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Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

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Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#241

Post by bananocurrency »

neuland wrote: post #222
situational87 wrote: post #37

Is sticking a shotgun in your mouth because one doctor visit consumed all your life's savings a "thinking problem"? Because I'm seeing a lot of that I don't think it's just a problem some pill will fix.

I'm not sure how to parse this. But I do want to say that you can overcome losing your life savings or losing a loved one or other significant losses. It's emotionally hard. But it can even be a moment of personal growth. Stoic philosophy is a good resource for western audiences looking to handle problems coping with loss.

I don't think stoic philosophy is going to do much for financial problems that break your hierarchy of needs.

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#242

Post by bananocurrency »

Dirlewanger wrote: post #124
AlexTWithBeard wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting how "poor people are often stupid" triggers an outrage, but "stupid people are often poor" is seen as a logical statement.

People don't want to face cold hard truths. IQ is not perfect by any means, but one of the best predictors of overall success in life. Yet when it's overlapped with socioeconomic standing, it suddenly becomes a racist measurement.

>one of the best predictors of overall success in life

...define success? It sounds like you're implying wealth is a meritocracy.

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#243

Post by john_moscow »

jablinski wrote: post #210

Oh how I can relate. It's been about a year now since I closed my failed startup, and still no webdev job after many interviews. After a year of countless applications, interviews and networking with no result (insanely repetitive and people can sense the desperation) things start to spiral. I get this sense from friends and family that they begin to think something's wrong with me and distance themselves - not to me…

A very important skill I learned is to catch myself spending too much time solving the same problem head on, fire an interrupt, step back and rethink. In most of the cases, approaching the problem from a different angle, reformulating it, or just saying "Fuck it. Plan B now." is much more viable than ramming yourself into the same closed door over and over again.

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#244

Post by shardinator »

jablinski wrote: post #226
shardinator wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, would love to connect. I’ve been looking for a few who’ve been there and have appropriate skills. Can be remote/nomadic. Not sure how HN works on the backend - are you able to send me an email or PM?

Yes, thank you. You can reach me at the email in my user profile. I'd love to hear from you.

Done :)

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#245

Post by benj111 »

opportune wrote: post #229
benj111 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wealthy people who want to remain wealthy don't spend their money on massive houses though. They may have high incomes, but if their outgoings are higher, they're still going to have problems.

Eh, not really. If someone has $20m they can easily afford a $5m house, which may not be “massive” in the Bay Area but is basically anywhere else. It’s not even about income so much as not caring. Put yourself in the position of a very wealthy person, unless you are wealthy enough to have personal staff, what do you care about a $10k bill? It’s not a big deal to you and barely worth thinking about, you could easily j…

How do they get the $20m to start with?

If they're earning $1m/pa but spending $1.1m they may look outwardly wealthy, but aren't really. Contrast that with the person who also earns $1m/pa but only spends $500k. They're the wealthy ones, and also probably the ones with the smaller house, cheaper car, and $20m in the bank.

If you 'just forget' about bills, that suggests to me a personality that is worse with money rather than better, ie the type of person likely to spend on material goods rather than spending wealth.

Book recommendation: The Millionaire Next Door.

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#246

Post by tonyedgecombe »

spaginal wrote: post #126
bcrosby95 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. But I was a lazy entitled "upper middle class" kid. I have my job because my parents could afford to support my lazy ass for so long. So yeah, if you have the grit and drive you can help yourself out to a certain point. But some of us didn't need any grit and basically coasted through life. Why do I deserve this more than kids with less well off parents that fell somewhere between me and you - not a complete la…

Because your parents worked hard for your outcome, as theirs did for them. It's the same thing that drives the success of societies and nations, each generation living on the bounty of the blood, sweat, and toil of those that came before. An outsider may view with envy at the position of the people in the society, but it doesn't diminish the rights of the people in that society to it just because they didn't make it.…

* Because your parents worked hard for your outcome, as theirs did for them.*

I think you will find most poor people work a lot harder than the wealthy.

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#247

Post by speedplane »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #246
spaginal wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because your parents worked hard for your outcome, as theirs did for them. It's the same thing that drives the success of societies and nations, each generation living on the bounty of the blood, sweat, and toil of those that came before. An outsider may view with envy at the position of the people in the society, but it doesn't diminish the rights of the people in that society to it just because they didn't make it.…

* Because your parents worked hard for your outcome, as theirs did for them.* I think you will find most poor people work a lot harder than the wealthy.

> I think you will find most poor people work a lot harder than the wealthy.

If you want to become rich, put a small amount of money in the stock market, and then go into hibernation for 100 years. When you wake up, presto, you’ll be wealthy.

This sounds implausible, but it’s basically the same process as inherited generational wealth.

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#248

Post by fulafel »

amelius wrote: post #215
pointerpointer wrote: post #66

The lack of money gives people with lower income a problem that the brain cannot solve. Not everyone can 'just get a job' that easily. I've experienced periods in my life where I kept thinking in circles to find a way to get some money for our basic needs. The only solution was to simply keep trying and waiting for some luck or fate. Of course that fucks your brain! I knew a professor in Berlin who was living in the…

Doesn't Germany have an adequate social security system?

It's not great after the time limited benefits run out. You can survive on the 400 eur/mo if you're in good mental health & can consistently do good financial planning ahead, but that's often not the case.

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#249

Post by Noumenon72 »

dlphn___xyz wrote: post #169

who doesn't go through unsteady income in young adulthood? if anything it teaches you how to prioritize with few resources.

I didn't. I got a job at a plastic factory making $9.55 an hour and worked there for 15 years. I had saved enough to start contributing to an IRA my first year there.

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#250

Post by neuland »

bananocurrency wrote: post #241
neuland wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how to parse this. But I do want to say that you can overcome losing your life savings or losing a loved one or other significant losses. It's emotionally hard. But it can even be a moment of personal growth. Stoic philosophy is a good resource for western audiences looking to handle problems coping with loss.

I don't think stoic philosophy is going to do much for financial problems that break your hierarchy of needs.

A starving man can still be happy.

Edit: I'm not saying coping with loss is easy, especially if that is a loss of your ability to support yourself. The context of this conversation is someone killing themselves, and I think it'd be great if we came together and tried to convince people to live.

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