by age 33" or "if I just earn X, I won't have to worry about the cost of airfare for trips".

I can attest that life IS better now that I've met the goals I listed above. I remember having lots of worries about money that have mostly dissipated. I haven't increased my lifestyle, and have been trying to keep "freedom" as the main goal for earning more money.

But the whole process feels shockingly short-sighted. It's as though I'm incapable of imagining how I will feel if I am earning $X or have saved $X.

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#84

Post by Joeboy »

gaius wrote: post #66
hkmurakami wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was #6 because of how you dressed, or because you could host events at your new place, or some other factors? I'm curious since I have some acquaintances who are morbidly afraid of having members of the opposite sex approach them for their substantial wealth. They go out of their way to mask their material status.

There's a difference between having money, which appeals only to the most shallow, and making money, which is a proxy for a range of universally desirable attributes (motivation, confidence, tenacity, intelligence, etc).

In my case making money correlated only with my willingness to be a capitalist drone for a few years. The attributes you mention surely correlate with success at most things. Admittedly money is quite popular, so assuming that its pursuit is a primary goal for everybody is probably not a terrible approximation of reality.

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#85

Post by base698 »

kamaal wrote: post #51

>>A life spent mostly hoarding money and possessions is a wasted life Having seen the kind of advantage some of my friends born in rich families enjoy, I would love to hoard and posses tons of wealth even if its purely to give away in inheritance. Rich kids enjoy privileges and advantage poor kids can't even dream of. The biggest of which is attitude of course. Rich kids are born with an assumption they are supposed…

I think you've missed the point. The point is there is some amount of money that affords you the ability to do what you want.

Possessions have the effect of tying you down. Buying a house, assuming you get a mortgage, is a huge expense requiring you to work to pay for it. It ties you to one geographical area and puts stress from having to make the payments. You could spend the downpayment on a house as a down payment of yourself. Find somewhere or something you'd rather do.

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#86

Post by HarryHirsch »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #47
downandout wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He actually mentioned in the article that he grew up "middle class". I am aware that middle class in India may be different than in the US, but it is clear that he was never poor - going to bed hungry etc.

"Middle class" in India does not mean what you seem to think. The vast majority of middle class Indians are poorer than most Americans living in poverty. Read my link - 95% of Indians are poorer than the bottom 5% of Americans. Unless the author defines "middle class" as "top 2%", the fact that he grew up "middle class" is meaningless when comparing his lifestyle to an American one. A stat to illustrate the point - 1…

You are conflating possessions with a predictable stream of income, and you shouldn't really be doing this.

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#88

Post by mathrawka »

esw wrote: post #59
rahimnathwani wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recall a colleague once (~10 years ago) telling me that some people he knew felt that 5k GBP would be enough to solve all of their (money) worries. I thought it absurd, i.e. too low given things like planning for old age. I guess there are people who would think my estimate too low if I said I needed 5m for the same purpose. (not saying 5m is the right number for me or anyone else.)

It's difficult to see beyond your immediate problems when you're broke and living month-to-month. My guess is that anyone who says $5k will solve 'all of their money worries' is probably not including retirement in that figure.

Those people are thinking they will never be able to retire, so why include that?

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#89

Post by joyeuse6701 »

nexttimer wrote: post #80
miles wrote: post #21

Tim O'Reilly on money: It’s easy to get caught up in the heady buzz of making money. You should regard money as fuel for what you really want to do, not as a goal in and of itself. Money is like gas in the car — you need to pay attention or you’ll end up on the side of the road — but a well-lived life is not a tour of gas stations! Source: http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/01/work-on-stuff-that-matters-...

> The real use of money is to buy freedom The real problem is: This additional freedom you can buy with money means less freedom for somebody else. Inequality (wealth-based) means nothing else than domination. If you are richer, then you dominate the poorer people. And richer countries dominate poorer countries. This is the most basic and fundamental injustice [0] we seem to accept in our Western culture. Because we…

Sounds like someone should read Paul Graham's essay on Wealth again.
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