Not the best article I've read on finance, and far too consumerist for my liking but the basics are correct. If you are in your 20s in tech then the advice to get a retirement plan and to aggressively save and invest now (in said plan or not) is solid.
Personal Finance Lessons for Technology Professionals
41–50 of 79 posts
Re: Personal Finance Lessons for Technology Professionals
#42Quite a disagreeable post, in my opinion. > Which leads me to the "but money can't buy happiness" position so many people have repeated over the years. Bull. Shit. Anyone who has ever said that simply doesn't know where to shop. If happiness for you is about things you buy in shops, then you are a shallow person, and you are missing out. A lot. In fact you are poor, but in a spiritual sense. The next statement: "mone…
I went from being very poor to above average thanks to the tech industry and at first it really seems that money solve all problems and bring happiness. Now I like to think about it as money make you live comfortable, healthy life but these things have nothing to do with happiness. They are important but you can be very comfortable and still unhappy. What makes you happy are good relationships with people and family, and achieving your goals (which might not be related to building wealth but more like helping your community or discovering the purpose of the universe...)
Re: Personal Finance Lessons for Technology Professionals
#43I expected a better article to be honest. Some of the ideas are correct, but I think the perspective is overall wrong. For one he is probably ten times richer than the average tech worker. But you don't want to be rich as much as you want to be wealthy. And that isn't just about money. My friends in other industries didn't make as much in their twenties, but the are relatively wealthy in their thirties. Their career,…
I agree. I respect Troy enormously on the subject of security (and making that subject more accessible) but I saw one of his "Hack your career" talks last year and found it to be much too focused on money, along with a big dollop of survivorship bias.
You need to remember this is an old school guy (late 40s, early 50s?), coming from a time where driving a loud car is seen as a "cool" thing to do and a way of measuring your dick size. Troy is a great speaker and he certainly makes a good career out of it (and selling stolen passwords to companies), but he also loves to show off his wealth which is a bit old school and weird nowadays.
From my experience, the happiest people I know never show off their wealth or put a lot of value on materialistic things, because they just see them as a way of means, not the end goal itself. Troy has a more traditional/conservative/old school outlook on life where the wealth is the end goal itself and the definition of happiness (to him).
Re: Personal Finance Lessons for Technology Professionals
#44I'm in my (very) early 30s and I found it very interesting. I don't necessarily agree with the entire mindset, but overall is one of the "I should have read it 7 years ago" articles. Most of the "lessons" are not groundbreaking, they are rather things that are obvious and most of us know about. The value for me came from having them all written down in an organized way. It's much easier to refer to something more tan…
I think it highly depends on where you live. Although some rules are universal, many aspects rely on taxes and laws in your country/area.
That's a good point. There are enough financial bloggers out there that you should be able to find one in your country, which will be easier to understand.
Re: Personal Finance Lessons for Technology Professionals
#45I expected a better article to be honest. Some of the ideas are correct, but I think the perspective is overall wrong. For one he is probably ten times richer than the average tech worker. But you don't want to be rich as much as you want to be wealthy. And that isn't just about money. My friends in other industries didn't make as much in their twenties, but the are relatively wealthy in their thirties. Their career,…
Out of curiosity, how do your define wealth and in what forms do your 30s non-tech friends have it and your tech friends don't?
I mentioned my personal definition in a sibling comment. I say that being wealthy is a feeling, the feeling of abundance. You choose which things an abundance of makes you feel wealthy.
Re: Personal Finance Lessons for Technology Professionals
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yada Yada Taxes are theft... oh my. Just gotta love how this white, Australian born cis-male was educated in a public school, going there every day over public roads, in a town kept safe by public police, in a house that never burned down because of public firefighters, never fearing saying the wrong thing in a free constitutional democracy protected by judges, politicians and a military — lecturing everyone about th…
While I enjoyed (and somewhat agreed with) the rant, I'm not sure what his gender, race or sexuality have to do with anything?
The odds are generally stacked towards straight, white, cis-males. Or atleast we don't have the disadvantages and discrimination most other groups do.
