Personal Finance Lessons for Technology Professionals

You're right in the anecdotal nature of Troy's trajectory in life. In fairness to him I think he did acknowledge several slices of luck that he enjoyed. I'd regard him as an outlier and as some have point out there is an element of survivorship bias with respects to his outcomes and the narrative he's built around out. But I think you highlight the benefit of learning some basic personal finance principles and simply just taking the time and thinking 5, 10, 20 years into the future. Generally I think the key is about taking responsibility for my life and taking steps that might lead me to a better future regardless of the starting point.

There's more to it than material consumption too.

Money buys the ability to follow expensive hobbies. e.g. skiing, travel, anything that requires lessons to pick-up as a skill.

Money affords the ability to travel at convenient times instead of cheaper off-peak schedules, so that you ultimately spend more time with your family and friends.

Capital investment can help creative pursuits, such as a well-stocked kitchen greatly increasing the amount of joy you can have when cooking, or the benefits of being able to relax with a home cinema/gaming/sound system that you can be truly immersed in.

Most importantly, it brings peace of mind. In my opinion one of the greatest freedoms is not having to worry about the future. Something you don't appreciate until you gain it, and something you could never imagine giving up once you've experienced it.

Don't kid yourself that you can't buy happiness. It won't dig you out of a hole if you have deeper issues, but it's definitely a significant platform to stand upon.

Classic Paper on that Topic:

Dunn, Gilbert, Wilson - If Money Doesn't Make You Happy Then You Probably Aren't Spending It Right

https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/danielgilbert/files/if-mon...

TL;DR:

1. Buy experiences instead of things

2. Help others instead of yourself

3. Buy many small pleasures instead of a few big ones

4. Buy insurance that's worthwhile

5. Pay now and consume later

6. Think about what you're not thinking about

7. Follow the herd instead of your head (sometimes)

8. Beware of comparison shopping

I respect his work and contributions to the field but the message of this post has kind of been lost in the Tony Robbins style motivation fluff. Most of us, for example, didn't/wont have the capital to buy multiple investment properties at the age of 25.

The real takeaway: don't waste your money, don't get into too much debt, invest your money and invest in yourself. Every motivational speaker/guru/life coach will say the same thing.

That Kerry Packer clip is terrible. In summary he says (and I'm trying to neutrally paraphrase his words):

"Since I was a boy, 10,000 new laws have been passed, and the country isn't any better. The new laws that have been passed are just for the sake of it, and you take away someone's freedom every time you pass a new law"

This sounds a lot like the Trumpian:

"If there’s a new regulation, they have to knock out two. But it goes far beyond that, we’re cutting regulations massively for small business and for large business"

Yes, there exists duplicitous and over-zealous legislation, but most of it is written to protect the rights of people. Since Mr Packer was a boy, Australia has new rights for gay people, aboriginal people, a great deal more environmental protection, and so on and so on.

The "rich person appeals to common sense by saying they shouldn't be regulated" meme needs to die a death.