A sudden loss of wealth may be hazardous to health
latimes.com
latimes.com
The cart seems to be before the horse here, in at least some cases. One of the most reliable ways to experience a negative wealth shock is to incur a big medical bill. E.g. if someone develops cancer, it's reasonably likely that they will experience a negative wealth shock and then die, but the loss of money did not cause the death.
The study itself[1] does mention medical debts as a considered liability, but (at least from my skim) I didn't find any other reference to this explanation.
[1]-https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2677445
When there are obvious mechanisms for reverse causation, while the mechanism for the claimed causation is speculative, be skeptical.
That is not the case in many places.
I've implemented another suggestion for how to avoid the need for them, though. Thanks!
Surround the quote with asterisks, and prefix it with > to get the result above.
> As bad as things were for those who experienced a "negative wealth shock," they were even worse for Americans who didn't have any wealth in the first place.
https://dqydj.com/net-worth-brackets-wealth-brackets-one-per...
Even if you're sanguine enough to accept a loss in status, having your spouse leave you and your kids hate you make it that much more difficult. Even if you don't actually commit suicide, you'll stop maintaining your health and before you know it, you're in an early grave.
Fixing this would mean telling Americans to stop caring about status, I don't see that happening for at least another hundred years.
Is relationship of the magnitude that could impact these results?
- Do NOT touch IRAs or any other asset that might be protected during bankruptcy (i.e., don't liquidate everything in a futile attempt to keep up with the medical bills).
- Pay as little as you can get away with on those medical bills during treatment. Then sort it all out in bankruptcy court.
That sounds like a good strategy anyway, since you can't ever be sure a procedure will fix a problem, even if it should, so future expenses are a fairly open question.
You don't have a lot of options if after your first medical solution you've paid everyone in full and are out of money but the problem isn't resolved, but frugal rationing of payments might mean you have quite a few tries before your funds are exhausted (even if you've left a trail of partially paid bills).
Unfortunately, I imagine the length of time involved means it's probably tricky to prevent past bills being reported as debt that might affect future actions.
It can take 2-3 months before you get a bill after medical treatment add another 60-90 days before it's very late and you have 6 months or so before your credit get's trashed assuming zero payment.
However, partial payments can push this out much further. Remember, companies don't want to sell you debt as they only get a fraction of it's total value so work with them. So, paying say 1% per month is often enough to avoid sending a very large bill to collections.
> Third, despite adjusting for conditions that frequently precipitate wealth shocks, including marital disruption, unemployment, and a variety of health status and access to care indicators, residual confounding is likely.
They adjusted for it, but maybe not enough.
(I'm not trying to detract from the paper, studying and quantifying the obvious is just as important as replication studies)
And that the median amount lost was 92% ($101K)... implying they went from about $109K net worth to $8K on median.
That would be pretty stressful for sure.
I'd venture to guess wealth volatility is far lower.
I suspect that it has to do with whether or not the original windfall was due to luck or if there was an actual strategy behind it.
For ex. I’ve learned to eat only Huel, oranges, dates, potatos, coffee, and a bag of chips or vegan cookie each day for the past 4-5mo. Grew up poor on frozen/fast food, moved to SF and became a foodie for a couple years, started using Blue Apron/Plated to learn cooking, later switched to Vegge option, and now have above diet. I am a foodie when I go out, but instead of 2x daily it’s more like quarterly. Wide spectrum, common denominator is addiction to vivid clean feeling from fresh food and 16/8 intermittent fasting.
I also find that sleeping on the floor is most comfortable now with low body fat (inspired by Korean friends in Uni), so I’ve put my bed against a wall ~3mo ago and doubled my 350sqft premium SF space.
The biggest hazard is emotional health. Friends and ex-colleagues use the time to point out the flaws that have led to and caused the event, in their view. Talking about it with others in general terms sounds like complaining and that’s why people don’t talk about it openly, much. And it is a waste of time, perhaps beyond once to get it off the chest. All one can do is look forward with a new plan in response to the change... lean into it.
Mind > matter, poverty can be illuminating with right priorities.
You mean, you saw your altcoins go down 80%+ ?
All of those hormones cause fatigue when not regulated correctly.
You can get them tested at privatemdlabs.com and get the blood tests locally at any LabCorp.
(this is just a suggestion that ended up useful for me and I am not a doctor)
I currently am choosing to live in a way that minimizes the amount of money I make/spend, as well as property I own. I meet my needs through the supportive community I've found, by asking for what I need, work-trading, and signing up for government services.
My life is better than it's ever been, but I had to change my entire mindset. An old friend in the same community hasn't adopted my approach and hasn't worked on leaving behind the scarcity mindset. They worry about everything, including keeping their job. It leads them to act in ways that keep them employed, eating right, and socializing.
This kind of self-imposed stress we adopt over money isn't productive.
Capitalism is a collective choice and very few people take responsibility for making it.
I lost my home. I learned to accept my situation. I was lucky enough to be able to move to a state where the state covers medical bills. I'm starting a family and there's such an abundance of things in the world that I tend to need only ask for them.
Learning to grieve & let go of the loss of a resource and how to ask for help are skills not often taught in modern society.
Yes, the events you note are hard and can be out of people's control.
How those people mentally respond to them is something they can control to a degree and develop resiliency for.
Minimizing one's participation can be done through making conscious choices. I choose to keep my income and expenses small. I rely on sharing what I have and asking others to give. I choose to believe there's enough resources in the world for everyone, though the distribution of the resources may lead to localized scarcity.
I'll also be testing the legal theory of the freedom from money. I practice a religion of my own design where that freedom naturally arises from foundational principles.
I can choose which direction I want to move toward and so can you.
Simply because I can't guarantee 100% extraction from capitalism at the moment doesn't mean I can't start moving away from it.
Me otherwise, had a really bad time when I lost my job last year. The mind goes first and then the body follows the same path.