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Past food and shelter, people need leisure as part of a healthy lifestyle. Spending excess money on drinks and video games is not simply a matter of being to u

Past food and shelter, people need leisure as part of a healthy lifestyle. Spending excess money on drinks and video games is not simply a matter of being to undisciplined, it's a real need, just one that can be put off. Putting it off indefinitely to invest is not healthy. The people who are actually wealthy are the people who buy their booze and video games, or the equivalent, and then still have something left over to invest. The other reality is that it doesn't significantly matter if you invest that $100/month that you'd otherwise spend on beer and food. If you invest 1200/year into mutual funds every month for 20 years and make 10% per year, sure, you'll make yourself some $70,000 over those 20 years, but that's not going to make you change from being lower middle class. You can do something riskier, but what happens if that fails? And all the while you've denied yourself the simple pleasures of drinking a beer and playing video games at the end of the day. It's discouraging because no matter how hard you save, when you start at 0, and earn a wage, you aren't going to touch the levels of wealth that some of these people have. But we still like to tell people if only they remove all of the extravagant things from their lives, like nights out with friends and hobbies, that they will get rich too. But it's not true, it's not even close. There's no way that you could ever work as an employee and make a billion dollars without either very risky and lucky investment, or a CEO's salary. And if you get into the position where you could get yourself to billionaire status, you won't be in the position where you have to give up booze or video games to do it.

Loughla 13y ago
You don't start at 0. You start in the negatives. Those that are uber wealthy tend to start with a massive, massive head start. Combine massive debt loads, poor job prospects, and you get a hopeless generation of youth. They would rather buy video games and beer to forget about how crappy their life is than to invest and plan for the future. Basic human tendency is to ignore and/or avoid pain.
microcolonel 13y ago
You don't need to pay for leisure, there are tonnes of free concerts, free activities(like playing frisbee with strangers in the park), plenty of fountains etc. You /certainly/ don't need to drink booze to live a rich life, I'd be miserable if that were the case. While it is nice to be able to pick your vices and have funds left over, that's just not a realistic way for most people to live their lives. Nobody starts at zero by the way, you start much of the way to the junction point of life enjoyment, I'm not sure how reliable these studies are, but some suggest that enjoyment in relation to wealth follows a law of diminishing returns, with a juncture around $80-100k(I don't remember the exact figures); so ostensibly the goal is not to become the richest man on earth from a homeless orphan, but to gravitate toward that juncture.
kamaal 13y ago
>>Spending excess money on drinks and video games is not simply a matter of being to undisciplined, it's a real need Sorry but this is the most absurd statement I've read today. I'm not sure why this happens to most people, but they are deluded to think that small leaks here and there don't matter. While the fact is that preventing those small leaks and then saving that money is all that matters sometimes. In my country(India) its often a heart burn to most people when they realize some one earning 1/10th their income is financially light years ahead only because over the past two decades, they invested the money they consider 'leaks' buying stuff like real estate, generating rent income and reinvesting that money to buy more real estate. Or Gold. You will be surprised how far you can by just routinely investing small money. >> There's no way that you could ever work as an employee and make a billion dollars without either very risky and lucky investment, or a CEO's salary. You can never devise a general strategy to achieve exceptional goals. But in most common cases saving and investing a little routinely will keep you rich. You can choose not to believe in it, or you can believe in it and do it. Either way you will know. You will get rich yourself or you will see someone else getting rich. In things like these time can be a big factor(Think compounding). Those who started early are mid way, and soon will be ahead.

Loughla 13y ago

You don't start at 0. You start in the negatives. Those that are uber wealthy tend to start with a massive, massive head start. Combine massive debt loads, poor job prospects, and you get a hopeless generation of youth. They would rather buy video games and beer to forget about how crappy their life is than to invest and plan for the future. Basic human tendency is to ignore and/or avoid pain.

microcolonel 13y ago

You don't need to pay for leisure, there are tonnes of free concerts, free activities(like playing frisbee with strangers in the park), plenty of fountains etc. You /certainly/ don't need to drink booze to live a rich life, I'd be miserable if that were the case. While it is nice to be able to pick your vices and have funds left over, that's just not a realistic way for most people to live their lives. Nobody starts at zero by the way, you start much of the way to the junction point of life enjoyment, I'm not sure how reliable these studies are, but some suggest that enjoyment in relation to wealth follows a law of diminishing returns, with a juncture around $80-100k(I don't remember the exact figures); so ostensibly the goal is not to become the richest man on earth from a homeless orphan, but to gravitate toward that juncture.

kamaal 13y ago

>>Spending excess money on drinks and video games is not simply a matter of being to undisciplined, it's a real need Sorry but this is the most absurd statement I've read today. I'm not sure why this happens to most people, but they are deluded to think that small leaks here and there don't matter. While the fact is that preventing those small leaks and then saving that money is all that matters sometimes. In my country(India) its often a heart burn to most people when they realize some one earning 1/10th their income is financially light years ahead only because over the past two decades, they invested the money they consider 'leaks' buying stuff like real estate, generating rent income and reinvesting that money to buy more real estate. Or Gold. You will be surprised how far you can by just routinely investing small money. >> There's no way that you could ever work as an employee and make a billion dollars without either very risky and lucky investment, or a CEO's salary. You can never devise a general strategy to achieve exceptional goals. But in most common cases saving and investing a little routinely will keep you rich. You can choose not to believe in it, or you can believe in it and do it. Either way you will know. You will get rich yourself or you will see someone else getting rich. In things like these time can be a big factor(Think compounding). Those who started early are mid way, and soon will be ahead.