4 ms·

I have literally no extra money to save. Everything I have is maxed out or near maxed out. my retirement plan is an overdose.

juujian 2y ago
Ooooh, that's a lot more concrete and realistic than my retirement plans.
Alupis 2y ago
[flagged]
- sosodev 2y ago
  Even with compound interest $100/mo is only going to yield retirement like savings over 40 years with >=10% interest rates and monthly compounding. It also neglects the fact that the cost of retirement might be much higher when that time comes. Your whole spend less argument ignores the whole point of the article. These disillusioned people aren’t going to spend less because they don’t think it’s going to pay off. They’re optimizing for happiness in the present moment and that might end up being the right choice.
  - Alupis 2y ago
    [flagged]
- antisthenes 2y ago
  > everyone can find an extra $50-100 monthly to stash away for retirement. With compound interest over a 40+ year working career, this is not trivial money. This amount of money is likely to pay for a couple of surgeries (assuming no other complications or chronic illnesses eating your savings before then) past the age of 50, given how expensive health care is. It's not a significant amount of money to let you retire in any kind of comfort. Maybe just not starve. No amount of financial prudence is going to change the math for you if your set of skills caps out at $20/hour on the employment market.
  - Alupis 2y ago
    > No amount of financial prudence is going to change the math for you if your set of skills caps out at $20/hour on the employment market Which is a significant issue. How is it even possible to spend 40+ years doing something (anything) and not acquire skills that earn more than minimum wage or barely above? 40 years is approximately 83,200 working hours. Metaphoric you had 83,200 hours to figure out some sort of skill and work your way up in whatever field you have chosen... but you chose not to. That's a significant issue.
    - orwin 2y ago
      Service. The salary only depends on what you look like or who you know, not what you do. If you're a beautiful chef and can avoid rapists bosses, you can work on a yacht for 2-4 times as much as a chef in an average restaurant and only work three month a year, studying the 9 other months (someone I know is in M1 doing this). If you're a normal chef (or even working at a starred restaurant you don't own), good luck getting the opportunity. And you'll have destroyed ankles, back and feet by the time you're 35 (incidentally, I do not know any second or 'chef de partie' (don't find the translation) over 30yo).
      - Alupis 2y ago
        > I do not know any second or 'chef de partie' (don't find the translation) over 30yo) Because.... wait for it... because those people have moved up in their career. One should not be a 30+ year veteran line cook ffs...
- marssaxman 2y ago
  > everyone can find an extra $50-100 monthly to stash away for retirement And if you are extraordinarily lucky, perhaps you will get to keep it. More likely, some ordinary life obstacle will come along and wipe it out. When your car breaks down and you need to spend $1000 getting it running again so you can keep your job, are you going to leave that savings money alone, or are you going to spend it? Of course you are going to spend it, because the alternative would be going (further) into debt, and then you would have to spend the next 12 months paying off that debt instead of saving any more money. But in that 12 months, some other thing is bound to happen: perhaps you'll get sick, or you'll have to move and put down a new rental deposit, or any of the other million things that constantly knock people's lives off balance. It takes multiple consecutive years of good luck before one can get to a position where your advice would be applicable.
  - Alupis 2y ago
    > It takes multiple consecutive years of good luck This is profoundly incorrect. A retirement account cannot easily be withdrawn from for starters... and if you're not using a tax sheltered retirement account (why? you can open one as an individual), then at a minimum having that money go into a second bank account is as simple as filing out a form with your employer. It's amazing how quickly the money will pile up if you just forget all about it. People who honestly struggle to find $50 of unwisely-spent money per month are either very young or have spent a life messing up. It's really hard to not be able to save for retirement in the US over a 40+ year career. Like, you have to be going out of your way to make poor choices. The people spending 40+ years making poor choices then turn around and expect everyone else to provide for them in retirement. The audacity is increadible...
    - marssaxman 2y ago
      Oh, well, have fun feeling superior, I suppose; your perspective is not going to help you understand why people who have not been quite so fortunate as you have tend to make the kinds of decisions that we do.
      - 2y ago

juujian 2y ago

Ooooh, that's a lot more concrete and realistic than my retirement plans.

