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Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

tonywright.com

51–60 of 172 posts

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#51
post #47
post #40

8% ROI is unrealistic, but a 2-4% is certainly possible especially with municipal bonds and insurance annuities. The former are also exempt from federal taxes, state taxes (if you live in the same state) and even local taxes (if you live in the same city). Both have guarantees against inflation (at the cost of lower yield) . Nonetheless, I do think the is somewhat overrated. If I had fuck you money, I'd... write code…

8% ROI is unrealistic, but a 2-4% is certainly possible especially with municipal bonds and insurance annuities. Amusingly, municipal bonds are in the top 4 likely candidates for our next set of major financial problems. The others are default on consumer ARM mortgages, debt on commercial real estate, and repayment on private equity. Interestingly, the largest class of investors in private equity funds this time arou…

> Amusingly, municipal bonds are in the top 4 likely candidates for our next set of major financial problem

There's several kind of muni bonds, however, each with their own set of trade offs. The higher yield, the higher the risk. Some are guarantees, but only offer a very low yield. If the guarantees lapse, the problems are likely to be very deep, irrespective.

For what it's worth, I'm sticking with FDIC insured bank CDs across two banks, but I my expectation is more of "retain value" rather than "investment".

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#52
IMO Fuck you money is not just when you have enough for a life of mindless consumption, but enough for when you can do the things that you really really want to do.

eg save the world from malaria, build that skyscraper with your face on it, start an iron and blood revolution (there are a few governments that I would want to overthrow).

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#53
post #10

$5M is definitely not retirement money if you're only 30 years old. I figured at that age you'd need about $15M, and even at that you'd need to make sure you invest it properly to at least keep up with inflation. I've always thought that FYM and retirement money are two different concepts. If I had FYM, I can quit my job. I would still be looking for what's next, but I can take my time. (Usual disclaimers apply re: d…

$5M is surely retirement money at 30. At benchmark inflation that is $1.5M when you are 90 years old.

If you can earn just 1% a year (in real terms) on that cash, you'll be fine. (At $100k annual expenses, you'll drop 1% per year. That'll still last a lifetime.)

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#54
post #41

Does the rule that you should get out of the stock market when random people tell you stocks are sure to go up apply in reverse? If so, this is a pretty encouraging sign.

The article has a serious point (there's no insurance against life, other than your own ability), but I too found the jump from an anecdote to a conclusion (with scenarios mentioned already being unrealistic) distracting.

That being said, I don't think this reflects negatively on Tony. There are many other writers who I respect who show this annoying tendency (somebody has pointed out that Malcolm Gladwell and Thomas Friedman are especially prone to this).

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#55
post #41

Does the rule that you should get out of the stock market when random people tell you stocks are sure to go up apply in reverse? If so, this is a pretty encouraging sign.

Top money manager at major Wall Street firm != random people. It doesn't necessarily mean stocks are about to go down either (Wall Street has certainly been wrong too, eg. 2000 or 2007), but it's a far cry from having a shoe-shine boy tell you to buy stocks.

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#56
post #44
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I concur. Not known for being super cheap I'd imagine though.

Actually it is. During the cold war it was split between East and West, and when it got reunited there was a lot of cheap condos, stores, etc. in the East, and lots of entrepreneurial Germans in the West. The combination is a cheap city full of life. If you have the chance you should definitely go check it out.

Not sure where you are getting your information from. Travel isn't cheap, food isn't cheap, and rent isn't cheap, if you want to live anywhere near town.

Yes, great place to live or visit, full of life, great people, but not cheap.

Maybe you want to look further east.

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#57
post #5

His premise seems flawed to me. He says people should forget about F@#$ You Money because you can't depend on it to grow in this bad economy. That's reasonable. But then he suggests you aim for “f@#$ you influence and credibility” because it "allows you to charge $30k+ for a 1 hour speaking engagement". But I know people who used to make $10k per speaking engagement and they aren't getting much work lately. In my exp…

[deleted]

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#58
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually it is. During the cold war it was split between East and West, and when it got reunited there was a lot of cheap condos, stores, etc. in the East, and lots of entrepreneurial Germans in the West. The combination is a cheap city full of life. If you have the chance you should definitely go check it out.

Not sure where you are getting your information from. Travel isn't cheap, food isn't cheap, and rent isn't cheap, if you want to live anywhere near town. Yes, great place to live or visit, full of life, great people, but not cheap. Maybe you want to look further east.

I'm from Copenhagen, a rather expensive city, so maybe I'm biased.

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#59
post #41

Does the rule that you should get out of the stock market when random people tell you stocks are sure to go up apply in reverse? If so, this is a pretty encouraging sign.

That's Warren Buffet's philosophy.

   "Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful"

Re: Rethinking 'Fuck You' money

#60
People who think 6-10% returns are unrealistic are sheep, and know nothing about real estate.

A friend of mine, a complete novice, was able to buy a multifamily unit in downtown San Jose for 500K and rent it out for 5000 a month. His down payment is 100K. His expenses(400K mortgage, insurance, taxes, etc) is 2500 a month. His rate of return is (5000-2500)x12/100K = 30% or so.

He did this while violating the #1 rule of real estate investing: you never buy at market price. You pay 70% of what stuff are going for on the MLS.

I invest in courthouse foreclosure auctions, and manage about 40% cash on cash returns.

Investing in real estate is a skill, just like building companies or coding. Imagine how much a typical person know about building web apps. That is how much a typical person know about real estate investment.

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