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I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

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Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#181

Post by nothal »

mwfunk wrote: post #170
rhacker wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I can't count the number of men I've met that would want a wife that is extremely frugal. Also you're reading into the "goes along with it" a little bit too much - Literally inventing a whole relationship drama from 4 words is a bit insane.

I dunno, I’ve never seen a positive example of “compulsive frugality”. Obviously it’s not good to live beyond one’s means, but everyone I’ve ever known with money who would brag about their own cheapness was an utterly miserable bastard to be around. Obsessively saving money isn’t any more of a virtue than obsessively spending it, it’s just less explicitly self-destructive. Everyone I’ve ever known with money who val…

Just look into the FIRE community. Many people are opting out of blatant consumerist attitudes because they realize compulsive frugality is a means of prioritizing what you want.

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#182

Post by xenihn »

csa wrote: post #127
StillBored wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And who wouldn't love to live in their "Depression" They have 2% unemployment and some of the highest quality of living standards in the world. Sounds like they are doing something right. If you opt out of the growth is required mindset its perfectly possible there are other economic models which work just fine to live under despite the scary sounding descriptions.

> And who wouldn't love to live in their "Depression" They have 2% unemployment and some of the highest quality of living standards in the world. Sounds like they are doing something right. This guy. I left Japan because I felt that the fabric of Japanese society was unraveling. Maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but at a minimum, the “social contract” was changing dramatically, and it was debatable whether the change was…

Do you mind me asking what part of California you're in? Did you end up buying a home here?

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#183

Post by elamje »

skinnymuch wrote: post #141
elamje wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the idea of those things. However, this is HN, and full of people that would try to be productive/creative for society if they had a safety net that allowed them to pursue awesome endeavors. Many people work to earn money, not to free up time so pursue their passions and hobbies. There are a significant amount of Americans that would enjoy the safety net by watching Netflix, eating, gambling, etc. There is not…

I’ve been unemployed for a significant time period. The pressure to work is huge. I’d bet with a safety net, most people would still be working a similar amount of time.

Possibly, but there are a lot of people unlike yourself that don’t feel a major pressure to work, some might continue but there would be more currently employed people that would choose not to work as much, than currently unemployed people that would choose to start work under a big net IMHO.

Just with the arithmetic of 5ish% of unemployment. People who start working under a net can only be 5% of population. People who stop working or work much less could be up to 95% of population. Much bigger percentage has possibility to work less under that system.

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#184

Post by xenihn »

badpun wrote: post #119
adbge wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And who wouldn't love to live in their "Depression" The Japanese are committing suicide at higher rates than Americans[1], and a million of them have chosen to live as shut-ins rather than participate in society.[2] They're also not having children. Maybe that's your utopia but it sure isn't mine. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Japan [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori

There's an argument that Japanese people don't accept being medicated as much as people in US/EU, which, combined with very supportive parents, means that the depressed people just stay home as shut-ins instead of trying to function on anti-depressants, as they do over here.

>instead of trying to function on anti-depressants

Or amphetamines, which are very illegal in Japan.

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#185

Post by im3w1l »

cheerlessbog wrote: post #112
newfangle wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the other commenter said, unless you are hiding your money under your matgress your money is being used by society in some manner.

Hiding your money under the mattress increases the value of money being spent because it reduces the amount of money in circulation in the near term.

In a system where money is debt, money under the mattress means someone else is in debt. That is someone that has to be more risk averse. Normally this is balanced by someone who can take more risk because they have more money. If hoarding money under your mattress becomes a movement then it may be that it tilts society to unhealthily risk averse and no one is in a position to try ambitious investments.

I haven't fully thought this through so please poke holes in the argument if you can :)

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#186

Post by amehyst »

xenihn wrote: post #12

I'm honestly so jealous of the husband's situation. 7-figure networth before hitting 30, a 4-bedroom home in a major tech hub, and a compulsively frugal wife who is obsessed with financial planning and amplifying your shared incomes/networths. The dream. This article just feels like a vector to drive traffic towards her sites, though.

Full-time blogger wife of a wealthy tech worker is like the millennial version of the full-time philanthropy/NGO wife of bankers/lawyers/execs in times past.

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#187

Post by jnwatson »

joshbaptiste wrote: post #92
xenihn wrote: post #12

I'm honestly so jealous of the husband's situation. 7-figure networth before hitting 30, a 4-bedroom home in a major tech hub, and a compulsively frugal wife who is obsessed with financial planning and amplifying your shared incomes/networths. The dream. This article just feels like a vector to drive traffic towards her sites, though.

Once he placed the ring on her finger he accepted her terms .. as an American who hasn’t grown up with Asian cultural norms I would never marry someone with an obligation to take care of their parents also in America.

I have a normal American background. I grew up in a house with my parents and elderly grandparents.

I married a woman with full knowledge we would have to support her mother who had cognitive issues due to a stroke.

I’m not sure where this idea came from that it is somehow an Eastern ideal to take care of your parents. It is common across many parts of Europe and the US.

Social Security is nice, but that’s just money. It doesn’t address the emotional and cultural aspects of keeping the elderly part of society.

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#188

Post by joncrane »

maxaf wrote: post #56

I’m 100% the opposite way. My wife is very frugal, but I save nothing. What’s the point of pinching every single penny? That’s not life; it’s survival. Even more ironic is the fact that this is multiple decades of mere survival all aimed towards one goal: ensuring survival in those decades when work is no longer possible. Perhaps I’m obtuse, but this isn’t a life worth living. I want to enjoy my healthy years in the…

>I’m keenly aware that I’ll be left penniless once I can no longer work, but I have a plan for that.

What's your plan?

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#189

Post by luckylion »

ricardobeat wrote: post #169
luckylion wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never really understood fashion, so I can't comment on that (Whoever makes the models wear the most ridiculous outfit wins?). However, why isn't France going to Mars? Where is France (or Germany, or Sweden etc for that matter) creating the Internet, or GPS, or Hip-Hop, or Jazz, or doing cutting edge medical research? It's not that they don't do that at all - it just, that, if the safety net was such a strong dri…

I think you should vary your news sources, or pay more attention to the names. A large amount of cutting-edge research comes from EU universities and companies, especially Germany, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, UK. Related business ventures will always pop up in the US first though, due to the vast investment capital.

> A large amount of cutting-edge research comes from EU universities and companies

I'm not attacking European universities and companies, I'm not arguing that there isn't any great research, I'm saying it's not a multiple of the US, which it really should be if "have a strong social safety net and the possibilities are endless" was true.

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#190

Post by luckylion »

badpun wrote: post #162
luckylion wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly, but I'm not convinced. France and Germany spend lots of money to subsidize their artists, the French have gone so far to order radio stations to play a quota of French music - yet despite their wealth and their size (on the European level at least), they don't dominate culturally. That's not to say that it couldn't be random that a lot of the recent advancements happened in the US, I just don't find it like…

The problem with subsidised art (or subsidised anything really) is that the money in large part goes to the people who are well connected and great at weaseling their way into funding. So, there's a constant stream of always-mediocre French, German etc. (state-funded) movies in local artsy cinemas in Poland, which no one wants to watch, because they're mediocre. In other words, the film makers are not subject to the…

Yeah, I've been having similar feelings. The state acts like a monopoly on culture and so the focus isn't on the audience but on the grant administrators. At least we're creating a proxy indicator for studying the tastes and likes of the officials that decide what gets subsidized ;)
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