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I do not expect to make any major expensive lifestyle changes as a result of having more money (and to the extent to which I have already been being paid better

by saurik 5y ago

I do not expect to make any major expensive lifestyle changes as a result of having more money (and to the extent to which I have already been being paid better recently due to working on Orchid, I have only barely done so and usually only quite temporarily), which I realize disappoints some people who had wanted me to post a concrete picture of something expensive I purchase to help motivate others to reach for bug bounties ;P. (FWIW, I maybe should at some point buy a car--as I currently waste money on renting one; pre-pandemic I was using a combination of ZipCar and Lyft, but both services suck now--but I can't imagine myself buying a pointlessly extravagant car; and, sadly, now is a bad time to buy a car anyway... which I think is related to the ZipCar issue: I imagine they might have sold their fleet? Maybe ZipCar will return in force when prices rebalance.)

csdvrx 5y ago
> I can't imagine myself buying a pointlessly extravagant car; and, sadly, now is a bad time to buy a car anyway Get a fun car that can be a hacking project :) I was suggested a police car by a friend. They are cheap at auctions, more or less well maintained (tax payer money) and have interesting internals (check sites like https://www.dippy.org/upgrade/dipcop.html https://www.dippy.org/upgrade/dipcop.html) especially for electrical circuits where a police-taxi-module lets you hook up to other functions. And the laptop mount is a geek dream: your laptop right by you, charging, which doubles as a make-do coffee table at the drive through :)
- jimmaswell 5y ago
  I want to convert an 80s-style car to powerful electric someday, cyberpunk style. Z31 300ZX probably. If I had a lot of money like that I'd build a big garage and do things like that.
  - worldmerge 5y ago
    That sounds like such a fun project!
- dralley 5y ago
  > I was suggested a police car by a friend. They are cheap at auctions, more or less well maintained (tax payer money) Except that 1) a lot of them are Dodge Chargers which are terribly unreliable 2) they spend incredible amounts of time idling, which isn't good for the engine of a sports car
  - csdvrx 5y ago
    So what? If it's to have fun and hack, does it matter?
heliodor 5y ago
Please read this thread to see the pitfalls that might potentially lie ahead: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vo34/comment/chb4v05/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vo34/comment/c... It's about winning the lottery but still applicable to some extent, and shows how people's lives go horribly wrong.
- renewiltord 5y ago
  Funny. This exemplifies the HN community and its distaste for startups. It’s because everyone here performs total population averages. Perhaps it’s likely that most HN members do behave as a total population average. I am grateful for this insight.
- capableweb 5y ago
  Not sure it's actually applicable. That Reddit comment is about poor people winning lots of money by chance, not smart people earning lots of money by working. The risks are very different, not to say that the scale between 2 million and 170 million is way bigger than you seem to think.
  - eli 5y ago
    Poor people aren’t stupid
    - capableweb 5y ago
      That's not what I said either. Again, the Reddit thread is about people with a small amount of money winning a large amount of money. A person like Saurik working for a bug bounty and getting paid for it is not nearly the same scenario.
    - toolz 5y ago
      If you're poor and gambling, then you're making a stupid financial decision. So the odds of you being financially stupid seem likely to be high.
rubicon33 5y ago
For what it’s worth - I love that you have this perspective. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with just saving the money.
alisonkisk 5y ago
gumby 5y ago
Unless you live in the sticks, you probably aren’t “wasting” your money by using rentals and Lyft. The problem with a car is for most people it’s their most expensive or second most expensive capital asset, yet has a very low utilization rate (often less than 5%). If interest rates rise their op ex in servicing it (fuel, insurance, loan interest) will exceed that! A few years ago I sold all my cars. I found I only drove at all a few times a week at most (walk/bike instead). Like you I switched to ridershare/rent and it was fine. My motivation wasn’t really to save money but just eliminate the hassle of having all those cars.
kristofferR 5y ago
This wiki contains tons of good information about how to best handle the windfall: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Managing_a_windfall https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Managing_a_windfall Make sure to read it.
rdiddly 5y ago
I would tend to look at your use of car services more like spending money you can now afford, to deal with cars only temporarily and reap only the benefits, rather than being stricken with the albatross of ownership. That said, I do concur that Zipcar sucks now, compared to what it was. I've still never used Lyft or Uber, so can't comment on those. Oh wait hold on, I did try once to gift some Lyft rides to someone via the website and was literally unable to successfully give Lyft money. Still, I would say it makes less sense now to buy a car (even electric) than at any other point in history.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
jack_pp 5y ago
You can buy a very nice car that might even appreciate in value so you get to have your cake and eat it too, I recommend you do research on this.
- paulpauper 5y ago
  maybe you can even download one too. I would do even more research into this.

