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>Um, he has no need to work. Why would starting a business be the most important thing to do? When you're financially independent you have the freedom to pursu

>Um, he has no need to work. Why would starting a business be the most important thing to do? When you're financially independent you have the freedom to pursue ideas that are more risk-averse. It's when you have the freedom to do things that you wouldn't have felt comfortable doing when you were worried about paying your personal bills each month like me, like my fellow peasants. >just as long as it does not cost more than a middle class income can support. Uh, his 4% safe-withdrawal-rate is 320k, if he wants to be cautious a 3% safe-withdrawal-rate is 240k. That's quite a bit higher than middle-class income (median HOUSEHOLD income in the country is 59k).

fsloth 8y ago
"It's when you have the freedom to do things that you wouldn't have felt comfortable doing when you were worried about paying your personal bills each month like me, like my fellow peasants." I completely agree, but we have no way to know what the best way for him would be to use his new freedom for self -actualization. There are lots of other interesting things to do in life as well. "That's quite a bit higher than middle-class income." Sure, but it's not still an insane amount of money. Before one gets the hang of finances it's better to think in purely middle-class (or upper middle class) financial terms. There are lots of ways to spend 8M fairly quickly.
- ryanmercer 8y ago
  >There are lots of ways to spend 8M fairly quickly. There's a lot of ways to spend 8 billion fairly quickly. That doesn't mean that either isn't an obscene amount of money to many people (it's 250x~ my gross income). Sure, he could go buy a jet and a manse and be broke in a week, but I could legitimately burn through 8 billion dollars fairly sensibly in several months throwing it at serious projects. Hell, I could burn through 8 trillion in probably 3-5 years pursuing society-changing projects. It may not be a lot of money to tech/bay area types but to the rest of the world it's more money than the vast majority will see in multiple lifetimes.
  - fsloth 8y ago
    This is getting very off topic, but.. Um... what would you actually spend 2 trillion a year on for four years on to implement a change in society? I mean sure, it's roughly the size of the oil market so theoretically you could buy all the oil in the world for 4 years and just not use it, thus forcing everyone on a massive pace to post-oil economy. But there's a huge hysteresis in how the society works, at such a massive scale, it's not sufficient to have the capital available, you also likely need a competent and willing organization to fulfill your goals, political co-operation from the major global players and most of all, for any of it to matter at all, you need to create a change that a) lasts b) changes things for the better For example of moonshot ideas, I presume you could buy Space X and bankroll an entire series of Mars expeditions, but if you failed to create a sustainable economy and culture around your project it would ultimately be forgotten once the money runs out. Of course, if you dump thousands of peoples on Mars, maybe other financial operators would take over. I don't know if ending oil economy or colonizing Mars were the projects you had in mind, though. Seriosly, if someone gave you 8 trillion... what would you do?
    - scarejunba 8y ago
      8 trillion is nothing on the scale of the Earth, right? I don’t know if I could fix Sierra Leone with 8 trillion but I could try. I imagine setting up a new safe free land in Africa that can take advantage of all its natural resources and people so they can be successful. Replicate it to the rest of the continent. Maybe a moon base but that’s not cash-limited above a few hundred billion, I think. I might run out of rocket scientists and habitat specialists before running out of money.
      - saagarjha 8y ago
        That’s about enough to fund Sierra Leone’s foreign aid for a couple of millennia.
        scarejunba 8y ago
        But that keeps them at where they are now. Imagine making them a Japan. What would that take?

fsloth 8y ago

"It's when you have the freedom to do things that you wouldn't have felt comfortable doing when you were worried about paying your personal bills each month like me, like my fellow peasants." I completely agree, but we have no way to know what the best way for him would be to use his new freedom for self -actualization. There are lots of other interesting things to do in life as well. "That's quite a bit higher than middle-class income." Sure, but it's not still an insane amount of money. Before one gets the hang of finances it's better to think in purely middle-class (or upper middle class) financial terms. There are lots of ways to spend 8M fairly quickly.

ryanmercer 8y ago
>There are lots of ways to spend 8M fairly quickly. There's a lot of ways to spend 8 billion fairly quickly. That doesn't mean that either isn't an obscene amount of money to many people (it's 250x~ my gross income). Sure, he could go buy a jet and a manse and be broke in a week, but I could legitimately burn through 8 billion dollars fairly sensibly in several months throwing it at serious projects. Hell, I could burn through 8 trillion in probably 3-5 years pursuing society-changing projects. It may not be a lot of money to tech/bay area types but to the rest of the world it's more money than the vast majority will see in multiple lifetimes.
- fsloth 8y ago
  This is getting very off topic, but.. Um... what would you actually spend 2 trillion a year on for four years on to implement a change in society? I mean sure, it's roughly the size of the oil market so theoretically you could buy all the oil in the world for 4 years and just not use it, thus forcing everyone on a massive pace to post-oil economy. But there's a huge hysteresis in how the society works, at such a massive scale, it's not sufficient to have the capital available, you also likely need a competent and willing organization to fulfill your goals, political co-operation from the major global players and most of all, for any of it to matter at all, you need to create a change that a) lasts b) changes things for the better For example of moonshot ideas, I presume you could buy Space X and bankroll an entire series of Mars expeditions, but if you failed to create a sustainable economy and culture around your project it would ultimately be forgotten once the money runs out. Of course, if you dump thousands of peoples on Mars, maybe other financial operators would take over. I don't know if ending oil economy or colonizing Mars were the projects you had in mind, though. Seriosly, if someone gave you 8 trillion... what would you do?
  - scarejunba 8y ago
    8 trillion is nothing on the scale of the Earth, right? I don’t know if I could fix Sierra Leone with 8 trillion but I could try. I imagine setting up a new safe free land in Africa that can take advantage of all its natural resources and people so they can be successful. Replicate it to the rest of the continent. Maybe a moon base but that’s not cash-limited above a few hundred billion, I think. I might run out of rocket scientists and habitat specialists before running out of money.
    - saagarjha 8y ago
      That’s about enough to fund Sierra Leone’s foreign aid for a couple of millennia.
      - scarejunba 8y ago
        But that keeps them at where they are now. Imagine making them a Japan. What would that take?