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How I got wealthy without working too hard

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Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#111

Post by bluecalm »

go_elmo wrote: post #30
jjulius wrote: post #8

>Preamble: I'm extremely lucky. ... So what you're going to read is 99% luck and 1% planets alignment. I mean, that's pretty much it and he states it up front. If that's the crux, then why write about this other than to brag?

Thats just being humble. Most successful people think its that way because they are special and worked hard. Wrong. Most people work hard, its the LUCK many underestimate. Being aware of this is healthy in so many ways, especially socially.

There are many other things you need other then hard work or luck. For example if you work very hard as an elementary school teacher no amount of luck will make you a millionaire. I think there is a lot of skill involved in getting into spots where you are even exposed to the opportunity and then you need luck but maybe less then you think as there are so many opportunities around it would be just very unlucky to not stumble into one after a while (that is assuming you're born in reasonably not poor country, healthy and to parents that care about you).

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#113

Post by rootsudo »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #14

> Take a $ 500-1000 / day, full-remote job > Take 2 months for holidays in-between contracts > Do this for 7 years while investing most of your salary in a diversified portfolio. Working $1000/day contracts for 5 days per week, 10 months per year is equivalent to $217K of contractor income per year. But contractor income is not comparable to normal career income because you have to handle additional taxes and health…

So, the idea is that you save and invest, you don't have free standing cash - you put a majority of your liquidity into investment vehicles.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#114

Post by mpmpmpmp »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #68
moonchrome wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But contractor income is not comparable to normal career income because you have to handle additional taxes and health insurance, so this is more like a $150K (plus or minus) full time job once you subtract self-employment taxes and pay for health insurance. What ? I've never heard of a scenario where you get less money after tax as a contractor vs employee, even without doing things like claiming a bunch of everyd…

> What ? I've never heard of a scenario where you get less money after tax as a contractor vs employee It’s called self-employment tax: https://smartasset.com/taxes/self-employment-tax It’s not actually a separate tax. Normally your employer pays these taxes but you don’t see it. When you are a contractor you are self-employed, so as an employer of yourself you have to pay these taxes like any other employer. Some pe…

I think the point is if you're a contractor and you're not getting the same rates as an equivalent company would for that contract/position you're under-selling yourself. As for the "tax trick" you still don't get out of paying income taxes on the entire revenue you generate. You just pay employment taxes on the portion that is salary. Whether that's "fair" or not is open to debate of course.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#115

Post by uncomputation »

chefandy wrote: post #72
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #14

> Take a $ 500-1000 / day, full-remote job > Take 2 months for holidays in-between contracts > Do this for 7 years while investing most of your salary in a diversified portfolio. Working $1000/day contracts for 5 days per week, 10 months per year is equivalent to $217K of contractor income per year. But contractor income is not comparable to normal career income because you have to handle additional taxes and health…

a) His definition of wealthy isn't entirely financial: "My personal mantra is: 'try to get 80% of the reward with 20% of the work'. I’m not interested in giving 100% to get 100%: that is an overcrowded game." b) It says that he reduced his living expenses and invested most of it in a diversified portfolio without too much in crypto. c) the real missing ingredient is to do this all during a period of explosive growth…

Yeah, was gonna add this too. This swaggering “jump ship” attitude and taking 2 month holidays is only possible during the unprecedented economic stimulus we’ve seen with Covid. In a tighter job market, even luck would be hard pressed to make this advisable.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#116

Post by yosito »

germinalphrase wrote: post #27
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #14

> Take a $ 500-1000 / day, full-remote job > Take 2 months for holidays in-between contracts > Do this for 7 years while investing most of your salary in a diversified portfolio. Working $1000/day contracts for 5 days per week, 10 months per year is equivalent to $217K of contractor income per year. But contractor income is not comparable to normal career income because you have to handle additional taxes and health…

Which is, of course, still very good money for a single earner in most of the country.

> still very good money for a single earner in most of the country

Not to mention the world, since we're not all in the same country.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#117

Post by hsn915 »

lawkwok wrote: post #108
hsn915 wrote: post #88

As far as I can tell, the suggested way of working would be incredibly stressful for someone like me. First, I have to learn stuff I hate just because the market currently demands it. I can't really bring myself to do that. With everyone jumping on AWS and the latest JS frameworks, I stick to programming in Go and deploying static binaries to a single/cheap VPS. I basically only have one library in my 'npm' depdenden…

This is what I think whenever someone tells me to sell something on Amazon or create an NFT. “Technically” I could figure it out and have the time to do it, but I wouldn’t because of the soul sucking nature or the pursuit.

Yea. I remember right around college all the grownups around me were telling me to go to medicine and not computer science. A friend of my father even told me "IT is in great decline, it has no future".

When I was still a student, a number of other adults were giving me advice to get into the oil business.

It might have been a bad decision financially, but I just could never bring myself to care about these things.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#118

Post by [deleted] »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #29
jcroll wrote: post #2

> Work and self-actualisation can be rewarding and meaningful, but looking at the sea from an hammock and drinking too much beer with friends three times a week is also a completely respectable way of waiting for the gravitational swallowing of the planet. Part of wants to accept this from the author and the other part of me is wary. I didn't have a child because I wanted to be happy, I did it because I wanted a more…

The biggest reality check in my life was working at an engineering firm with a bunch of near retirement baby boomers with no children. They all came across ass listless, unhappy, and living a life with no greater purpose. It was unquestionably one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. As you get older and friends drift and pass away family is one of the most important things in life. I know anti-natalism is hip rig…

[deleted]

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#119

Post by soperj »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #14

> Take a $ 500-1000 / day, full-remote job > Take 2 months for holidays in-between contracts > Do this for 7 years while investing most of your salary in a diversified portfolio. Working $1000/day contracts for 5 days per week, 10 months per year is equivalent to $217K of contractor income per year. But contractor income is not comparable to normal career income because you have to handle additional taxes and health…

They live in the UK. Health insurance is literally a non factor in the developed world other than the US.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#120

Post by Grustaf »

FpUser wrote: post #104
marktangotango wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> would easily bring you 1M total investments. I think this is the disconnect with GP, $1M isn't what anyone can really call "wealthy" nowadays. Yes, it's a lot of money, but does not allow one to live what most people consider to be a rich lifestyle.

You could get up to 10% on 1M investment annually (that is what my friend has). Sure he does not have private yacht but one can live quite comfy on 100K without lifting a finger and that is what he does.

If your friend can reliably generate 10% (not just in the current insane bull market) he should open a hedge fund.
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