by saurik 5y ago

csdvrx 5y ago

> I can't imagine myself buying a pointlessly extravagant car; and, sadly, now is a bad time to buy a car anyway Get a fun car that can be a hacking project :) I was suggested a police car by a friend. They are cheap at auctions, more or less well maintained (tax payer money) and have interesting internals (check sites like https://www.dippy.org/upgrade/dipcop.html https://www.dippy.org/upgrade/dipcop.html) especially for electrical circuits where a police-taxi-module lets you hook up to other functions. And the laptop mount is a geek dream: your laptop right by you, charging, which doubles as a make-do coffee table at the drive through :)

jimmaswell 5y ago
I want to convert an 80s-style car to powerful electric someday, cyberpunk style. Z31 300ZX probably. If I had a lot of money like that I'd build a big garage and do things like that.
- worldmerge 5y ago
  That sounds like such a fun project!
dralley 5y ago
> I was suggested a police car by a friend. They are cheap at auctions, more or less well maintained (tax payer money) Except that 1) a lot of them are Dodge Chargers which are terribly unreliable 2) they spend incredible amounts of time idling, which isn't good for the engine of a sports car
- csdvrx 5y ago
  So what? If it's to have fun and hack, does it matter?

heliodor 5y ago

Please read this thread to see the pitfalls that might potentially lie ahead: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vo34/comment/chb4v05/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vo34/comment/c... It's about winning the lottery but still applicable to some extent, and shows how people's lives go horribly wrong.

renewiltord 5y ago
Funny. This exemplifies the HN community and its distaste for startups. It’s because everyone here performs total population averages. Perhaps it’s likely that most HN members do behave as a total population average. I am grateful for this insight.
capableweb 5y ago
Not sure it's actually applicable. That Reddit comment is about poor people winning lots of money by chance, not smart people earning lots of money by working. The risks are very different, not to say that the scale between 2 million and 170 million is way bigger than you seem to think.
- eli 5y ago
  Poor people aren’t stupid
  - capableweb 5y ago
    That's not what I said either. Again, the Reddit thread is about people with a small amount of money winning a large amount of money. A person like Saurik working for a bug bounty and getting paid for it is not nearly the same scenario.
  - toolz 5y ago
    If you're poor and gambling, then you're making a stupid financial decision. So the odds of you being financially stupid seem likely to be high.

rubicon33 5y ago

For what it’s worth - I love that you have this perspective. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with just saving the money.

alisonkisk 5y ago

gumby 5y ago

Unless you live in the sticks, you probably aren’t “wasting” your money by using rentals and Lyft. The problem with a car is for most people it’s their most expensive or second most expensive capital asset, yet has a very low utilization rate (often less than 5%). If interest rates rise their op ex in servicing it (fuel, insurance, loan interest) will exceed that! A few years ago I sold all my cars. I found I only drove at all a few times a week at most (walk/bike instead). Like you I switched to ridershare/rent and it was fine. My motivation wasn’t really to save money but just eliminate the hassle of having all those cars.

kristofferR 5y ago

This wiki contains tons of good information about how to best handle the windfall: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Managing_a_windfall https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Managing_a_windfall Make sure to read it.

rdiddly 5y ago

I would tend to look at your use of car services more like spending money you can now afford, to deal with cars only temporarily and reap only the benefits, rather than being stricken with the albatross of ownership. That said, I do concur that Zipcar sucks now, compared to what it was. I've still never used Lyft or Uber, so can't comment on those. Oh wait hold on, I did try once to gift some Lyft rides to someone via the website and was literally unable to successfully give Lyft money. Still, I would say it makes less sense now to buy a car (even electric) than at any other point in history.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

jack_pp 5y ago

You can buy a very nice car that might even appreciate in value so you get to have your cake and eat it too, I recommend you do research on this.

paulpauper 5y ago
maybe you can even download one too. I would do even more research into this.