First world problems.
How are he rant on a full stomach with a roof over his head.
I quit the tech industry
511–520 of 565 posts
Re: I quit the tech industry
#512Earlier quoted context omitted.
If (debt.interest > investment.interest ), pay off debt first. Else, invest. I disagree with this tremendously. With your strategy, essentially what you are doing is buying stocks on margin. This magnifies your profits if things goes your way and magnifies your losses if things go against you. Think about it this way - Interactive Brokers is an online brokerage with extremely low margin rates which are often half of…
From a google search: "Buying on margin is borrowing money from a broker to purchase stock. You can think of it as a loan from your brokerage. Margin trading allows you to buy more stock than you'd be able to normally." That's not what I meant, definitely wouldn't borrow to invest so much as decide to invest (if I came into a new chunk of money) money on hand. I'm not sure where the assumption is that I meant to inve…
The person you're replying to wasn't trying to say you meant to invest on margin but that what you are doing is the same as investing on margin.
When you do margin trading you take on debt to allow you to buy more stock. In your case, you aren't actually "taking on" debt technically, but you choose not to pay it off so that you can buy more stock.
After all, the scenarios break down to debt + more stocks or no debt + less stocks.
Obviously there are some differences, but I hope that explanation of the analogy made sense. The point is, by investing money instead of using it to pay off debt you are increasing your risk and reward whereas when you pay off debt you decrease it.
Re: I quit the tech industry
#513Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, if it makes you feel better, he probably made a bad decision paying off the mortgage right away considering that he has no idea what he's going to do to earn money going forward. It would have been better to continue paying the mortgage for the time being (interest rates are absurdly low) and have a big cushion to fall back on if the whole "I don't wanna be part of the rat race, maaaan" thing doesn't work out.
I crunched some numbers, and the difference came out to losing a couple grand a year over the course of a decade by paying it off now. I decided I'd rather have fewer bills and no debt looming overhead while I figure this out than the slight extra cash.
I don't doubt that it saves you money in the long run, but my point is if you're planning on not working and not making real money for a very long time you're better off with the mortgage and a LOT more cash laying around.
Re: I quit the tech industry
#514Having a traditional job is such a terrible experience. At the very least, it's terrible if you're not 100% in love with whatever company project you're working on. I think there are some personality types that are suited to traditional jobs though, since most people don't share my concerns when I tell them how terrible it is to have a job. Because of this, I think more people like the author of this post should purs…
I'd actually argue that 80% to 90%* of people are suited to traditional jobs, simply because the majority of people don't have the motivation, ambition, or discipline to do what it takes otherwise. I don't mean that as a negative criticism to those people in any way, either. Most of my friends openly admit that this is the case for them -- they can't even work from home (when given the option) because they don't have…
> simply because the majority of people don't have the motivation, ambition, or discipline to do what it takes otherwise.
I'd argue that a huge fraction of them would develop those traits if they had to, i.e. if those comfy jobs didn't exist so readily
Re: I quit the tech industry
#515Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn't burnout: " I stay up hours later than I mean to, not even doing anything, just trying to put off sleeping — because the next thing I experience will be waking up and going back to work." This is straight up depression. We need to stop using office-cliches like "burnout" and start addressing the very real mental health issues in the tech industry. Maintaining my mental health is like staying in shape, eatin…
I thought that feeling was just normal. I've experienced it basically since I started working in tech. I can't imagine most people want to actually wake up and go to work. It's not possible. The funny part is I find myself dreaming of going back to stocking shelves at a grocery store like I did in high school. I'd never make enough money to support myself doing something like that though. I romanticize the Peter Gibb…
It's the lack of feeling you've completed anything. I work for a major telecom company doing field support, mostly patching holes in the dike, and because of this, I can only rarely point to something and say "I did that" and feel good about completion or a job well done. It comes down to fighting the fire and moving on, which when combined with no feedback from management is a great way to leave work dissatisfied every day, and dreading the next.
Re: I quit the tech industry
#516Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unfortunately, because of the way monetary policy is structured, it is not possible for all, or even most, to live without debt. Debt is fundamental to our economy. You can only be without it if someone else takes on some amount of debt.
Who takes on debt if you pay off your mortgage early?
