How do you prevent becoming discouraged or distracted when there seems like so many opportunities calling and so many people doing better
I give you an example. I have a couple of friends with two kids. They have an amazing FB/Instagram feed. You immediately see a wonderful model family living in a beautiful house, traveling together, enjoying every moment together, all smiling. It seems like they are always having fun in all possible places (it made my other friend who can't have kids a bit depressed).
One day I decided to visit their house and was a bit shocked. The kids were basically terrorizing the family. The father was half-alive but trying to smile all the time, sometimes unsuccessfully. The whole house was very cold because they spent too much on it and couldn't afford heating it adequately. But the most depressing was a bad smell from nearby chimneys of their neighbors. Apparently they couldn't do anything about. For me it was a living hell, I couldn't live in such a place for one day.
Reality is they have a very low income. With a double mortgage on their house. And blew through an inheritance. Have trouble keeping up with repairs, roof, etc. With an uncertain financial future, they are always in a state of worry.
To be fair, I have a job and I'm cheap. I still have these concerns.
I basically used it as a benchmark and never even saved a single wallet file, it was worthless junk data at the time since no one was even sure it was going to be worth something.
It’s taken years since the first booms past $10k but I’m pretty zen now about the fact I threw away what was basically a hybrid between Schrödinger’s cat and a lottery ticket that one day turned into stuff worth a couple hundred of million dollars.
Edit: hope no one thinks I mean this in a “at least you only lost $20k” or “you think that’s bad” sort of way. I definitely have a sympathy for that feeling of loss, and share this story to highlight just how impossible it can be to predicted future value. There are lots of similar stories about startups like Dropbox trying to sell to Apple, or Blockbuster passing on Netflix and the list goes on. The lesson is to be accept the outcome of your past choices as the right one at the time (as long as there’s no real direct negative repercussions, but there’s not normally when it comes to investments) and be happy you got what you did from your choice at the time… be it a lawn ornament, paperweight, some deeper knowledge of Linux clusters, or a few thousand dollars.
If I did this back then, I would've sold in 2012/2013 for like $10 and made a couple hundred/thousand in college and thought I was rich.
Then now I'd prob be neurotically depressed thinking about how I could've had hundreds of mil lol.
It's a blessing dude.
I had my fun and learned some cool stuff. It’s been the anchor I hold whenever I notice the price of Bitcoin and do the trivial multiplication between the current cost of Bitcoin and what I remember roughly mining all those years ago. But like I said, regular exposure to the ideal does help. It’s much easier to come to terms with “loosing”/not acquiring a thousand dollars or ten thousand or a hundred thousand before it turns into millions of dollars than it is to come to terms with suddenly discovering that something you discarded and never thought about is worth a hundred million.
If I had that, I would dig my old hardware and tried all the tools I could find to scan drives for remnants of the wallet file(s). Maybe even wrote my own.
This is fixable, but requires central air in the house. Just don't ever open your windows in the smog season, and have all air intake go through a set of filters (before it's pumped into the rooms) which take out all particles and smells. Not the cheapest thing to buy and install, but should solve the problem.
But on a less depressing note, I suggest paying less attention to the areas where people are “getting rich.” Money isn’t the measure of true value and you will rarely find a correlation between wealth and wisdom.
First, high inflation is good for holders of some financial assets (e.g. stocks) and bad for others (bonds). It's good for existing borrowers and bad for existing lenders. It's good for those in debt and bad for those who saved cash. Essentially, high inflation punishes financial frugality and rewards financial speculation.
Second, massive inflation-caused economic collapse is highly unlikely in any developed nation today. The more likely path is either 1) reasonable economic growth with high inflation (say 5% to 10%) or 2) economic stagnation similar to what Japan has experienced for the last few decades.
Be aware that the people predicting debt-fueled hyperinflation-style economic doom & gloom have been doing so for nearly half a century now. They have been saying it's a few years away for decades. Every recession they say "we were right, it'll just get worse!" They have been wrong every time for 40 years. Maybe they'll be right in the coming few decades... but I wouldn't bet my financial future on it.
My broader point is simply that the rich today are succeeding in a system which might not be stable in a few decades.
Oh, and debt levels are high because rates and inflation is low.
And as far as I know, millennials are economically worse off than their boomer parents.
