Castanza

Hell of a return starting from 53k

Agreed, pretty bizarre behavior considering he was already targeted once. 5 years at market returns gets you to ~160m.

100%

Paywall > r/wsb horde

JOE, AIV

Walking is recovery, Assault bike is work The exercise is the meditation part imo

You can also become poor with a similar rate

100% - Mobility, core, low impact cardio (assault bike, rower, etc.) bodyweight exercise, heavy functional 2x a week. Eat less, drink less, stress less

Same two

No time to work when you're focused on "building your brand"

LOL it's funny this even has to be said!

As I said different strokes for different folks. I'm a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush kind of guy. But as Greg said it is mostly psychological. However that works both ways. Because there are a lot of people on here scoffing at the idea of paying off your mortgage early because you could be better returns elsewhere....But then some of those same people are out here leasing expensive vehicles or dropping 1k a month at fancy restaurants or 30k a year on vacations. Everyone has areas where they could be more efficient with their money. I look at it as a way of handicapping myself and my unknown future financial situation. More is not always better imo. I think a lot of people are conditioned to think 2010-2020 of zirp, 3% mortgages and ~13% market returns are the norm. Did people have the mindset of invest over save prior to the 2000's? This is before my investing career. Maybe I'll change my screen name to Spicoli:

Yup, Morgan is a good resource on this. People simply can't comprehend it, because we live in a hustle culture/keep up culture. They focus on 65+ and how much they will have then, instead of how much time/money they have now. I think a balance needs to be made. I live debt free, and also invest, work full time, have side hustles etc. But I spend as little time as possible thinking about money and how to eek out an extra 50 basis points on a lump sum of cash. YOu can go too far with that shit imo. Not good for the mind and body imo. The flexibility of never having to worry about your job, market downturns, or making payments etc. is priceless. A lot of people out there break their back because of their cashflow situations. Also a lot of people overleverage themselves and live that lifestyle and still aren't saving enough for retirement. To me it's cleaner this way and easier to predict/project into the future. There is something to be said about lack of complexity as well. If I die, my wife is not going to want to deal with all this financial engineering. And the cost of paying someone else to figure it all out with lawyer fees, financial advisors, etc. is not insignificant. To each there own, there isn't a right or wrong way. But I think a lot of people "do" things because that's what the "experts" say. No different than "everyone needs to go to college." Well look how that's turning out for a lot of people. I don't have to bust my balls working 60+ hours a week hoping the boss throws me a bone and gives me that promotion, pay raise or bonus. I don't have to put on the networking face and live that LinkedIn life where you're constantly competing against your peers and the new tech/stack blah blah bah. If you enjoy that go for it! Let me be clear too. I lived pretty much debt free before I decided to go ahead and pay off the mortgage. I did prioritize investing, saving, and education. I worked full time, paid cash for school and paid off existing student loans etc. It's not like I skipped the step of saving, investing for retirement, and investing in myself. It was 10 years later when we figured "hey we are here financially, this is next for us, will paying this off improve this situation and allow us to enjoy this chapter of life more?" The answer was YES then and has been YES since then. So context does matter. I just see a lot of peers my age and younger with a huge mortgage, expensive cars, mountains of student loan debt, financed furniture, expensive phones, expensive vacations, expensive and financed everything.....always worried about their jobs, always complaining about the hours they have to work, where they work and how they don't have time with their kids etc. When you talk to these people though, their opinion is always "invest and finance because you earn more in the market." Well not many of them are maxing their 401k, ROTH IRA, HSA, Savings bonds, etc. They now feel like they need to earn more and work more to reach that goal. To quote Dealraker..."Life is great if you can stand it!" Seems like there are a lot of people who CANT stand it! The title of the thread! 78%! Something ain't working....and I don't think the problem is people having too little debt to pay!

The standard financial response I don't disagree with the math. You can't put a price on the other things. No longer servicing a mortgage means my wife can raise our kids more (as she wishes) and work less. Less daycare costs etc. I work from home, get to take my son for walks or go tot he park on my break. etc. Something you can't get back in retirement. I be a lot of retirees would give that 400k liquid asset in a heart beat if hey could go back and have more time with their kids/family. I by no means want a life that resembles a business where I'm always thinking about money or how to make an extra percentage point here or there. But I'm a simple man who lives a simple life. Yeah I enjoy investing and get the importance of sound financials. But the less I think about it the better! I have zero desire to own a vacation home, go on 20k vacations, or own fancy sports cars. Not my cup of tea! Nothing wrong with that that choice if you do. And if you do, your approach makes sense. Different strokes for different folks!

Paid mine off and don't regret it a bit. Nothing like waking up in your early 30s with very little financial stress. Debt chains you to your investments and your employment. I said early on I have no desire to have a ball and chain on my whole life hoping to enjoy a few years once I reach 65+. The idea of traditional retirement is ludicrous to me and I'm not sure I buy the stability/predictability of it moving forward. Peace of mind and freedom to do is priceless. edit: Everyone will tell you you're dumb...ignore them. We all love businesses that gush FCF now not 30 years from now....so why not run your life the same way? Beg borrow and steal during your startup phase. Reduce capex and then focus on FCF and flexibility. Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow so imo a healthy balance of now and later is preferred to only later. I see a lot of people who retire with terrible health and can't do much but sit on a couch and slowly fade away. No thanks!