Alupis 2y ago

[flagged]

sosodev 2y ago
Even with compound interest $100/mo is only going to yield retirement like savings over 40 years with >=10% interest rates and monthly compounding. It also neglects the fact that the cost of retirement might be much higher when that time comes. Your whole spend less argument ignores the whole point of the article. These disillusioned people aren’t going to spend less because they don’t think it’s going to pay off. They’re optimizing for happiness in the present moment and that might end up being the right choice.
- Alupis 2y ago
  [flagged]
antisthenes 2y ago
> everyone can find an extra $50-100 monthly to stash away for retirement. With compound interest over a 40+ year working career, this is not trivial money. This amount of money is likely to pay for a couple of surgeries (assuming no other complications or chronic illnesses eating your savings before then) past the age of 50, given how expensive health care is. It's not a significant amount of money to let you retire in any kind of comfort. Maybe just not starve. No amount of financial prudence is going to change the math for you if your set of skills caps out at $20/hour on the employment market.
- Alupis 2y ago
  > No amount of financial prudence is going to change the math for you if your set of skills caps out at $20/hour on the employment market Which is a significant issue. How is it even possible to spend 40+ years doing something (anything) and not acquire skills that earn more than minimum wage or barely above? 40 years is approximately 83,200 working hours. Metaphoric you had 83,200 hours to figure out some sort of skill and work your way up in whatever field you have chosen... but you chose not to. That's a significant issue.
  - orwin 2y ago
    Service. The salary only depends on what you look like or who you know, not what you do. If you're a beautiful chef and can avoid rapists bosses, you can work on a yacht for 2-4 times as much as a chef in an average restaurant and only work three month a year, studying the 9 other months (someone I know is in M1 doing this). If you're a normal chef (or even working at a starred restaurant you don't own), good luck getting the opportunity. And you'll have destroyed ankles, back and feet by the time you're 35 (incidentally, I do not know any second or 'chef de partie' (don't find the translation) over 30yo).
    - Alupis 2y ago
      > I do not know any second or 'chef de partie' (don't find the translation) over 30yo) Because.... wait for it... because those people have moved up in their career. One should not be a 30+ year veteran line cook ffs...
marssaxman 2y ago
> everyone can find an extra $50-100 monthly to stash away for retirement And if you are extraordinarily lucky, perhaps you will get to keep it. More likely, some ordinary life obstacle will come along and wipe it out. When your car breaks down and you need to spend $1000 getting it running again so you can keep your job, are you going to leave that savings money alone, or are you going to spend it? Of course you are going to spend it, because the alternative would be going (further) into debt, and then you would have to spend the next 12 months paying off that debt instead of saving any more money. But in that 12 months, some other thing is bound to happen: perhaps you'll get sick, or you'll have to move and put down a new rental deposit, or any of the other million things that constantly knock people's lives off balance. It takes multiple consecutive years of good luck before one can get to a position where your advice would be applicable.
- Alupis 2y ago
  > It takes multiple consecutive years of good luck This is profoundly incorrect. A retirement account cannot easily be withdrawn from for starters... and if you're not using a tax sheltered retirement account (why? you can open one as an individual), then at a minimum having that money go into a second bank account is as simple as filing out a form with your employer. It's amazing how quickly the money will pile up if you just forget all about it. People who honestly struggle to find $50 of unwisely-spent money per month are either very young or have spent a life messing up. It's really hard to not be able to save for retirement in the US over a 40+ year career. Like, you have to be going out of your way to make poor choices. The people spending 40+ years making poor choices then turn around and expect everyone else to provide for them in retirement. The audacity is increadible...
  - marssaxman 2y ago
    Oh, well, have fun feeling superior, I suppose; your perspective is not going to help you understand why people who have not been quite so fortunate as you have tend to make the kinds of decisions that we do.
    - 2y ago