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How to get rich without getting lucky

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Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#361

Post by frockington »

dpark wrote: post #274
falcolas wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I, within the last decade, watched a housing boom in my hometown go bust. I watched hundreds of houses stay vacant for many years. And it wasn't just houses going vacant, it was even many more houses being vacated because they were bought by people who built houses. Watching something that once was a "sure bet" go bust is very humbling. Watching those speculators go bankrupt by the hundreds is very sad. It made me re…

Long term investment isn’t speculation. That’s why we call it investment . Yeah, if you are dumping money into a bubble hoping to cash out at the top, you are taking a major risk. If you’re investing long term in an asset with literally centuries of history of growth, then you’re probably going to be okay. And realistically, what’s the alternative? I guess government bonds?

Waiting for the "Treasury Notes are assuming the government will still exist 10 years from now" from people who apparently hoard cash in 1.2% Ally Savings Accounts

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#362

Post by danenania »

In poker, the fastest way to climb the ladder in stakes is to play a tight-aggressive style and be conservative with your bankroll (make sure you have plenty to cover the variance of the stakes you’re playing), but also occasionally take ‘shots’ at higher levels with a small portion of your bankroll. If you run good during your shot, you stay at the higher level. Otherwise, you move back down to rebuild.

In short, you take frequent calculated risks when the downside of failure is low. I think a similar strategy can be very effective in life.

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#363

Post by chemochemo »

hfdgiutdryg wrote: post #311
gascan wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

spending a lot of effort on living frugal. There's just something off-putting about the thought of spending decades living frugally There's a whole range there. You don't have to live on ramen. But you can be really aggressive about insurance premiums, utility bills, etc. You can learn home & auto repair & maintenance. You can make major life structure choices (Can your family live with one car?). These all can make…

You can learn car & auto repair & maintenance. As someone who knows a lot about car and motorcycle maintenance, repair, and modification, this is not good advice, and I see it all over. You're far better off simply buying a new, cheap compact and taking it to Walmart for oil changes. You will come out far ahead of the person who invests money in tools and space, and time into learning how to do something that is so e…

Care to actually back up this claim with some numbers? As someone who buys reliable used cars (Hondas), maintains them himself, and owns them for 10+ years at a time this doesn't seem to be true.

For just the depreciation cost of a new vehicle one could purchase every home auto repair tool they would likely need for a very long time.

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#364

Post by sshtunnels »

bootsz wrote: post #124
keiferski wrote: post #33

I’m going to take a contrarian view and say: figure out why you want to be rich, first. For most people, money is a proxy for respect, status, power, security, social skills, romantic attraction from others, free time, or otherwise. If you can ignore the constant “only rich people are meaningful human beings” message that is blared 24/7 from western culture, you might find that it’s easier to just go after what you w…

Reminds me of this quote, can't remember by whom (maybe Tim Ferris?) something along the lines of: "You don't really want a million dollars; what you really want is the kind of life that you think you need a million dollars to have"

I wonder what he means by that. To me it's the exact opposite. I don't want anything extravagant - none of the things one might picture when one thinks "millionaire's lifestyle"; no big house, no luxury car, no exotic vacations, etc. The only (or at least primary) thing I'd like is the security to pay my modest expenses and cover any potential emergencies in perpetuity, without relying on a job and without moving to a cheap country to reduce living expenses (I would like to stay close to my family in the US). For that, I do need a million dollars, and even that is barely enough.

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#365

Post by melling »

oliwarner wrote: post #355
melling wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one said that money was the most important thing. You added that. Then you proceeded to tell everyone else how they should live their lives. Understanding how to effectively generate wealth, build companies, etc is something that has certain advantages. For instance, this will allow for more time to appreciate the other things in life. Warren Buffett spends most of his day reading, which he loves to do, for exampl…

Buffet?! Sure . He's both from an influential family and was a prodigy for business. He's also been very lucky. If you think you can course-correct your life to rival a Buffet just by the power of these self-help articles, you're a fantasist. I'm not telling anybody to do anything. Just opining my view that outright happiness is not a hard state to reach. One can be content with very little. When your goal in life is…

No one said you need to rival Buffett. You added that.

He was simply provided as an example of an extremely successful person who is living life on his own terms.

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#366

Post by [deleted] »

danenania wrote: post #362

In poker, the fastest way to climb the ladder in stakes is to play a tight-aggressive style and be conservative with your bankroll (make sure you have plenty to cover the variance of the stakes you’re playing), but also occasionally take ‘shots’ at higher levels with a small portion of your bankroll. If you run good during your shot, you stay at the higher level. Otherwise, you move back down to rebuild. In short, yo…

[deleted]

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#367

Post by nostrademons »

hfdgiutdryg wrote: post #317
petra wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> You'll see a non-trivial amount of income from advertising on the website and speaking Fuck the modern web. Such a bunch of crap. Someone needs to build a search engine for sites that don't carry any form of advertisement. charge subscription. seems worthy.

Micropayments were going to be the wave of the future back around 2000. It never happened. People want intangible stuff for what they perceive as free.

They're the wave of the future today, just in cryptocurrency form. See eg. Brave & BAT.

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#369

Post by ryanwaggoner »

wtvanhest wrote: post #242
11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no mustache and was born with no silver spoon, Had to work my way through college. This approach to building wealth worked for me.

It is impossible to 'work your way through college' now unless you are making $50k/year part-time. State schools start around $10k/year just for tuition. All in costs are $30k/year+. I'm so glad I went to school 15 years ago. Students today are totally screwed.

This is so untrue. I just looked it up, and costs aren't that much different than they were when I graduated in 2006: https://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tabl...

Looks like the median for tuition and fees at state 4-year schools is around $10k. My contention: if you can make ~$15k per year, you can put yourself through school.

First, you can start at community college, which is very cheap in most states. And many states have a deal where you are guaranteed admission and transfer to the 4-year system if you get good grades at community college. So that'll save you some money.

Second, many states (and possibly the Federal government) offer grants to help defray these costs. You can also apply to tons of private scholarships.

Third, you can live very frugally in terms of lodging and food. Not fun, but doable.

Fourth, you can take out a little bit in loans. If you take out $5k / year in loans, you'll have $20k at graduation. Hardly crippling.

I actually did this, though I also had the GI Bill so I didn't have to do the loans part, so don't tell me it's not possible. It's not easy or fun, and I'm not saying we can't improve it, but today's students are hardly totally screwed.

Re: How to get rich without getting lucky

#370

Post by ryanwaggoner »

wtvanhest wrote: post #328
muzz wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

College tuition has sort of switched to "sliding scale". For example, 40% of UC Berkeley undergraduate students pay zero in tuition despite the sticker price.

Berkeley is an exception. Most state schools do not offer nearly that level of aid. If you are upper middle class (i.e. parents make $70Ksh-$150ksh), and you don't have exceptional grades, you will pay the sticker price and you will leave school with $20k-$75k of debt. That is before adjusting for the rapidly rising price of college which will no doubt continue rising at 7%-10% per year over that 4 year period.

Honestly, leaving school with $20k-30k in debt is hardly the end of the world. That's what, $200 - 300 / month? Seems well worth it for a 4-year education of even decent quality. Beats the alternative.

Note: I'm not saying that we shouldn't do a better job of funding higher education, but this level of debt is not crippling. The real issue to me is people who run up high five figure or low six figure levels of debt for low-quality degrees or institutions, or who don't finish, or who are being trained for a career that will never make enough to have that be a positive ROI.

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