Should the labor sector fail....this will be the demographic that will soon be voting themselves money with the proxy politician promising them "bread and circuses."

Does she at least live in the PNW?

While true to some degree it still doesn’t account for poor personal finance decisions. In fact it highlights it. People spent more than they had pre and post pandemic. The middle management couple with matching BMWs sitting in the driveway pre pandemic probably aren’t springing for 5 year old Accords post pandemic. Live below your means, save at least 20%. Don’t go shopping for things you don’t need.

Eh companies already do that. Employers with poor working environments will have unintended consequences as well. The cat is out of the bag now (thanks Covid?) A lot of companies have to be global with follow the sun support etc. Not all countries offer the same quality of support though…nor reliability. I’ve seen my share of outsourced jobs to Costa Rica (a hotbed for tech right now) and it’s been nothing but problems. Poor training, unreliable ISP, unreliable power, different mindset when it comes to work culture etc. it’s not apples to apples for sure…..yet. But will probably be someday? I hear you though, it’s not out of the question. My pay would be the same regardless of where I live now. But yes that makes sense for NYC job with a guy living in Alabama. At the end of the day it’s your job to make yourself valuable to an employer. I do think it’s becoming harder to separate yourself from the pack though. At least in tech. The most adaptable people do the best…but people last 35 have a hard time learning new tech or stacks (don’t blame them). It’s exhausting keeping up with everything. This is why I choose to live debt free. I like my tech job, don’t love the work itself, but the flexibility is great. I don’t love “tech” enough to constantly learn a ton of new things, but definitely get some new stuff under the belt every year. It’s interesting enough and I have my niches. Frankly I don’t trust the tech industry. It feels like something has to give because everyone is being outpaced by new stacks/niches/fads. It’s like watching the NFL where you’re washed up by 30-40 max. There are a lot of 50+ year old tech workers that are clutching their pearls that “their” stack doesn’t get dropped before they retire. I have no problem working any job inside or outside of tech though . I don’t live to work and I keep my finances in check. I’m about reducing financial stress.

Rich is somewhat relative to your peers income and areas cost of living. 2-5k a month in savings is not a negligible amount and at an average market return would could net you upwards of ~13m at 65 if we assume you're around 30. Personally I think people spend too much, buy too much house, drive too nice of vehicles and in general finance too much. I see a lot of 250k houses with 125k worth of vehicles parked in the driveways.

Employers have a control problem. If they don't want to "lose time" with their employees working second jobs, then switch them from Salary to Hourly and send them home or have them clock off when their work is finished. If you have salaried employees who work diligently and finish their work then end up with some downtime, that is your problem not theirs. You're paying them to do a job. If I pay a contractor to build a house, I don't expect them to leave me all the leftover supplies and tools they purchased to build that house. I expect a house. My favorite is when they try to say "It's a privilege to work from home and not everyone has that advantage." <--- what assholes My work recently tried to say everyone needs to be back in office 3 days a week. They hosted a webinar webinar with some C-suiot execs present and opened it up for questions (big mistake). Employees went off and they couldn't provide any justification from their perspective. - All of our work in on a screen - My team is global so there is no in person collaboration - All training is online (and has been) - Productivity numbers have gone UP since Covid - Employee happiness surveys UP - Office lease lapsed and we moved from individual office to hoteling style with less than half the number of offices for total employees - 1/4-1/3rd of employees moved over an hour away from office location (at HR approval) So why did they want us back in office? No idea, but likely so they could dick swing and feel important when they come to town once a year. How ere they going to track "employee engagement and collaboration"....badge scans LOL So you want me to drive over an hour and a half three days a week (costing me 10k a year) so I can sit in a noisy open office environment, log onto Teams and collaborate with employees in different countries just like I already do? End of they day, they are "re-thinking" their approach and not enforcing anything at this point.

It's not for hourly jobs. You see quite a bit of this in tech and other fields like marketing, content, finance etc. Nothing unethical about it imo unless you're using info from one employer to help the other and vice verse. Not much different than being freelance and working for multiple clients at one time. Now if you're working two jobs and sandbagging just to collect that paycheck until one of them notices and confronts you? yeah you're a pos. But hey if you can swing it why now?

What bias do I have? I’ve supported many of your views on US vs Arab nation engagement in this forum for a long time. I think in general most cultures should keep to themselves because mixing of some simply doesn’t work. The Middle East has its problems, but I understand their reasonings or origins of hatred of the west etc. I just think with this current conflict there isn’t much to stand on for Palestine. I don’t think Israel is an occupier or committing genocide. I think it’s a shitty situation with some bad feelings on both sides that will never be easily resolved. I try hard to understand both sides of the coin (hence my view on Russia/Ukraine I share with you)

Israel is not perfect in any way shape or form. Follow their 6000 year history and they have done their share of unsavory things.