People get richer but they optimize their tax burden. Remember, debt creates money. There is always enough money in the economy to repay all debts. Interest merely circulates a few times between bank and debtor which may require some inflation but not hyperinflation. There might not be enough tax revenue when those with enough money stop paying them. This causes an excessive tax burden on the working upper class, the middle class and below while Gates and Jeff Bezos earn money off of the appreciation of land which has a much lower tax burden.
People started measuring their wealth through the monopoly of land. Since land is in finite supply inefficient land use and speculation have become profitable because there is an underlying economic rent to be extorted out of people living on or near the land. Governments spend millions or billions on infrastructure only to see untaxed land values go up.
Work piling. Either you get a job or not. The threat of unemployment causes desperation and extreme competition for low skilled jobs while employers start demanding degrees for all the "good jobs" which are locked behind other forms of monopolies like college education and medical licensing. If work was shared among people then we could have a shorter working week like all those economists talking about a 15 hour work week (ok it would be 30 hours or more but still). This is especially pronounced because low skill workers not only compete with other Americans, they also compete with every low skill worker around the world. You need an unfair moat to compete in such a world.
It's the opposite. There half a dozen extremely serious economic problems at the root of the system that were papered over during the WW2 rebuilding of the economy (because growth is easy if you start from nothing) and all the things you worry about are merely their symptoms.
The best plan as far as I can tell is to be diversified in investments. A home + mortgage protects against inflation, a reasonable mix of stocks and bonds are solid financial investments, enough cash for a good emergency fund, and holding a small % of hard assets and crypto is not a bad idea.
In short, "nobody knows nothing" and we can just invest a little in everything and hope for the best :)
When things like national debt far outstrips GDP and everything is hyperleveraged, it seems the way out so far has been to create more.
High interest rates will devastate parts of the economy, but that's a different and more well known problem.
The Federal debt needs to be rolled over every now and then. At certain interest rates, the costs of servicing the debt become unacceptably high. Where is that 'breaking point'? If you see some serious analysis of this, please let me know.
But there is a higher bound to which the Fed can feasibly raise interest rates. So it is possible that the Fed will be forced to choose between keeping rates low, keep buying Treasuries and destroy the dollar through runaway inflation, or raise interest rates and bankrupt the US government.
The Fed sets a different rate, one that banks use to lend money to each other. It forms kind of a floor for lending. They raise it to reduce lending, and thus slowing down the economy in general (and thus reducing inflation).
They've kept the latter at nearly zero -- arguably for the not-great reason of propping up assets. If anything, raising that would make bonds more attractive relative to stocks, dropping the interest rate further. Instead, we've gotten inflation, but only in the asset markets, not consumer inflation.
They actually wanted consumer inflation to be higher, so that consumers would be forced to put their money in asset markets rather than holding it in cash. They've finally gotten their wish, though it's likely that it is due more to pandemic-related shutdowns than to monetary-based demand.
Short-term treasuries and the fed rate are also directly related. Increase the fed fund rate, and short-term treasury interest rates will have to go up as well to remain competitive.
Go back 40-50 years and you can find people that said the same thing then. Things looked a lot bleaker than today. Gas shortages in the 70s, interest rates of more than 15% in the 80s, cold war, etc.
A safety razor and a 1,000 pack of blades is a recent purchase. Properly maintained, it will last forever, which will come in handy when Schick razors are $25 each.
I’m not sure how that scales up to $50k or $100k but it’s a starting point.
This subreddit is a good place to get ideas: https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/
The question is, how is that scenario supposed to happen and even if it did, why not just invest into farms? Is the government going to repossess all the land off the "white colonialists" and give it to native americans? If yes then the country didn't fall because of hyperinflation, hyperinflation was the symptom like every other country where the problems happened first and then the symptoms came.
Monopolists not only includes the rich but also average home owners whose land is appreciating absurdly quickly. The problem isn't with negative interest rates or inflation because those merely break the monopoly power of money.
I'm not sure this is true.
The problem with 'joining in with the fools' is that it relies on the 'greater fool theory' to make superior returns. And you could well end up being the 'greater fool'.
What happens when the money supply is high is that banks can then grant cheap loans to people or institutions who are solvable. So they give loans to already rich entities who then invest into all kinds of stuff.
The idea behind pumping cash into the economy is that the cash eventually flows into financing actual real world activity. And it actually works, the crises happened but the economy recovered fast.
