I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself • Hacker News Board

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

#191

Post by mwfunk » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 8:32 PM UTC

nothal wrote: post #181

mwfunk wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I guess that seems really materialistic and self-destructive to me as well, just from the opposite direction. Obsessing about everything that one could possibly spend money on (early retirement in this case, I believe), then spending one's entire young adulthood obsessing over how to accumulate and not spend money to get it? It's just consumerism and materialism in another form, obsessing over which things to save up for and micromanaging one's finances to get those things.

To me the biggest luxury in the world is being able to live reasonably happily within one's means and not having to worry about it. To think about one's finances as little as reasonably possible while not overspending and still getting to have fun with it sometimes, with the confidence that a reasonable amount of it is being saved for retirement someday. It doesn't require being rich, just having a sense of the value of things and the value of one's own time and life and life experiences, and getting good at quick, rough estimates of one's financial situation.

The more I have to worry about money the less happy I am, even if it's tons of money and I'm just figuring out how to best utilize it. Obsessing over money leads to a person thinking about nickel-and-dime bullshit throughout the day, every day. That's fun for some people, I get it, but they need to realize they're wasting time thinking about nickel-and-dime bullshit because it's fun to them, not because it's practical or pragmatic to do so. And that's fine if they want to do that, but they just tend to be miserable people to spend time with who are always missing the forest for the trees when living life.

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

#192

Post by spectrum1234 » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 8:37 PM UTC

dheera wrote: post #137

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.

I would LOVE to save 90% of my income, but I live in the bay area and 30% of my income goes to rent, 6-10% goes to food, 8-10% goes to transportation, 5-7% on utilities, none of which I'm splurging on, so these aren't exactly negotiable. I also budget about 10% toward educational purchases (equipment and services, mostly tech) for personal projects and learning, which I think will financially benefit me long term eve…

Do you have your dinner table in your bedroom as the author does?

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

#193

Post by Aunche » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 8:50 PM UTC

ModernMech wrote: post #101

Aunche wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> America, and indeed many countries in the world, do not have the social safety nets to take care of its own people when they can't work anymore. I don't see any good alternatives to having children take care of their parents. Abuse is common at even the most expensive nursing homes. You can't always blame the caretakers either because being constantly surrounded by grumpy, dying people has a huge psychological toll…

> You can't always blame the caretakers either What? There is absolutely no excuse for elder abuse. Are you kidding with this?

Abuse isn't necessarily physical. Most of the time it's negligence, which is more forgivable.

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

#194

Post by dheera » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 8:50 PM UTC

spectrum1234 wrote: post #192

dheera wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would LOVE to save 90% of my income, but I live in the bay area and 30% of my income goes to rent, 6-10% goes to food, 8-10% goes to transportation, 5-7% on utilities, none of which I'm splurging on, so these aren't exactly negotiable. I also budget about 10% toward educational purchases (equipment and services, mostly tech) for personal projects and learning, which I think will financially benefit me long term eve…

Do you have your dinner table in your bedroom as the author does?

I only have one room, and I don't own a bed. I sleep on the floor on a roll-up Japanese futon and the same space becomes my daytime space.

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

#195

Post by amehyst » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 8:51 PM UTC

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…

The author is frugal as a hobby and for her blog. She has close to $2 million net worth and her husband most likely earns $300k+. Extreme frugality is impractical from a time/$ perspective but that doesn't concern her because she doesn't need to worry about money or about developing a career.

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

#196

Post by csa » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 9:07 PM UTC

xenihn wrote: post #182

csa wrote: post #127

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. 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?

Central Coast, and no not yet.

I thought about buying one in 2011-12, but there was a good chance I was going to leave the area, so I did not buy.

On a personal level, I’m not so concerned about buying a house in general. If I ever buy one, it will be as an investment at a rock bottom price.

Additionally, where I live, you can rent a place for much less than you can buy it. The only recent time that this was not true was after the crash, and that was only for a brief period of time (4 years tops).

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

#197

Post by tathougies » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 9:09 PM UTC

badpun wrote: post #128

tathougies wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ample free time to think, to explore, to experiment, to create People would probably go crazy from the boredom and start killing themselves. Work and struggle are good and inspire more creativity and inventiveness than doing nothing

There were (and still are) whole families of aristocrats who never needed to lift a finger in their life, and they seemed to find ways to not be too bored. I've never heard of high degrees of suicides amongst the very rich.

That's because, in order to cement an image of being better than others, aristocratic suicides were usually reported as accidents. In Europe during the Middle Ages, suicide was condemned by the church of course, and penalties were laid against the estate. That's in Europe; in other places in the world, it was expected, and rather common. For example, what is a duel, other than a suicide pact? In the absence of actual struggle, humans will make something up to be offended by so they can struggle against it. It is human nature.

Of course, today, suicide is less of a taboo, and indeed suicide rates are higher in richer neighborhoods, as one would expect: https://www.businessinsider.com/link-between-wealth-and-suic...

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

#198

Post by savant_penguin » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 10:06 PM UTC

savant_penguin wrote: post #99

In spite of all that her son may not be accepted in Harvard for being asian

Those down voting would mind commenting on why? It is bizarre that racism against Asians is tolerated because of "too much success". It is especially harmful to people from low income families.

Here some news stories about it: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/harvard-asian-ame...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/harvards-discriminat...

https://www.foxnews.com/us/harvard-discrimination-trial-reve...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/15/us/harvard-asian-enrollme...

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jun/15/harvard-su...

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

#199

Post by barrkel » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 10:08 PM UTC

tyrust wrote: post #85

barrkel wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be a dream if the feeling of security, of having assets, money in the bank, is the thing that's missing in your life. That'll be the case to the degree that you were insecure and poor as a child, I'd expect. I grew up poor, but not as poor as the lady in the article. And it was in Ireland, so there was a social security net, my college degree was paid for, etc. So I feel comfy enough once I have a year's tak…

>Working hard is only good if the work in itself is rewarding, or the money buys you things that are rewarding. This is a pretty restricted view of turn power of money. Charity and/or helping one's family is rewarding. Also rewarding, as the other commenter pointed out, is the freedom to not chopse between non-rewarding work and poverty.

Charity is something money buys.

The freedom to choose doesn't require enough income for a frugal lifetime without work. It just requires enough income to find a more rewarding job. The marginal benefit declines, the longer you look the more likely you are to find what you're searching for. That's why I only keep a year's worth of takehome on easy access (apart from my pension, house equity, etc.)

A life without a job is a life without purpose. People who retire early die early. Even outside a conventional job, money is proof that you create value; if there's no money in whatever activity you choose, it's probably a consumption good.

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

#200

Post by losvedir » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 10:13 PM UTC

Reedx wrote: post #102

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…

One of the problems with this strategy is that it ends up becoming a burden to your family and others (who sacrificed to save for a rainy day). And it may happen sooner than you think. > 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 the plan?

> What's the plan?

His frugal wife's savings maybe...? I hope not.