4 ms·

> I spent the next few months spending time with my family must be nice to be able to afford to just dick around and relax searching for your true calling. Unf

> I spent the next few months spending time with my family must be nice to be able to afford to just dick around and relax searching for your true calling. Unfortunately, not everyone is in the position to do that when they suddenly get sliced.

sokoloff 4y ago
Also in the article is advice “Make sure you have a plan if things go bad. Make sure your savings are in order, brace for impact to cover for a while.” I know lots of people making 6-figures who would be in trouble inside of a month. For most of them, that’s a choice where they have other feasible options.
- KronisLV 4y ago
  > I know lots of people making 6-figures who would be in trouble inside of a month. Here in Latvia, I make around 36k EUR annually (25k EUR after taxes) and I still have savings to last me around 4 years without any income, if need be (with passable quality of life, accounting for some inflation). Usually I save/invest around 50% of my paycheck each month. At the same time, I know of some people here personally who are in similar careers, but essentially live paycheck to paycheck. It's pretty curious to see how the circumstances of various people differ, both within the same country and globally. If I earned a US salary remotely, I'd pretty much be set for life within a decade or two, a bit like the FIRE sub-culture (assuming no large scale monetary crashes, but maybe some recessions).
  - sokoloff 4y ago
    There’s a very beneficial reinforcing effect of saving a high percentage of your income: you have lower monthly spending, meaning not only does your savings/investment accounts’ balances go up faster, the amount of annual spending you need to replace is lower. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/ https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-si...
    - KronisLV 4y ago
      > There’s a very beneficial reinforcing effect of saving a high percentage of your income: you have lower monthly spending, meaning not only does your savings/investment accounts’ balances go up faster, the amount of annual spending you need to replace is lower. The caveat here is that some things are just more expensive in absolute terms. A car or a computer that I want to buy won't cost that much less just because of my location, because location based pricing applies to a limited set of goods and services: like food, clothes, rent or heating/power bills. So while saving and not living above your means is good, also optimizing for absolute income values is probably a good idea. Thus many seek out ways to work for well paying companies or in well paying careers, while also living frugally in an area with a relatively low CoL, or maybe make lifestyle choices like forgoing owning a motor vehicle (if possible).
      - marcus0x62 4y ago
        True, but there are many choices a person can make when buying a car or computer (or most products, for that matter.) They could buy used (well, at least in normal times when used cars cost less than new cars) or buy a model with fewer features, or buy less frequently, etc.
    - hinkley 4y ago
      Also you get to tell abusive asshole bosses no. What are they gonna do, fire you? You can even afford to take a pay cut to work on something you really believe in. They don’t call them golden handcuffs for nothing. If you let the money become your drug of choice then everyone controls your life more than you do.
      - sokoloff 4y ago
        Often called “F__k you money” https://youtu.be/xdfeXqHFmPI https://youtu.be/xdfeXqHFmPI
- muro 4y ago
  It's not difficult to spend everything - many times, high income implies living in a high cost of living area - rent and other things just cost so much more. There is also a trap: you start to feel that expensive things are just not that expensive, because compared to your necessary expenses, they just look ok. Buying a 3k TV doesn't look so silly when your rent is 3k and grocery bill 2k per month. It looks very different when you pay 1.5k for rent + 1k for groceries. I'm not saying people are right to spend everything they earn, just that it's easy to fall into that trap.

sokoloff 4y ago

Also in the article is advice “Make sure you have a plan if things go bad. Make sure your savings are in order, brace for impact to cover for a while.” I know lots of people making 6-figures who would be in trouble inside of a month. For most of them, that’s a choice where they have other feasible options.

KronisLV 4y ago
> I know lots of people making 6-figures who would be in trouble inside of a month. Here in Latvia, I make around 36k EUR annually (25k EUR after taxes) and I still have savings to last me around 4 years without any income, if need be (with passable quality of life, accounting for some inflation). Usually I save/invest around 50% of my paycheck each month. At the same time, I know of some people here personally who are in similar careers, but essentially live paycheck to paycheck. It's pretty curious to see how the circumstances of various people differ, both within the same country and globally. If I earned a US salary remotely, I'd pretty much be set for life within a decade or two, a bit like the FIRE sub-culture (assuming no large scale monetary crashes, but maybe some recessions).
- sokoloff 4y ago
  There’s a very beneficial reinforcing effect of saving a high percentage of your income: you have lower monthly spending, meaning not only does your savings/investment accounts’ balances go up faster, the amount of annual spending you need to replace is lower. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/ https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-si...
  - KronisLV 4y ago
    > There’s a very beneficial reinforcing effect of saving a high percentage of your income: you have lower monthly spending, meaning not only does your savings/investment accounts’ balances go up faster, the amount of annual spending you need to replace is lower. The caveat here is that some things are just more expensive in absolute terms. A car or a computer that I want to buy won't cost that much less just because of my location, because location based pricing applies to a limited set of goods and services: like food, clothes, rent or heating/power bills. So while saving and not living above your means is good, also optimizing for absolute income values is probably a good idea. Thus many seek out ways to work for well paying companies or in well paying careers, while also living frugally in an area with a relatively low CoL, or maybe make lifestyle choices like forgoing owning a motor vehicle (if possible).
    - marcus0x62 4y ago
      True, but there are many choices a person can make when buying a car or computer (or most products, for that matter.) They could buy used (well, at least in normal times when used cars cost less than new cars) or buy a model with fewer features, or buy less frequently, etc.
  - hinkley 4y ago
    Also you get to tell abusive asshole bosses no. What are they gonna do, fire you? You can even afford to take a pay cut to work on something you really believe in. They don’t call them golden handcuffs for nothing. If you let the money become your drug of choice then everyone controls your life more than you do.
    - sokoloff 4y ago
      Often called “F__k you money” https://youtu.be/xdfeXqHFmPI https://youtu.be/xdfeXqHFmPI
muro 4y ago
It's not difficult to spend everything - many times, high income implies living in a high cost of living area - rent and other things just cost so much more. There is also a trap: you start to feel that expensive things are just not that expensive, because compared to your necessary expenses, they just look ok. Buying a 3k TV doesn't look so silly when your rent is 3k and grocery bill 2k per month. It looks very different when you pay 1.5k for rent + 1k for groceries. I'm not saying people are right to spend everything they earn, just that it's easy to fall into that trap.