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Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

larryludwig.com

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Re: Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

#161

Post by larryludwig »

umvi wrote: post #19

> Except we used our cards to make $3,624 in spendable cash last year, all while paying zero in interest — because we paid the cards off in full each month. Yeah except the merchants probably marked up their prices 4% to cover card processing fees so really we are just paying more for goods than we otherwise would have with cash and the card company is giving us a tiny kickback. Let's not pretend credit card kickback…

As the author of this article, this isn't true. some comes from the merchant fees, many comes from the fact people don't pay off their cards every month and that far more subsidizes those payouts.

Lastly have you tried paying with cash online? While Bitcoin is a neat idea we are far from yet mass acceptance of any digital currency yet.

Re: Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

#162

Post by politelemon »

For those of you in the UK, this flowchart has been particularly useful in terms of safely managing debt and growing wealth.

https://ukpersonal.finance/

The mods tend to update it regularly in line with changing economic conditions and laws etc.

Re: Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

#163

Post by larryludwig »

mgkimsal wrote: post #134

"Yet you almost never hear the financial experts recommending that you start a business." And... many times when I do hear people recommend "start a business", it's "for the tax write-offs". Or at least that's the one bite-size thing some folks internalize. Have seen friends and neighbors get in to "business" - like various MLMs - and talk about "write offs". Naive at best, and dangerous at worst, I'm not surprised m…

Without question, not everyone should start a business. That wasn't the point of the article. It's about the advice you get and how they themselves not follow that same advice.

Re: Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

#164

Post by amarghose »

dtjohnnymonkey wrote: post #10

This is a mischaracterization of Ramit Sethi’s class. I’ve taken it and it’s the opposite of what the article claiming. It focuses on helping you build your business and income streams.

Came here to say this. The author lost all credibility with me when including Ramit in the list as if he's actually paid any attention at all to what IWT says he'd realize that Ramit could have written the article he just published (and they would have been similarly condescending tones)

Re: Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

#165

Post by wincy »

JamesBarney wrote: post #125
wincy wrote: post #43

This seems like a good place to be vulnerable and ask for advice. I am 35 and still spend like in a teenager. I grew up really poor where if the money didn’t get spent right away it would just sort of disappear, into drugs or beer or whatever my mom and stepdad were spending it on. My only real asset is my house which has appreciate significantly in value, but all it would take is one job loss to get me behind on tha…

> I wish I could put money into an account that would then only disburse small amounts of it over the year, and I couldn’t override that. You can do this with a trust or annuity. Have you looked into them?

I haven’t, this sounds like a potential idea though. Thank you, I’ll look into it.

Re: Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

#166

Post by luckylion »

codyswann wrote: post #158
jstummbillig wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know plenty of people making mid-6 to low-7 figure incomes while “working for someone else” and some retired in their late-40s, early 50s Plenty to satisfy what? Why would you bring anecdotes to a gun fight?

Author said “no one gets rich working for someone else” - I would consider all of these people rich.

It's not to be taken literally. Someone might offer you some dessert and, if you don't accept, say "no one ever died from eating some sweet dessert", but that's not a claim that literally no one ever died from eating sweet dessert. I'm sure more than one person choked on it and died in the history of humanity.

It doesn't mean that, it means "very very few people get rich working for someone else".

Re: Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

#167

Post by dragonwriter »

zhdc1 wrote: post #147
giantg2 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but the audience of those financial gurus are the general public. So sure, their advice might work for the top 5%, but the rest of people will never "get rich" using that advice. Even that top 5% could be better off if building passive income, businesses, etc.

> So sure, their advice might work for the top 5%, but the rest of people will never "get rich" using that advice The median household income in the United States is $79.9K. Assuming that a family of four can live on $50K (including taxes) in - most - locations, which is twice the poverty limit, they can theoretically save $30K a year in a mix of 401K, IRA, and general investment accounts. This amount, if invested ov…

> The median household income in the United States is $79.9K.

No, its not, that's the median family income, which only counts groups of two or more people related by birth, marriage, or adoption living in the same home, whereas median family income includes single-member households and those whose members have no family relation, and thus is significantly lower, about $65K.

Re: Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

#168

Post by civilized »

luckylion wrote: post #166
codyswann wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author said “no one gets rich working for someone else” - I would consider all of these people rich.

It's not to be taken literally. Someone might offer you some dessert and, if you don't accept, say "no one ever died from eating some sweet dessert", but that's not a claim that literally no one ever died from eating sweet dessert. I'm sure more than one person choked on it and died in the history of humanity. It doesn't mean that, it means "very very few people get rich working for someone else".

Very few people get rich period. Many more get to the upper middle class, say the top 10-20% of income. And the vast majority of those do so by ordinary employment, not starting a business.

If we go by the numbers and the odds rather than pithy-but-misleading slogans, the easiest, safest path to a higher income is probably acquiring skills that are more rewarded in the labor market.

Which is still far from easy, but there is no easy way to make a lot of money. That much I agree with the article writer on.

Re: Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

#169

Post by wincy »

nmhancoc wrote: post #95
wincy wrote: post #43

This seems like a good place to be vulnerable and ask for advice. I am 35 and still spend like in a teenager. I grew up really poor where if the money didn’t get spent right away it would just sort of disappear, into drugs or beer or whatever my mom and stepdad were spending it on. My only real asset is my house which has appreciate significantly in value, but all it would take is one job loss to get me behind on tha…

I think you’ve already got a lot of advice related to the mechanics of saving money (401k which has withdrawal penalties, maybe an IRA for greater friction, etc.) On the emotional management / discipline front, I’d suggest also exploiting the similarities between personal finances and healthy living. If money is particularly painful for you, try forming simple habits like going on a 10 minute walk each morning, or ea…

I did lose 50 pounds in the last year. I know I can manage my health properly, but during that same time didn’t manage my finances well at all.

Maybe thinking about it the same way is key, thanks.

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