4 ms·

If You’re Not Getting Rich in Your 20s, You’re Doing It Wrong

16 points by randlet 11y ago

randlet 11y ago
>> "Because here’s the thing about your 20s. They are the time to work. The very, very best time in your life to work your ass off and create an exponential snowball of money, skills, and friendships. Your brain will never be more sponge-like and inexhaustible. You will never feel more motivated and less cynical than you do now. And you will never have another decade of pre-childraising freedom in your life." Reminds me a lot of: >> "Economically, you can think of a startup as a way to compress your whole working life into a few years. Instead of working at a low intensity for forty years, you work as hard as you possibly can for four." [1] [1]http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html
serge2k 11y ago
> Because here’s the thing about your 20s. They are the time to work. The very, very best time in your life to work your ass off and create an exponential snowball of money, skills, and friendships. Your brain will never be more sponge-like and inexhaustible. You will never feel more motivated and less cynical than you do now. And you will never have another decade of pre-childraising freedom in your life. Exactly, so waste it working yourself to the bone instead of actually living. > There’s plenty of room at the edges for laughs over fine tequila and winks over surreptitious servings of weed. When, you just advocated staying up until 2:30am or 6:00am working. > All the hard workers already run their own company. Arrogant dick. > Luckily, this is a happy situation and something to celebrate rather than dread. Doing your ultimate work is the core of human satisfaction If you want to be a workaholic or are defined by your job, sure.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
kafkaesq 11y ago
Nothing against working one's ass off, or earning money. But considering the tuple of: (money,skills,love/sex/friendships,experience,awareness) if you're placing money ahead of any of the other 4 -- or defining being "rich" in strictly monetary terms, at any age -- you're doing it very wrong, indeed.
Mz 11y ago
If you are woman and want kids, biologically speaking, your twenties are the best time to make that happen. He talks about "These days, kids tend to happen in your thirties." That tends to work fine if you are male. If you are female, it gets vastly more complicated to put off kids until after age thirty. I have to wonder how old his wife was when they started having kids. Most hetero relationships tend to be older man, younger woman. Men can easily put off becoming a parent until their thirties, in part by marrying a younger woman. That works less well if you are female.
- serge2k 11y ago
  Doesn't the rate of birth defects start to rise quickly as the man ages into their 30s?
  - Mz 11y ago
    My understanding: Yes, older men do see some increase in things like that. But it is a much bigger problem in women, for a long list of reasons. For example, women are born with all the eggs they will ever have. Sperm is produced "fresh." Also, the woman is the incubator.
    - MollyR 11y ago
      I've often thought about freezing some eggs, but I heard egg damage can still occur, not to mention physical issues like a freezer failing or costs. Also not much research exists on the possible hidden later stage development errors, that babies born from frozen eggs could have.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
- CmonDev 11y ago
  It's actually sadly even worse for women for another reason - they cannot date "down" for natural psychological reasons and the pool of "marriageable" men is shrinking due to less men getting education (which is perceived as "high-status" regardless of income, unless the latter is unusually high): http://www.vice.com/read/youre-single-because-there-arent-enough-men-253 http://www.vice.com/read/youre-single-because-there-arent-en...
dragonwriter 11y ago
> Your brain will never be more sponge-like and inexhaustible. You will never feel more motivated and less cynical than you do now. And you will never have another decade of pre-childraising freedom in your life. Except, well, this is all either not true or overgeneralized. 1) Your brain was more sponge-like an inexhaustible in your teens than your twenties, and more in the decade before that than in your teens. 2) I'm 42. I was more motivated and less cynical in my 30s than my 20s. I'm more motivated and less cynical now than in my 30s. 3) I'm 42. My first child will (if all goes well) be born sometime around the end of this year. I'm pretty sure that means I had "another decade of pre-childraising freedom" after my 20s. (OTOH, lots of people don't have a decade of pre-childraising freedom in their 20s.)
snowwrestler 11y ago
Mr. Money Mustache's blog tells the story of how to live a life free from worry about earning money, by obsessively worrying about the money implications of every decision in your life. So, this post is par for the course. The author of the referenced article makes the point that there is more to being young than saving money. Mr. Money Mustache counters that if you don't worry about saving money when you're young, you'll have less of it when you're older. These two opinions are in violent agreement! It's almost a tautology.
jscott2 11y ago
Lotta hate in here, but try not to focus on that. Remember that HN is an unrepresentative group of the entire audience that article addresses. I'd guess most HN readers are probably doing a-ok salary-wise in the frugality world (but if you _must_ live in {SF,NYC} forever, then probably not). Spending-wise? No idea. But I'd recommend trying not to be too put off on the "work hard" advice, you probably already work hard and will get more out of the "spend carefully" side of the savings equation. Life isn't a code review. Even if you think something is 99% wrong, it might still be 1% right. And if that 1% can get you retired a decade earlier, I'd give it some serious thought and just ignore what you think is wrong.

