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Interesting article, and it would do well for most people to consider increasing wealth through investments. From the article: Our bread-and-butter living expe

Interesting article, and it would do well for most people to consider increasing wealth through investments. From the article: Our bread-and-butter living expenses are paid for by a single rental house we own, which generates about $25,000 per year after expenses. One nit, perhaps, on that - is the rental house completely managed by someone else? If not, I assume there is at least some minimal amount of work associated with being a landlord... so I would hesitate to call him fully retired, such that he does not need to do any work for money. The other thing I always think when I read articles such as this - if everyone took such advice and eschewed purchases (cars, lattes, drive-throughs, etc..), I would imagine unemployment would increase dramatically. However, it is safe to give such advice, because it is enough of a sacrifice / delayed satisfaction that it is unlikely to get enough people following the advice to negatively impact the economy. But someone needs to buy the stuff that is made, for the makers to have jobs!

sebastianavina 13y ago
Lets be fair, I'm 28 y/o, and fairly rich, I love to work, and I live to work, and maybe it's the only thing I may do ever in my life. I could sell all of my bussiness, I could lease the buildings, and retire. But doing nothing is the hardest work I've ever do. I took a sabatic year after I graduated from college, traveled around the world, fucked some really beautiful girls, and after livining a dream-life, my life became quite frustrating. This guy wont last too long retired, because, after all, he will just grow tired of playing golf, and doing nothing.
- citricsquid 13y ago
  1. He said that he doesn't consider retirement to mean no longer working, he considers retirement to be a lack of reliance on work to live. He has the option to never work again. 2. He (MMM) is 39 now, he's been retired for almost a decade. The article addresses "doing nothing", he does lots of things.
  - sebastianavina 13y ago
    I born on a middle class family. From the day I born, I already had a pretty decent way of life. Started developing web pages just for fun, took control of the family bussiness at a very early age, and today I'm what most people could call a rich guy, way more up on the social ladder than 10 years ago. Retiring as this guy has been an option since the day I born, I just born in a "goldend cradle". When I graduated from College / Grad School (I'm from Mexico, things work somewhat different here), I had been developing web pages and software for about 9 years, and I was tired of dealing with customers, providers, and programming at all. I tried very hard to retire. I traveled around the world, meet some wonderful people, then I returned to my home town, played tennis, frontenis, golf, I went party all night every day I could. And it was one of the most tedious works I've ever done. After about 15 months, I was tired of my "great life", and I started working on the family bussiness. It's been the best thing on my life. I'm still single (almost 29 right now), I've already purchased my own house, the company is growing every day more, I feel so happy I can't even explain it. I could sell all the machinery, lease the buildings, and go back to doing nothing, but, really, working, is one of the biggest pleasures of life. EDIT: On your definition "retirement to be a lack of reliance on work to live." I've been retired since the day I born.
- doorhammer 13y ago
  "I really like Great American road trips, where we bring tents and mountain bikes and stay in a bunch of beautiful places, riding the wilderness trails in each. In big cities, we’ll still get a hotel in a nice spot and bike around to explore the city, but the real joy for me comes whenever I get a chance to put some effort into the vacation — either physical or mental, like figuring out how to make blackened fish tacos on a camp stove." I think he probably does more than play golf and do nothing
- consz 13y ago
  Please read the article before posting next time.
- twelvechairs 13y ago
  Hey mate - not everyone has to be like you you know.... Enjoy your own successes and whatever makes you happy, but don't take the success of others away just because they take joy in different things to yourself.
  - encoderer 13y ago
    Ok, I didn't love the GPs attitude but what you're criticizing him for is basically exactly what MMM did throughout this bio.
- carbocation 13y ago
  > fucked some really beautiful girls I downvoted you for this crass sexist drivel that drags down the level of discourse.
  - guylhem 13y ago
    If it was about guys, written by a female poster, would you have downvoted it too ? If it was about guys, written by a make poster, would you have downvoted it too ? Where exactly is the crass sexist drivel ? the "fuck" word ? Upvoted both you guys to compensate. Context is important. Here the poster only said he was intimate with members of the oppositive sex, who were attractive. Nonthing crass, just fact contributing to the discussions and saying why he recommends against that.
    - gknoy 13y ago
      The crassness is, I presume, in the fact that he even mentioned it. He might have used different verbs: met, spent time with, dated. I'm not sure _why_ that's impolite to speak of, but it certainly seems to be that way in most peoples' books.
  - lucaspiller 13y ago
    ++ Also it sounds like he leads a pretty lonely life IMO, and he sounds like he has some ego issues. If he is truly happy though, fair play, but I don't really believe that is the case...
- epo 13y ago
  Pix or GTFO. You're a fantasist wannabe moron, go away.
kragen 13y ago
If everyone took such advice, they'd all be working for only ten or fifteen out of their 80 years of life, instead of 40 or 45. So you'd only need a third as many total jobs to provide full employment. And those jobs would be focused on things that actually benefit their consumers.
- 6d0debc071 13y ago
  The person renting has to make their money from somewhere - it can't be rental properties all the way down the heap. Oh there's something to be said for living within your means, certainly. People seem to waste a lot of money on things that don't really make them happy. But it seems to me that people with relatively high areas of local utility probably shouldn't start talking about how everyone can act - their solution may not scale well.
  - kragen 13y ago
    True enough. You can't have everyone owning two full-time-occupied houses; the mean number of full-time-occupied houses owned per capita by the population has to be 1, modulo things like abandonment and cohousing. But you probably could have 90% of the adult population living off investments. With AI it could be 100%.
PKop 13y ago
I think if economic activity was reorganized around fundamental necessities (to a higher degree, I don't mean to a strict 100% extent) in aggregate this country would benefit by having investment and resources directed towards more productive ends. Certainly there would be short term friction associated with any type of restructuring like that, but better in the long run. Related to that he mentions the idea of income taxes replaced with sales taxes which I think is a great idea, incentivizing investment and savings over consumption.
jasonhanley 13y ago
Yeah, he's definitely not "retired" if he's managing even one rental property. It's not full time work, but it can take up quite a bit of time in spurts -- especially if you do maintenance and repair work yourself.