But a side effect is that a lot of that cash also goes into raw speculation. crypto, real estate, collectibles. And because so many people are doing it, it creates a bubble which means more people and more cash go into these up-spiraling dreams.
But yes at some point money will get tighter, cheap loans will have to be repaid, and the bubbles will deflate.
Hopefully inflation and taxes on capital would erode all those wins and life will go back to “normal”. But yes that’s optimistic and we’re talking at least 20 years.
I'm quite open about my poverty. People literally do not want to hear it.
you are interested to me, not because you are poor but because of what you achieve while being poor.
(And if I could choose I'd rather w7sh you were not poor.)
On the other hand, I still can't pay my bills and the absence of millions of dollars worth of medical care and an early death falls under "absence of evidence" or some garbage. It does nothing to give me credibility.
It's a nice little headfuck that has one silver lining: I am not impressed by anyone's net worth. Period. End of sentence.
The Germans would say "Ownership has its responsibilities".
the lottery effect
Just try your best and try not to compare yourself to other people as best you can. I find it helpful to think about history and intellectually satisfying things like math -- things that sort of transcend time. It gives me some perspective.
Same with people posting fancy pictures on instagram.
You don’t see that they have a chronic but unseen illness, and that their children hate them, for example.
Specifically though when I see people who have accumulated much more wealth than I have, often they’ve been doing it much longer. It makes more sense when I remind myself that. And yeah I could have started saving/investing earlier, but if the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, the 2nd best time is today.
And how do you do that? Aye, there's the rub. I think you do it by having your identity and your happiness somewhere else. You need more than just "not there". You need a specific somewhere else.
For me, it's in Jesus Christ and his love for me. (I recognize that most people here won't grab that as their answer...)
I don't know why but everyone seems to forget that the average human becomes amazing (not the best) given enough time and opportunity to develop.
Being the best version of yourself. If your IQ is too low, the first step is to improve it. Hard work.
Also think about that it’s easier to find true friendship when you have little more to offer than yourself.
Basically stop glorifying material wealth. I know, easier said than done :)
The real problem is that during inflation and negative interest rates monopolies like land become stronger and can take a bigger chunk of your income.
I'm not saying to jump in - the crash my come tomorrow. Or I'm not saying don't jump in - the asset prices may melt up with inflation and people who were out are left poorer. There are risks either way.
This doesn't apply to the high paying jobs I think. There you just have to decide what you really want and be happy with what you can get. As many other comments say, money doesn't equal happiness.
Lots of people make lots of money and then don't hang onto it. Lots of people who seem to be doing well aren't. It's sometimes all appearances.
I definitely need more money than I've got but... I am not overly impressed with the people who "have dozens of friends and the fun never ends, that is as long as they're buying."
There's also the great song "You don't know how it feels (to be me)" by Tom Petty.
I know a very wealthy man. I once asked him what the secret to becoming wealthy is. He responded "You're not going to believe me, but this is the truth. It's very simple. Spend less money than you make, and keep doing that."
In December 1996, Alan Greenspan (Federal Reserve Chairman) used the phase "irrational exuberance"[2] to describe the market. It was already obviously a bubble. The bubble didn't burst until March 2000.
Some people think this particular bubble will end with the dollar crashing instead of the market.
That's exactly what's on my mind, you have any links to share?
1. We had one of the longest bull runs in stock market history. Even a modest investment in something like Facebook at it’s initial price of $15 dollars around 2009 would have netted you hundreds of thousands by now.
2. The pandemic dip was an insane buying opportunity. If you just parked some money in the SPY around the lockdowns you would have doubled your money (I’m talking in just one year, not 10 years).
3. Tech industry just exploded, the whole world relies on it. The jobs and opportunities just amassed.
4. The financial collapse pretty much made it so anyone and their mother could get a home mortgage loan with literally no interest.
So yeah, it did really happen for a lot of people. If anything, what you are witnessing now could be the tail end.
But, to remain optimistic, if we look at things purely based on eye balling numbers, the world population that is not totally connected into the Internet, and have not even begun American-level consumerism is still a pretty high number. We haven’t actually gotten everyone to buy apps, and sit around and watch Netflix. Just based on that fact alone you can somewhat infer that there’s way more growth ahead.
There's a Japanese mindset/idea that the best you should hope for for your children is for them to be average. This is statistically sound and reduces the hurt that one would feel when their child is not above average as well as provides more joy if they do happen to exceed expectations.
