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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

#191

Post by padobson »

"Yes, but big cities have more opportunities and more connections". True. Probably they are more bearable at a young age, when grappling with the existential urge to mate.

Hey! Wait! "The existential urge to mate" is kind of a big deal! Should we be hand waving away that entire bedrock motivation of human nature?

Social institutions designed for turning children into adults i.e. family units, day cares, public schools, youth sports, universities, studio apartments in big cities (a kind of halfway house between childhood and adulthood) have been continually stretching out adolescence, and this article takes that long adolescence for granted. But it's fraught with all kinds of outcomes that will sabotage the very financial independence the article is advocating for.

That pesky urge to mate starts to hit hard around 11-13 years of age. So we're resigning young adults to unfulfilling, casual sexual relationships until they get established and they can truly explore their sexuality, including making new humans of their own, in their mid-thirties. That's 20+ years of avoiding unwanted pregnancy, venereal disease, various kinds of sexual violence (from harassment to assault), and a host of psychological issues that can crop up in that casual environment.

And, oh, BTW! Bad outcomes in sexual relationships are the ones most likely to inhibit financial success [0].

So all of those "loner" self help articles about getting rich young and retiring early simply do not apply to the vast majority of the population.

What we should be helping young adults to do is become competent early (as the author suggests), but also to find a competent mate early as well. Then you can increase your household income, continue living in that studio apartment, and sidestep the most dangerous obstacles to financial independence before they ever have a chance to strike.

[0]https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/three-simple-rules-poor-t...

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#192

Post by nawgz »

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.

> Anyone who thinks it isn't is absolutely living in a bubble

I am, for example, a native of British Columbia. My home town, a humble one, now has an average home cost of $1M CAD. $1M will certainly not furnish retirement in any above-average Quality Of Life situation. "Wealthy" isn't living an average first-world lifestyle...

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#193

Post by ericmcer »

Anyone who has been making software engineer level money, but living frugally and dumping it all in stocks and crypto for the last 7 years is probably close to retirement. I guess his hack? is that he contracts and doesn't work very hard. I always found contracting more difficult due to the huge amount of hustle and bookkeeping you take on in addition to the actual work.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#194

Post by bryanlarsen »

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 love the video game metaphor. Just because you're playing at the "easy" level in a video game doesn't mean it is easy to finish the game. You have to put in the time and effort, and the last boss can still be difficult.

This might be the origin of the metaphor: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-male-t...

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#195

Post by handrous »

marktangotango wrote: post #110
jacobmischka wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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…

> Can you retire on $40k a year?

Maybe in Europe.

No, in the US. Not even close. Even with a paid-off house. Certainly not before "retirement age".

Health care is the reason.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#196

Post by nostrademons »

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.

Article said "don't live in a major city". Besides, my understanding is that prices are still reasonable in smaller cities like Quebec City, Kingston, Halifax, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, etc.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#197

Post by tunesmith »

marktangotango wrote: post #110
jacobmischka wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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…

Agreeing here, but to clarify, a million is probably more like $32,500/year indefinitely. The 4% rule is outdated and was designed for 30-year timeframes anyway.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#198

Post by yupper32 »

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…

> Millions of people raise families on 40k/year in the United States. These are your fellow citizens. Perhaps you can ask them how they do it and whether they are "satisfied" with that level of income and lifestyle.

I have. They are not satisfied.

$40k

Taxes - $5000/year.

Monthly budget: $35k/12 = ~$2900/month

Rent - $1200

Utilities (incl. tv + internet + phone + gas + elec) - $300

Car payment - $300

Car insurance - $90

Food - $300

Gas - $80

Health insurance - $500

Oops we're already at $2770. Hope you don't need your tires changed or have kids. Maybe you can just go without health insurance for a while. After all, having health insurance is really just the result of lifestyle inflation.

What about laundry? You have a free in-unit machine? Otherwise that's like $40/mon. You also better not have any other loans. Fell behind during Covid and took on CC debit? Good luck paying that off for 10 years. Went to school? Hope Biden cancels some of your debt, because that's the only way you're paying that off. Also, Trump era tax changes mean you now have surprise tax bills every year because less is being taken out of your paycheck. Now you have $80 in fees and counting on top of the tax bill that you still owe.

I'm not making any of that up. That's real. Why don't you talk to people instead of pretending like $40k is enough to be "satisfied"?

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#199

Post by claudiulodro »

bluecalm wrote: post #111
go_elmo wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Interestingly, Ramsey Solutions' study of 10,000 millionaires found that teacher is actually one of the top 5 careers for millionaires: https://www.ramseysolutions.com/retirement/the-national-stud...

(Disclaimer: there may be confounding variables the study didn't account for)

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#200

Post by lemax »

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…

Canada allows citizens a step up in capital gains basis upon moving back to Canada

Could you elaborate on this or provide a source? Curious because I'm in the US in tech with a canadian citizenship.

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