Re: Personal Finance Lessons for Technology Professionals
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Out of curiosity, how do your define wealth and in what forms do your 30s non-tech friends have it and your tech friends don't?
Time. You can be a hot shot lawyer making $500k a year and working 12 hours a day, or a software developer making $200k a year with a SaaS product working a few hours a day. Who is really richer here?
Time.
Also security. Imagine something happened and you got no income for the next 6 month. How big a deal would that be to you financially? is it "I would definitely default on my mortgage and lose my house" or "It would eat up a bit of my savings and perhaps I'll have to skip that one vacation I was planning"
Re: Personal Finance Lessons for Technology Professionals
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Housing debt is a little special because you have an obligation to provide yourself and your family shelter, so your best alternative is rent instead of going without or delaying the purchase until you can save enough money to buy it free and clear. In general, debt is good if having it is cheaper than the alternative. The way that often happens is if the asset you buy with the debt is worth more, in income or apprec…
As I said, bad debt is a combination of whether you actually need, and can afford the thing, and interest rate. You need a house, so an affordable house would be fine, one that you cant afford isn't. Yes an appreciating asset shifts the balance somewhat, but doesn't inherently make bad debt good. I suppose its best to look at where each outlook ends up? The appreciating asset = good view would suggest you buy the abs…
An appreciating asset bought with leverage provides one of the most readily available means to go from "I am in the bottom quartile of net worth" to "I have at/above the national median net worth".
I did buy basically the most expensive house we could afford (slightly less than the most expensive we could qualify for) in 2007 in a desirable city. That decision (vs continuing to rent or buying a $500K condo in that city) has likely added more to our net worth than our working for the last decade did. We bought it as a place to live and raise a family, but the financial upside (as yet still an unrealized gain) is large enough to not ignore.
Re: Personal Finance Lessons for Technology Professionals
#49Quite a disagreeable post, in my opinion. > Which leads me to the "but money can't buy happiness" position so many people have repeated over the years. Bull. Shit. Anyone who has ever said that simply doesn't know where to shop. If happiness for you is about things you buy in shops, then you are a shallow person, and you are missing out. A lot. In fact you are poor, but in a spiritual sense. The next statement: "mone…
Eh, to each their own. If Troy enjoys expensive cars, what the hell. It's his money. I'm not into expensive toys either but I don't judge other people for "materialism" and feel superior about my woo-woo individuality / spirituality. I would agree with Troy's conclusion that "money buys happiness," but take a different tack. Money buys financial security, and financial security buys avoiding many kinds of hardship an…
Money doesn't buy financial security, because financial security depends on your lifestyle. Rich people become poor if they are so materialistic that they income cannot satisfy their lifestyle needs, therefore money couldn't buy them financial security.
Money can buy you opportunity, but not every opportunity makes people equally happy. Some people love to travel the world and see places for which you need very little money, some people like to drive their kids to school with an expensive car so they can dick measure with other parents and get a boost of self esteem when people look at their cars. Mostly the insecurities and desires in our lives determine which opportunities make us happy.
Re: Personal Finance Lessons for Technology Professionals
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, to each their own. If Troy enjoys expensive cars, what the hell. It's his money. I'm not into expensive toys either but I don't judge other people for "materialism" and feel superior about my woo-woo individuality / spirituality. I would agree with Troy's conclusion that "money buys happiness," but take a different tack. Money buys financial security, and financial security buys avoiding many kinds of hardship an…
Money buys financial security I'm not sure about that, there seems to be plenty of research that shows people never really feel financially secure, no matter how much they have. Clearly there is a minimum standard you need to reach but I don't think that's what we are talking about here.
Having financial security and feeling like you have financial security are quite likely to be two different things.
The latter is more subject to the hedonic treadmill of "financial security means I don't have to change anything about my current standard of living" as opposed to "I don't have to live on the streets or worry about where our next meal will come from".
I could stop working today and we'd eat and live for the next 50 years just fine. It would absolutely be at a dramatically reduced standard of living. I think I have basic financial security, but many people (myself included) would answer a survey that they don't feel totally financially secure.