71–79 of 79 posts
I 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 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?
Don't get me wrong, I do absolutely have friend in tech that are doing exceedingly well both financially and personally. But mostly because they did something else that wasn't part of "the deal".
Quite 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…
It doesn’t take a lot of creativity to imagine how money connects to important things in life, such as buying opportunity and safety for children. Or having someone who spent years in medical training and debt hover over your loved ones (does anyone have a prerogative to a doctor’s time?).
Opportunity isn’t shallow. Choice and freedom aren’t shallow. Will your loved ones never experience tragedy or malady?
1: Money Buys Choices
2: The Money You Earn Young is the Most Valuable Money You'll Ever Earn
3: Invest in Financial Literacy
4: Learn the Tax System
5: Know Good Debt from Bad Debt
6: Diversify Earning Potential and Risk
7: Prepare for Luck
8: Put a Price on Your Time - and Your Family
9: Have a Goal
10: Financial Prosperity is a Partnership
Quite 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…
He is not saying all hapiness can be bought with money, but it's quite obvious that many things that make one unhappy can be solved with money, as also many things that make people happy are bought with money. And I'm not even talking about objects. For most people having something good to eat and a warm cozy place to live is already happiness. A happiness most people in the world can't afford BTW.
That last sentence isn't true. The first sentence defines a standard of extreme poverty or below[0], which is happily far less than "most people in the world" in 2019.[1]
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_poverty
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World-population-in-extre...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 happies…
I'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…
here's some material i found useful: * the concept of savings rate, and relationship with time until retirement. e.g. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-si... * good books about investment. William J Bernstein has a reading list here: http://www.efficientfrontier.com/reading.htm * Bernstein also has some advice for a younger US audience here: "If you can", very short book, free download: http:/…
Earlier 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 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 littl…
I agree with those basic ideas! You're not disagreeing with me there. In fact, I already made a similar remark in my concluding sentence:
> You can have money and be unhappy, and you can be evicted because you can't meet rent and be happy, but it's probably easier to be happy when you aren't worried about paying the bills.
The piece you're either not considering or ignoring — which my comment spoke to — is that, controlling for local cost of living, the higher your income is, the easier it is to spend below your income. Necessities don't scale with income. Lifestyle choices can, but by definition, they are choices and can be reigned in. It's hard to choose between rent and food, though.
So I think your response, "money doesn't buy financial security," mostly comes from inaccurately interpreting an intentionally simplistic subclause of a larger argument and taking it too literally and without context.
Quite 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…
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…
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S10577...
From memory, 4. is "Buy Less Insurance", at least they suggest that most insurances we want are not worth it, is this what you meant?