sebastianavina 13y ago

Lets be fair, I'm 28 y/o, and fairly rich, I love to work, and I live to work, and maybe it's the only thing I may do ever in my life. I could sell all of my bussiness, I could lease the buildings, and retire. But doing nothing is the hardest work I've ever do. I took a sabatic year after I graduated from college, traveled around the world, fucked some really beautiful girls, and after livining a dream-life, my life became quite frustrating. This guy wont last too long retired, because, after all, he will just grow tired of playing golf, and doing nothing.

citricsquid 13y ago
1. He said that he doesn't consider retirement to mean no longer working, he considers retirement to be a lack of reliance on work to live. He has the option to never work again. 2. He (MMM) is 39 now, he's been retired for almost a decade. The article addresses "doing nothing", he does lots of things.
- sebastianavina 13y ago
  I born on a middle class family. From the day I born, I already had a pretty decent way of life. Started developing web pages just for fun, took control of the family bussiness at a very early age, and today I'm what most people could call a rich guy, way more up on the social ladder than 10 years ago. Retiring as this guy has been an option since the day I born, I just born in a "goldend cradle". When I graduated from College / Grad School (I'm from Mexico, things work somewhat different here), I had been developing web pages and software for about 9 years, and I was tired of dealing with customers, providers, and programming at all. I tried very hard to retire. I traveled around the world, meet some wonderful people, then I returned to my home town, played tennis, frontenis, golf, I went party all night every day I could. And it was one of the most tedious works I've ever done. After about 15 months, I was tired of my "great life", and I started working on the family bussiness. It's been the best thing on my life. I'm still single (almost 29 right now), I've already purchased my own house, the company is growing every day more, I feel so happy I can't even explain it. I could sell all the machinery, lease the buildings, and go back to doing nothing, but, really, working, is one of the biggest pleasures of life. EDIT: On your definition "retirement to be a lack of reliance on work to live." I've been retired since the day I born.
doorhammer 13y ago
"I really like Great American road trips, where we bring tents and mountain bikes and stay in a bunch of beautiful places, riding the wilderness trails in each. In big cities, we’ll still get a hotel in a nice spot and bike around to explore the city, but the real joy for me comes whenever I get a chance to put some effort into the vacation — either physical or mental, like figuring out how to make blackened fish tacos on a camp stove." I think he probably does more than play golf and do nothing
consz 13y ago
Please read the article before posting next time.
twelvechairs 13y ago
Hey mate - not everyone has to be like you you know.... Enjoy your own successes and whatever makes you happy, but don't take the success of others away just because they take joy in different things to yourself.
- encoderer 13y ago
  Ok, I didn't love the GPs attitude but what you're criticizing him for is basically exactly what MMM did throughout this bio.
carbocation 13y ago
> fucked some really beautiful girls I downvoted you for this crass sexist drivel that drags down the level of discourse.
- guylhem 13y ago
  If it was about guys, written by a female poster, would you have downvoted it too ? If it was about guys, written by a make poster, would you have downvoted it too ? Where exactly is the crass sexist drivel ? the "fuck" word ? Upvoted both you guys to compensate. Context is important. Here the poster only said he was intimate with members of the oppositive sex, who were attractive. Nonthing crass, just fact contributing to the discussions and saying why he recommends against that.
  - gknoy 13y ago
    The crassness is, I presume, in the fact that he even mentioned it. He might have used different verbs: met, spent time with, dated. I'm not sure _why_ that's impolite to speak of, but it certainly seems to be that way in most peoples' books.
- lucaspiller 13y ago
  ++ Also it sounds like he leads a pretty lonely life IMO, and he sounds like he has some ego issues. If he is truly happy though, fair play, but I don't really believe that is the case...
epo 13y ago
Pix or GTFO. You're a fantasist wannabe moron, go away.

kragen 13y ago

If everyone took such advice, they'd all be working for only ten or fifteen out of their 80 years of life, instead of 40 or 45. So you'd only need a third as many total jobs to provide full employment. And those jobs would be focused on things that actually benefit their consumers.

6d0debc071 13y ago
The person renting has to make their money from somewhere - it can't be rental properties all the way down the heap. Oh there's something to be said for living within your means, certainly. People seem to waste a lot of money on things that don't really make them happy. But it seems to me that people with relatively high areas of local utility probably shouldn't start talking about how everyone can act - their solution may not scale well.
- kragen 13y ago
  True enough. You can't have everyone owning two full-time-occupied houses; the mean number of full-time-occupied houses owned per capita by the population has to be 1, modulo things like abandonment and cohousing. But you probably could have 90% of the adult population living off investments. With AI it could be 100%.

PKop 13y ago

I think if economic activity was reorganized around fundamental necessities (to a higher degree, I don't mean to a strict 100% extent) in aggregate this country would benefit by having investment and resources directed towards more productive ends. Certainly there would be short term friction associated with any type of restructuring like that, but better in the long run. Related to that he mentions the idea of income taxes replaced with sales taxes which I think is a great idea, incentivizing investment and savings over consumption.

jasonhanley 13y ago

Yeah, he's definitely not "retired" if he's managing even one rental property. It's not full time work, but it can take up quite a bit of time in spurts -- especially if you do maintenance and repair work yourself.