In order for you to pay off your mortgage, you need to receive money. That money was generally created through the creation of debts.
So it is hard to say exactly who took on that debt, but someone probably did.
For more on how debt creates money, read up on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking. And the person you replied to is exactly right - our entire economic system only works right if there is a lot of debt to go with it.
Re: I quit the tech industry
#517Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unfortunately, because of the way monetary policy is structured, it is not possible for all, or even most, to live without debt. Debt is fundamental to our economy. You can only be without it if someone else takes on some amount of debt.
Who takes on debt if you pay off your mortgage early?
Paying off a mortgage destroys debt (and therefore, the money you used to pay it off).
Re: I quit the tech industry
#518Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sorry you had a bad experience with the prescriptions you tried, and that they didn't work for you. But don't take that to mean you should lash out at others suggesting it might help this person, or someone else. I think it's a mistake to assume you know exactly what the OP's problem is, what solutions would work, and what solutions won't. There's a good chance he himself doesn't even fully understand why his men…
The notion that one should consider pharmaceuticals as a solution to not deriving happiness from a desk job really is outrageous. And that's just from a statistical standpoint. It's very unlikely to be the "right" solution for that person. Same goes for ADHD medication for boys (yes, predominantly boys) in grade school because they can't sit still and concentrate as they're expected at such a young age. I find it abs…
The issue is that this post screams clinical depression to me. Yes, he's also describing a shitty job, one that he will probably benefit from quitting. But it is also common for the feelings he's having to be the result of more than just a shitty job. Also, people in healthy mental states prevent these situations before they get to the breaking point. There's so many factors to consider, and none of us have all the information. For that reason, it should not be off the table to suggest he at least consider seeing a trusted and reputable doctor, and it is irresponsible for you to dismiss that idea entirely.
> But wait, if you want mindless drones who do as they're told, contribute to bottom lines, buy shit they don't need to satisfy misery they don't understand
Jesus, what a straw man that is. My approach here is to suggest ways for this man to find contentedness, maybe even happiness. That can validly include medication. Yours is to push an agenda against a type of work life you don't like.
Re: I quit the tech industry
#519Earlier quoted context omitted.
The guaranteed rate on your equity is 0%. Got $500,000 in equity? Then that's $500,000 earning 0% interest. Of course you aren't paying mortgage interest but with mortgage rates at 3.5 - 4.25% it's easy to find investments with higher guaranteed returns. Infinite Banking (using overfunded, dividend paying, whole life insurance) currently has 4.5% guaranteed floors with actual rates with dividends currently at 5.0 - 5…
Your math is wrong. The loan balance isn't reduced by the entire payment, the interest is subtracted first. And it's on the beginning balance, not the end balance. At one time there were progressive payment loans where the balance actually went up the first few years, because the payment didn't cover the entire interest. Year 1 - Make a $1000 payment, lose $500 interest for a $9500 balance. Your investment yields $50…
You can apply the interest before or after the payment, it doesn't really make that much difference, especially when you pay monthly and it compounds daily. The more often it compounds the less of a difference it makes between interest computed before or after the payment.
It's simpler and more accurate to say that the interest is added to the loan balance and then payments are subtracted. They don't subtract interest from payments, they add it to the balance. Extra payments don't have any interest applied to them, they go straight to principal.
The comparison though is between paying your extra cash flow towards a mortgage or investing it. You don't take money from the investment to pay the mortgage. You pay the minimum to the mortgage and then invest the difference.
As far as why banks want to do loans, you have to understand how banks work. What banks do is different.
Banks take money from deposits and then loan that out. They pay 1% interest on saving account deposits and charge 4% on loans. They are effectively purchasing something at $1 to sell for $4. That's a huge markup (400%). Of course banks want to do loans. They also have fractional reserve working in their favor. They can loan out more money than they actually have in deposits because the money is created out of thin air.
This is the same model used by savvy investors. They make investments using Other People's Money™.
Re: I quit the tech industry
#520Earlier quoted context omitted.
I quit the tech industry over a year ago and I'm not itching back. Maybe if I did something part time that could work, because I don't want to spend more than 20 hours a week working.
What industry are you now in, that you can work 20h/week? Just curious, you are living my dream.
I play poker professionally so I get to set my own hours.