How Following Others Will Leave You Broke

This is some clever self-parody.

The outer wrapper: science-flavored with no actual science.

It warms you up with feel-good nonsense designed to flatter the listener for being a responsible rich person and/or smarter than all those foolish poseurs with their fancy cars and houses.

Then telling you to avoid overt advertising because (the article claims) it just flatters your ego to trick you into buying something, followed by ...

New Age hokum repackaged as Buddhism lecture you're going to nod politely at as you scroll through without reading.

... and the punchline is an affiliate ad to buy enlightenment for $12

p.s. Overt advertising is a way of buying a piece of culture, you don't literally need to believe it for it to work so don't be smug if you don't "fall" for it. Affiliate marketing like this is a direct assault on your brain. This is the evil advertising you should be ignoring, not the "expensive stuff is expensive" ads they use as examples.

>Stay Away from High-Income Neighborhoods

I don't generally struggle too much with the pull towards 'lifestyle inflation', but I have to say that after living in a dumpy neighborhood for several years, moving to a nicer area this year is something I've appreciated every single day.

There are trees and parks, lots of businesses and services right nearby, I save nearly an hour of each day with a shorter commute, it's quiet and clean and I feel safe walking around at night. Dollar for dollar the value has been very high for me, and I'm so thankful to have the means to choose where I want to live.

Just doesn't compute. We live in what the author would call a high income neighbourhood but that's because we wanted to live walking/bike distance to everything, which turns out to be a pretty frugal way to live. We have an old beater for a car and have never had any intention of trying to keep up with the rest of the street/neighbourhood. We see a lot of fancy around the place but meh.

A Dialogue from fight club movie: ==================================

Tyler Durden: Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

This was quite a good read.

Since this is HN, it may be a good idea to port this to the tech community:

> Keeping up with the latest framework

I interviewed at a company that jumped on Silverlight on the very first day because they wanted to be "edgy". One of the interviewers was telling me how they used all resources to convert their enterprise CMS. But now most people left and they are having a hard time finding people who can convert it back.

You should never model your life based on others' expectations.

You should certainly model it based on your own wants and preferences, but after giving it some thought first because what you think you want and why isn't necessarily what you really want and why.

For example, what does wealth mean? For someone, it can be that you can buy a BMW. However, if you want to buy a BMW you're never just buying a BMW: you're buying something else that actually satisfies you. The BMW is just a symbolic token for what you really want. If you know what that is then you also know whether buying that BMW is the right choice. It might be the perfect symbol for freedom or whatever in your life. Then go buy it. But you might be longing for something else and buying the car wouldn't eventually make you happier. Then you would be looking for something else again but as long as you don't know what you really want, you'll be shooting in the dark.

For me, wealth is independence. The more independent I am the wealthier I am. In corollary, people with FU money are the richest people on the Earth on that scale. Myself, I'd happily live cheaply if that meant I could basically choose what to do instead of having to work to keep up with my spending. Once in a while I count how much would I need to own to produce capital income that would give me a basic standard of living and the money for some hobbies I'm interested in without constantly having to think much about money.

Maybe status is worth something for someone. Maybe if you show status (buy that BMW) and hang around with people wealthier than you, some of it actually sticks and you gain even higher income and status because of your connections, eventually. Or maybe, by looking for other people's acceptance by the token of status, you're just trying to find a way to convince yourself that you're perfectly okay yourself and accepted just as you are. Then it might be less painful to deal with that first instead of hunting status for half of your life.

For a better take on this, read Stanley's "The Millionare Next Door". That book is based on actual research and interviews with large numbers of people. There are many people who have money, but don't show it.

Ok, what are you supposed to spend your money on then? I wonder if the author realizes you can't take your money with you when you die. Is the point of money to just accumulate it and then pass off the balance to someone else?

Even if you have rock solid financial security, it'll one day be shattered when your health inevitably becomes poor and you die. Your net worth will become zero no matter what you do.

An insightful read. May be the author should add facebook to the list of things to avoid.

I get it, but it's a very one sided view that doesn't account for the value of a capital asset. Despite the greatest real-estate crash in the history of the US in which only one of my bordering neighbors didn't go into foreclosure, my $500K home, just eight years after I bought it has appreciated a bit more than 5% a year and before the crash was going up between 10-15% a year. Considering my loan has been at 2.65% (I got lucky with a non-subprime ARM which adjusted down) and property taxes are at 0.7% it's been a much better investment than a less expensive home. Yeah, it worked out for me, but it turns out it worked for all of my neighbors who also weathered the storm as well as a lot of other people through history.

> We are hard-wired to follow crowds. That’s what ensured our survival in the past. We have mirror neurons in our brain. The sole purpose of these neurons is to mimic other people’s behavior (and choices). Your willpower does not stand a chance against thousands of years of evolution.

This is not entirely correct. I mean it`d be difficult but not impossible.

Some things that you buy have massive utility. A nice house can improve family dynamics, a big garden can make your kids healthy, a nice suit (and watch) can get you a better job.

Some things are silly, but alot depends on who you are and what your plan is.

Duh, you should live how you want to, not how others want you to live.

Also you should not date/marry a girl which only likes you if you drive a specific car A, live in neighboorhood B, earn C and maintain society status Z.

You should work on your social skills if you can only get your neighbours to like you if you drive the same car as them or earn more/thesame than them. If they really dislike you because you are poorer than them or drive an older yet safe car they aren't worth the effort.

Listen to what I say to you, you really shouldn't listen to what others say, do you hear me?

I like the example Rolex ad "Checking his watch costs Bill Gates $300 a second. What is your time worth?"

To me the answer is "why are people checking their watches? They are losing money." Probably not the conclusion a watch company wants to draw.

HN lately: http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/585083/airplane-fight-o.gif

Same ideas as the The Millionaire Next Door.

i would spend my bottom dollar living in the best neighborhood i can afford.

i seriously doubt this guy has ever left the US.

For those expecting a pop news cover of a research article, it isnt. It's a blog post.