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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

#181

Post by gnicholas »

OJFord wrote: post #43
gnicholas wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's quite possible that he started out putting 1% into crypto (or even less), and it just grew much faster than his other asset classes.

If you're concerned with balance initially, why wouldn't you rebalance?

Yep, sounds like he does. It's still possible that he would suggest someone getting started now not put in 10%, and that the reason he has so much is partly because of the historical growth. That is, he might have held onto this much partly due to the tax implications of selling appreciated assets. If he were starting fresh, he might not choose to put in this much.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#182

Post by Glyptodon »

jacobmischka wrote: post #84
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.

I absolutely can and will call $1M wealthy. Anyone who thinks it isn't is absolutely living in a bubble.

It's more free as in freedom than wealthy per say. You probably aren't going to go buy a Ferrari with $1 mil in the bank, but you also probably never worry about putting food on the table again. At least if we're talking wealthy in the "own a yacht" sort of sense.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#183

Post by mypalmike »

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…

You must not live in the US. Statistically speaking anyhow.

https://time.com/4370344/parents-happiness-children-study/

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#184

Post by jlos »

nostrademons wrote: post #176
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…

Note that the author lives in Europe (Italy), where there is a robust social safety net and typical programmer salaries are about $45-60K/year. It doesn't take nearly as much to be "wealthy" relative to those conditions. Author is basically engaging in a form of geographic arbitrage by working remote from Europe. They get to enjoy wages comparable to U.S. programmers, but get the European social safety net, and since…

Good luck retiring in most major Canadian cities if you don't already own real estate there.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#185

Post by Glyptodon »

antisthenes wrote: post #122
marktangotango wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once shared this outlook, but when one considers their own ideas about the lifestyle "wealthy" entails, and run some numbers, specifically determine the annual spend for that lifestyle, one will quickly realize the truth. A million can be blown in a year, or SWR'd (safe withdrawal rate) at $40k a year indefinitely. Can you retire on $40k a year? Would you want that level of income and lifestyle? Of course this depe…

> I once shared this outlook, but when one considers their own ideas about the lifestyle "wealthy" entails, and run some numbers, specifically determine the annual spend for that lifestyle, one will quickly realize the truth. In other words, at some point you underwent lifestyle inflation and didn't realize it. And now you're unwilling to give it up. > Of course this depends on location and cost of living. I am refer…

I think poster is saying $40k a year is fine in LCOL but not wealthy. And it's the yield of $1 mil.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#186

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

#187

Post by bambax »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #129
stagger87 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So there’s a lot missing from this blog post. I suspect maybe the author got lucky with some outlier investments, but that’s not something that can be conveyed in a “how to” blog post. Why do you think that? All the numbers work out. Even in your hypothetical scenario, investing 100k for 7 years, especially in the last 7 years, would easily bring you 1M total investments. > FIRE type wealth trajectories are possibl…

> Why do you think that? All the numbers work out. Even in your hypothetical scenario, investing 100k for 7 years, especially in the last 7 years, would easily bring you 1M total investments. My point was that to show that the only way to get this to work out was to make everything work out perfectly, from getting the authors highest quoted day rate of $1000/day on every single day of every single contract from the s…

What are those expensive hobbies and luxuries? My hobbies cost about zero (making music, doing the occasional woodworking, reading, walking).

Travel can be expensive but it can also be quite cheap and is very dispensable.

Luxuries outside of travel (expensive hotels), I don't even know what they are.

I'm sure it's not hard to spend as much money as you want on many different things; but you make it sound as if it was necessary. It really isn't.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#188

Post by alistairSH »

turtlebits wrote: post #139

To me, "wealthy" means you can stop working at any time and maintain your desired lifestyle without worrying about money. Doesn't mean that you have to, but having that freedom of choice is huge.

Yeah, rich vs wealthy.

Rich = have a lot of money.

Wealthy = have enough money to live off the interest/earnings, pay somebody else to manage it, etc.

All wealthy people are rich. Most rich people are not wealthy.

Does having a few million tied up in a 401k make somebody rich? Yes. Does it make them wealthy? No. It makes them a successful, but not exceptional, middle-aged professional.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#189

Post by gcheong »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #106
softfalcon wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, even the author agrees with you. They start their story with this: > Preamble: I'm extremely lucky. If we live in a Simulation and life is just a Video Game, mine was started on difficulty level “Very Easy”: I was born in a developed country in the 80s (Italy), with access to fresh water, very good carbohydrates and a decent education system. So what you're going to read is 99% luck and 1% planets alignment.…

That’s quite a cop-out for a blog post that contains a lot of specific, actionable steps.

I think the qualification is necessary. Even Warren Buffet admits that he got rich in a very specific way using skills that would be all but useless in any other context but him winning the "ovarian lottery". https://www.sloww.co/ovarian-lottery/

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#190

Post by mastax »

jlos wrote: post #184
nostrademons wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that the author lives in Europe (Italy), where there is a robust social safety net and typical programmer salaries are about $45-60K/year. It doesn't take nearly as much to be "wealthy" relative to those conditions. Author is basically engaging in a form of geographic arbitrage by working remote from Europe. They get to enjoy wages comparable to U.S. programmers, but get the European social safety net, and since…

Good luck retiring in most major Canadian cities if you don't already own real estate there.

That's rule 4:

> Don’t live in big cities (go for smaller, more liveable towns).

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