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Comment by 5350-uiop-1130 | Hacker News Reader

> "I've been working like a dog for 15 years now, and what has it gotten me, and what good has it done in the world, and how much worse would it be if I coasted from here on out?"

you just exactly described me, exactly 15 years. a lot of sleepless nights dwelling on this.

why do this for another 15, will never afford a home, my savings will be worth -50% in 15 years of what they are now.

i feel like i have to do something different but stuck on that first step. if it was that easy and so on...

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Funny to hear this sentiment in a tech forum. If you do well in a programming career you can afford a house almost anywhere. I don't think you need to work more than 40h a week to achieve that either.

So the stories of having to live in a trailer in silicon valley because everything else is too expensive are all false?

Is that a fair conclusion from my comment? If so, I apologise.

Not in southern Europe, unless you want to pay the mortgage for the next 30 years or something.

Specially with Air BnB and pensioned foreigns driving the prices sky high.

A 30 year mortgage is pretty typical in the US. How does it work in southern Europe?

Yeah, now try that living from 1500 euros a month, typical salary in many IT shops.

I'd have to know what a mortgage costs.

About 500 euros monthly, depending on the agreement.

Spending 30% of your income on your mortgage is pretty close to what lots of people in the US do. The typical advice is that you shouldn't spend more than 28% of your gross on your mortgage.

Except that is much more than 30% for a large set of the population, hence why so many above 30 years old still live by their parents.

So a couple, each earning minimum wage, could afford a mortgage together? That’s not too bad.

Better never split up.

That’s minimum wage in most countries. Tech salaries are lower in Europe than the US but that has to be exaggeration. Either that or you’re looking in the wrong places.

Minimum wage is about 800 euros in Portugal, after taxes.

I think to still know enough about my home country.

I know Portuguese IT workers earning vastly more than that remotely, and I've been honestly quite impressed with Portuguese developers, so Portugal is a bit of an odd case. I suspect for the IT market the salaries paid in Portugal don't match up to the salaries actually being paid to many IT workers.

Not everybody lives in US.

I'm doing well in my programming career and a house in the majority of Canada is completely unattainable unless one partners up, or moves somewhere absolutely dreadful, which is the option I took and now regret.

Maybe this is true in America, but many of us don't live there despite a desire to do so.

Invest your money so they'll be worth 1.07^15 (2.76x) in 15 years of what they are now.

You missed the chance to include tax and inflation and tax on inflation in your algebra, sir.

He included inflation, and there's plenty of tax advantaged accounts that let you grow tax free

If you invest in a broad market equity index fund like VOO, then you will keep up with inflation. All the inflation has to be reflected in the country’s business’s bottom lines, so it would also be reflected in their share prices.

This is my strategy. Global index funds. 7% is what you can expect. Inflation reduces the net yield. Research ways to avoid tax on stocks until you pay out to yourself, most countries have this in one form or another.

"7%" is dead.

7 was a lie anyway.

...if you live in a country with low enough taxation on investments.

Where do I get 14-18% returns so that I can get 7 post tax and inflation real? That’s some crypto bullshit levels of growth

Where are you getting "14-18% returns"? The formula in the parent post uses 1.07, which translates to a yearly growth of 7%.

You need to need to subtract inflation, otherwise your real increase is negative

right, but is there any reason to believe that 7% inflation is going to continue well into the future? The markets certainly don't think so. They're currently pricing in a 2.33% inflation rate over the next 5 years, measured by the spread between inflation protected treasuries and non-inflation protected treasuries.

[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/T5YIE

2.3 is too low. This seems to be based on treasury yields that yield negative real return right now.

In order to have v 2.3 you basically need to have 0 for the next 4 years if you average the previous year in.

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