16 points by randlet 11y ago

>> "Because here’s the thing about your 20s. They are the time to work. The very, very best time in your life to work your ass off and create an exponential snowball of money, skills, and friendships. Your brain will never be more sponge-like and inexhaustible. You will never feel more motivated and less cynical than you do now. And you will never have another decade of pre-childraising freedom in your life." Reminds me a lot of: >> "Economically, you can think of a startup as a way to compress your whole working life into a few years. Instead of working at a low intensity for forty years, you work as hard as you possibly can for four." [1] [1]http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html

serge2k 11y ago

> Because here’s the thing about your 20s. They are the time to work. The very, very best time in your life to work your ass off and create an exponential snowball of money, skills, and friendships. Your brain will never be more sponge-like and inexhaustible. You will never feel more motivated and less cynical than you do now. And you will never have another decade of pre-childraising freedom in your life. Exactly, so waste it working yourself to the bone instead of actually living. > There’s plenty of room at the edges for laughs over fine tequila and winks over surreptitious servings of weed. When, you just advocated staying up until 2:30am or 6:00am working. > All the hard workers already run their own company. Arrogant dick. > Luckily, this is a happy situation and something to celebrate rather than dread. Doing your ultimate work is the core of human satisfaction If you want to be a workaholic or are defined by your job, sure.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

kafkaesq 11y ago

Nothing against working one's ass off, or earning money. But considering the tuple of: (money,skills,love/sex/friendships,experience,awareness) if you're placing money ahead of any of the other 4 -- or defining being "rich" in strictly monetary terms, at any age -- you're doing it very wrong, indeed.

Mz 11y ago

If you are woman and want kids, biologically speaking, your twenties are the best time to make that happen. He talks about "These days, kids tend to happen in your thirties." That tends to work fine if you are male. If you are female, it gets vastly more complicated to put off kids until after age thirty. I have to wonder how old his wife was when they started having kids. Most hetero relationships tend to be older man, younger woman. Men can easily put off becoming a parent until their thirties, in part by marrying a younger woman. That works less well if you are female.

serge2k 11y ago
Doesn't the rate of birth defects start to rise quickly as the man ages into their 30s?
- Mz 11y ago
  My understanding: Yes, older men do see some increase in things like that. But it is a much bigger problem in women, for a long list of reasons. For example, women are born with all the eggs they will ever have. Sperm is produced "fresh." Also, the woman is the incubator.
  - MollyR 11y ago
    I've often thought about freezing some eggs, but I heard egg damage can still occur, not to mention physical issues like a freezer failing or costs. Also not much research exists on the possible hidden later stage development errors, that babies born from frozen eggs could have.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
CmonDev 11y ago
It's actually sadly even worse for women for another reason - they cannot date "down" for natural psychological reasons and the pool of "marriageable" men is shrinking due to less men getting education (which is perceived as "high-status" regardless of income, unless the latter is unusually high): http://www.vice.com/read/youre-single-because-there-arent-enough-men-253 http://www.vice.com/read/youre-single-because-there-arent-en...

dragonwriter 11y ago

> Your brain will never be more sponge-like and inexhaustible. You will never feel more motivated and less cynical than you do now. And you will never have another decade of pre-childraising freedom in your life. Except, well, this is all either not true or overgeneralized. 1) Your brain was more sponge-like an inexhaustible in your teens than your twenties, and more in the decade before that than in your teens. 2) I'm 42. I was more motivated and less cynical in my 30s than my 20s. I'm more motivated and less cynical now than in my 30s. 3) I'm 42. My first child will (if all goes well) be born sometime around the end of this year. I'm pretty sure that means I had "another decade of pre-childraising freedom" after my 20s. (OTOH, lots of people don't have a decade of pre-childraising freedom in their 20s.)

snowwrestler 11y ago

Mr. Money Mustache's blog tells the story of how to live a life free from worry about earning money, by obsessively worrying about the money implications of every decision in your life. So, this post is par for the course. The author of the referenced article makes the point that there is more to being young than saving money. Mr. Money Mustache counters that if you don't worry about saving money when you're young, you'll have less of it when you're older. These two opinions are in violent agreement! It's almost a tautology.

jscott2 11y ago

Lotta hate in here, but try not to focus on that. Remember that HN is an unrepresentative group of the entire audience that article addresses. I'd guess most HN readers are probably doing a-ok salary-wise in the frugality world (but if you _must_ live in {SF,NYC} forever, then probably not). Spending-wise? No idea. But I'd recommend trying not to be too put off on the "work hard" advice, you probably already work hard and will get more out of the "spend carefully" side of the savings equation. Life isn't a code review. Even if you think something is 99% wrong, it might still be 1% right. And if that 1% can get you retired a decade earlier, I'd give it some serious thought and just ignore what you think is wrong.