Was it distracting or mildly discouraging? Sure.
I finally jumped onto the touchscreen and app boom, lost a lot of time and money, but sharpened my development skills.
I have seen multiple booms where closed-networks of folks and insiders make huge money leaving the vast majority out.
I do my thing based on my capabilities and networking skills. Sucks to be an introvert on the autism spectrum. I have learnt to not be impressed by the highlight-reel of folks that is heavily curated. If you dig deep, you will learn the insider stories of the superficially happy-family folks and the ones with the latest cars.
Each of us have our own miseries, even the ones with money. Especially the ones with boat-loads of money.
Grow your skills so you can be of service to others.
These two things will make you most likely to become rich.
“Mastery of Love” and “Millionaire Fastlane” are two books I would recommend.
No offense, but this kind of "positive thinking as financial advice" is extremely pathological. It not only fails to offer any concrete, actionable advice but implicitly blames the subject if they end up poor: "Ah he's poor, he must have been operating from fear, not love." It positions wealth as a signal of moral virtue, not just luck or even skill.
I’m also saying this specifically for the sake of the poster because it appears they are operating from a scarcity mindset, which will only hold them back.
Life has been hard so far.
This is certainly not true. Most of the transactions I engage in don't have a winner and a loser. Those that do tend to be transactions that I consider "bad", regardless of whether I'm the winner or the loser.
And so we hear two positive stories, and no negative.
- Customer pays me, I solve their problem.
Sometimes it is a bit more nuanced:
- We sell the customer a better solution, they get a better (and less expensive) solution, but their previous supplier end up losing business.
I can live happily with both these scenarios.
Because the perception is not the reality. There is no great gravy train that you're missing out on. Yes, there are real opportunities for certain -- but there are always real opportunities. There's nothing special about today on that count.
Also, I'd point out the old adage: Comparing yourself to others will make you both vain and bitter, because there will always be someone doing worse than you, and always someone doing better.
But, to actually answer your question: I don't become discouraged or distracted because it's not my goal to "get rich". I have other goals, instead.
Meanwhile, access to credit is easier than ever before, in so many forms, and the Internet has made it easier to "flex on plebs" in seconds.
Dump social media would be my takeaway. Shit's unhealthy
Search for a new job, invest in the stock market, etc. It seems like a great time to find a job.
That's the problem right there.
People like to advertise their gains, but never their losses.
I climb, I skate and so on. I read philosophy, I have time to invest on myself on things which won't generate capital for me and I find it very amusing that even with that, I can still have a huge degree of financial freedom, as long as I work 8h a day 5 times a week and a small, but growing investment portifolio.
If you would work at a FAANG, or even be a C-level there or at a startup, there is no way you could be climbing and enjoying things on your 20s or 30s. By the time you would "make it very big", you would already be too old for this kind of things, not really health or body-wise, but you would be too attached to comfort. If you are more adventurous, you would actually look for opportunities that you could sleep on the floor, have some food deprivation and a hard adventure to test your limits. It's much more exciting than going to the office, doing politics and all. We aren't made to work in such artificial environments and that is why you and a lot of people are sad.
For me personally, I enjoy going to work, could be a few less hours and I would be happy with it. Even studying coding is nice. But I also need to go to nature, hug trees, climb mountains, hurt my foot and body whist doing it, accepting the discomfort of life as it is, in order to appreciate it. I would kill myself if all I had to do was to work, take care of kids and have expensive and comfortable travels. The best things in life are free or cheap. A kiss. A laugh. A new route.
Recently with my wife we've decided for ourselves that we don't need a kid and would rather enjoy life. There is a grind in having kids and at least 9 out of 10 friends I have that went this route are unhappy. Why have kids if I am already enjoying my journey?
Therefore, I can't be discouraged or distracted because people are doing so much better as you say, because this isn't better for me. If all you do is work and you aren't making as much as them, I feel sorry for you, maybe you are more like me, a monkey-man, that goes to the office and after work goes climbing. Or do anything else. If to be homo sapiens means to accumulate capital and shoot rockets to space, I don't belong there.
Those things will improve your situation regarding all the things you don't have to buy, like attracting the opposite sex or having fun experiences. By doing all those things you will also increase your "luck surface", you will hear about opportunities earlier, you will be more energetic and pro active and eventually something will fall into your lap. Even if not, you will enjoy your life and will not care so much about other people success on the financial front.