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Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

larryludwig.com

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Re: Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

#2
I dunno who his target audience is, but I assume that the majority around here are computer programmers with anywhere from $70k/year single income to maybe $500k/year dual income ?

Financial advice in general sucks. But when we get into the specifics... such as any say $150k/year programmer or higher, the generic financial advice of 6 months saving + max out 401k plan works.

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The plan for people at average, 50k/year combined income is closer to the go to college and get some skills that will launch your career.

What I do find amusing is our collective inability to talk about things that matter. Ex: the paycheck is the elephant in the room. And even though it is brought up in this post, the paycheck differences between families can lead to grossly different experiences.

Re: Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

#4

The biggest takeaway: it's easier to make money than it is to save it, and stacking cash, rather than aggressive budgeting, is the key to wealth.

Isn't aggressive budgeting a way to be able to stack that cash?

Re: Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

#5
Part of the discussion should be, can the 'masses' "Generate income not based on hours worked", "Minimize taxes", and "Leverage time and debt to become wealthy like the personal-finance gurus themselves did?"... in other words, is becoming wealthy possible?

It is worth being honest about the false hope these authors are peddling about "becoming wealthy", instead of what they are really advising which is, to become above average / not poor. It is ultimately good advice for most while the crux of the issue is pretending everyone in America is a millionaire waiting to happen.

I would add that much of the sensible advice provided by these types of authors is not taught in public schools as a basic necessity of general education.

Re: Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

#6

The biggest takeaway: it's easier to make money than it is to save it, and stacking cash, rather than aggressive budgeting, is the key to wealth.

While I generally agree, I think for many people it's easier to cut 10% of their annual spending instead of getting better return rates or a salary raise.

Re: Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

#7

I dunno who his target audience is, but I assume that the majority around here are computer programmers with anywhere from $70k/year single income to maybe $500k/year dual income ? Financial advice in general sucks. But when we get into the specifics... such as any say $150k/year programmer or higher, the generic financial advice of 6 months saving + max out 401k plan works. ------- The plan for people at average, 50…

Yeah, but the audience of those financial gurus are the general public. So sure, their advice might work for the top 5%, but the rest of people will never "get rich" using that advice. Even that top 5% could be better off if building passive income, businesses, etc.

Re: Personal finance experts don’t get wealthy by following their own advice

#8

I dunno who his target audience is, but I assume that the majority around here are computer programmers with anywhere from $70k/year single income to maybe $500k/year dual income ? Financial advice in general sucks. But when we get into the specifics... such as any say $150k/year programmer or higher, the generic financial advice of 6 months saving + max out 401k plan works. ------- The plan for people at average, 50…

The r/personalfinance and r/financialindependence subreddits are quite good and even cover more exotic details like the “mega back door roth” otherwise known as “after tax 401k contribution in plan conversions to roth” (which can let you add an additional 36k to a Roth IRA over the 6k limit each year in addition to the normal 19.5k for a traditional 401k).

They’re mostly bogleheads so are a little risk averse, but for most that’s probably the right move anyway.

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