this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2024
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We should teach the millionaires to fear again
I've always made good money, and got some good advice when I started my first job to just always put aside 10% for saving, and put that into ira/401k. I'm in my 40s now and a millionaire. I still have to work and will until retirement age.
I know I'm lucky, but you're really barking up the wrong tree if you think simply having a million dollars makes you bad person. I'm just a saver.
These days, I don't bat an eye at a seven figure or even low-mid eight figure millionaire. That level of wealth is attainable through individual means (hard work, saving, diligent investing, etc) and probably a significant amount of luck. It's once you start getting into the mid to upper 8-9 figure and then billionaires where there is no way they achieved that wealth without exploitation and all the other accompanying things these people perpetrate.
Low 8 figures is my in laws. They are both doctors and busted their butts throughout their career. They could have done better had they invested better, but they still have obviously done well for themselves.
Ok then let's teach the billionaires to fear again.
Too high. How about 100 million?
Done
Or you can start saving and investing when you're young and be a millionaire when you retire. Compound interest is magic.
Saving what, exactly? The problem is that people arent able to maintain a standard of living, meaning they can't certainly can't save.
Or in simpler terms, things are becoming so expensive that they are forced to decrease their standard of living to meet their needs. This isn't a personal finance issue.
Why don't you buy 4 houses, you rent 3 and live in one. You can ask your parents for the capital of you don't have it
^^^/s
Question is, was that standard of living with in their means in the first place, Americans are in 1 trillion of credit card debt. That's insane to me, we have a spending problem that is now seemingly worse because everything is expensive.
When you're already more or less locked in to a lifestyle and then hit with record inflation, not everyone is going to just cancel their lives and live like a pauper, especially families. Yes many people are grossly irresponsible with credit card debt, but that isn't the story for everyone. You'd have to be living under a rock to not see how insanely expensive life has become in the last few years. Sure people can sell off all of their possessions and move to Nebraska, but that isn't a reasonable solution.
I hear yah, personally I cancelled a bunch of streaming apps, making all my food and coffee at home and been hitting thrift stores and estate sales for things I need. I know shits expensive, my car is a 2006 and it eats gas but I'm not falling for the new car trap.
People have done all of what you have mentioned here but still living paycheck to paycheck. They did it because they already know they can't afford stuff. Now they're starting to stop eating healthy too. You going to claim vegetables are luxury? Fuck you if you do.
Grow micro greens and tomatoes indoors. Lights are cheap af.
Do you know what the majority of debt in this country is? Health care.
Get sick, go broke.
They’re using credit cards to buy essentials like groceries and gas.
We don’t have a spending problem, we have a wage problem. And people like you blaming the poor for the circumstances that people like you put them in is gross
That sounds like we have a Health cost problem. No reason for some meds to cost so much. We also get meds advertised to us, so they spend some money on that instead of lowering prices. Our health system I agree sucks.
No thanks? Why would i be miserable right now and happy long after I'm no longer able to enjoy life? Unless you think we're on the cusp of curing aging or something.
This is a really cute concept. Many people don't have an extra $5 a day. Do you know what you get when you invest $5 a day over 12 years at a 4% interest rate? It's not a million dollars.
About 28000 dollars. Even with a super safe investment that gives you 4%. S&p is like 10% a year. In that case (assuming you lose 1% to the market) you would have 36k.
If you do that over 40 years (25 to 65) you have 640k.
4%?!? where are you getting 4%?? Last time I looked at CD rates it was like 1.2%
You need to look again. I have a 5% standard savings account right now. Fed rates are very high right now.
yeah the rates are way better than last time i looked! gonna have to put some savings into good use.
...what's the point of becoming a millionaire when I no longer have the same energy as I used to when I could still enjoy things?
Because you're still going to want to live and do shit when you're older. And you'll pay for it in the future with what you do now.
Unless I die tomorrow and never get to use all the money I suffered for now to use later.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a balancing act. But there’s no promise I’ll even make it to retirement. So I’m going to enjoy my now, just in case.
I thought like that in my 20s.
So is compounding health problems. Fuck retirement. Live now. Eat billionaires.
And then not be eligible for government insurance because you have too much money and go bankrupt paying for medication. Plus the million other little cuts and stabs you will take. Your kids had to go to higher ed and if you don't help them they can't. Someone tripped on your property and sued you.
What I have learned is this: invest in what can't be taken away by a financial group or their judicial lackseys. Your skillset, property that has complex financial structure, your tools, your family, your reputation.
Your bank doesn't want you custom laptop but you with your knowledge have income with it. Your insurance company doesn't want your house that has crazy agreements about who owns it that would take a generation of lawyers to sort out. Your government doesn't want your brother-in-law who lives abroad and runs a farm you helped buy. The guy suing you doesn't want your professional network. What those parasites want is money without effort. So only own the stuff that requires effort to use.