Learning about the Economy

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:03 am

My sister's father-in-law has a net worth of approximately $1 billion, but our relation's distant enough that I'm sure I won't get anything worth noting.

erik · Post by **erik** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:49 am

About a year ago I was reasonably confident that I'd retire technically as a millionaire. If my wife ever finds an accounting job then I'll begin renewing that hope since we were getting by well on a household income of $40k. If we could double it for the household then we'd pay off all our debts in under 5 years and afterward put about $50-60k/yr towards investments since we are fairly frugal and responsible. 25 years of that oughtta do us alright and then we freely dip into our IRA's at least as a millionaire household. If our salaries raise relative to expenses or investments do exceptionally well we might be individual millionaires.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:36 am

Wait, what the hell? You're planning on saving $50,000 a year while your household income is $80,000? Once you factor in taxes, doesn't that give you something like $14,000 to live on?

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:04 am

I do not expect to earn more than $600k. That's earn, in a lifetime, not to "increase my net worth by".

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 12:59 pm

I expect to die without enough net worth to pay for a cheap cremation, but I have a roof over my head for now, a net connection, and plenty of cousins and a couple siblings are personal millionaires, so it averages out not too bad.

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 7:30 pm

I never expect to acquire a million in assets. I may be pleasantly surprised, but I certainly don't expect it.

Orion wrote:Wait, what the hell? You're planning on saving $50,000 a year while your household income is $80,000? Once you factor in taxes, doesn't that give you something like $14,000 to live on?

Well, he did say "pay off all debts", which I'm assuming includes mortgage, car payments, etc. If you're just paying monthly costs (and living frugally), it's probably possible to live on an income that low, depending on the cost of living where he is at. This assumes no kids, as well.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 10:29 pm

Starmaker wrote:I do not expect to earn more than $600k. That's earn, in a lifetime, not to "increase my net worth by".

Um... are you planning on dying in a ditch at 25? If you worked for 20 years making $30,000 a year, or you know, way under the median, you would make 600k. Short of not living very long or living in some backwoods hellhole where a gallon of milk costs 5 cents, I'm not sure how you could possibly not earn that amount.

erik · Post by **erik** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 11:19 pm

Orion wrote:Wait, what the hell? You're planning on saving $50,000 a year while your household income is $80,000? Once you factor in taxes, doesn't that give you something like $14,000 to live on?

That's after I've paid off the house, car and wife's student loans. Yeah, we could totally live well on $14k/yr happily if we didn't have to pay for those.

Just gotta pay for food, utilities/services, gas, and fun stuff. We do have 2 kids, and I reckon we'd renew putting money back into their 529's once the adults were fully employed (we had to slow then stop that after I got screwed out of my job this year).

I suppose college funds may take a chunk out of our fledgling investments in 15-16 years, and I have no idea what college is gonna cost by then. But I'm gonna lean on my kids to get somewhere with a full ride. If an idiot like me can secure a couple full rides then surely my little spawnlings will manage it.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:55 am

erik wrote:I have no idea what college is gonna cost by then.

Eleventy billion dollars, if the trend keeps going the way it is.

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:18 am

I have made between 10k-12k most of my life. If I made 14k I'd feel like Bill Gates or something. I could imagine living on 14k is easy and fun.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:35 am

When I worked in Sydney, I went from $500/fortnight (benefits - actually a bit under $500. Subtract rent and bills, and I could then afford to eat on most days, and learned how to eat on the cheap.) to a little over $500/week. It did indeed suddenly feel like "I HAVE ALL THE MONEY!"

Now I also didn't have to pay rent or bills (I was staying with my dad and his wife. I offered to pay rent, but they didn't accept. "Just house us and look after us when we retire." Dad really should have taken the offer). Or food other than any snacks I wanted. Add to that the whole "Instead of having easy public transport to the city, you live an irritating distance away from places that sell video games and such", and money was just piling up.

Every fortnight I'd take a plane to Melbourne and back for the weekend, and when we did make the trip to shopping centres, I could literally just blow a thousand dollars on "stuff".

Making that change was utterly incredible, so I know exactly what you mean.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 6:34 am

Kaelik wrote:
Starmaker wrote:I do not expect to earn more than $600k. That's earn, in a lifetime, not to "increase my net worth by".
Um... are you planning on dying in a ditch at 25? If you worked for 20 years making $30,000 a year, or you know, way under the median, you would make 600k. Short of not living very long or living in some backwoods hellhole where a gallon of milk costs 5 cents, I'm not sure how you could possibly not earn that amount.

According to Wikipedia, the average monthly salary in the country she lives in is $810 before taxes. If you worked and made that for 20 years, you'd have made just shy of $200k. Before taxes.

That she predicts herself to make almost three times that shows that she works in a skilled profession and likely feels she will continue working until she is 85.

-Username17

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 12:16 pm

How do you know what country Starmaker lives in?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 1:10 pm

Kaelik wrote:How do you know what country Starmaker lives in?

Because she has been on this board for four years and has mentioned it on more than one occasion. I have the magic of memory.

-Username17

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 1:16 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:
Kaelik wrote:How do you know what country Starmaker lives in?
Because she has been on this board for four years and has mentioned it on more than one occasion. I have the magic of memory.

-Username17

Good, some time in the last four years it was mentioned somewhere on this board. As long as there was no reason I should know.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 5:10 pm

Kaelik wrote:Good, some time in the last four years it was mentioned somewhere on this board. As long as there was no reason I should know.

Dude, don't be a dick. You should know by now that a good portion (I'd say about a third) of regular posters on TGD are not American citizens.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 5:53 pm

Lago PARANOIA wrote:
Kaelik wrote:Good, some time in the last four years it was mentioned somewhere on this board. As long as there was no reason I should know.
Dude, don't be a dick. You should know by now that a good portion (I'd say about a third) of regular posters on TGD are not American citizens.

Um... As a general rule I am a dick, but I'm really not sure how that constitutes me being a dick at all.

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:12 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:That she predicts herself to make almost three times that shows that she works in a skilled profession and likely feels she will continue working until she is 85.

Actually, it's $1300*12*40 = $624k, with retirement at 60.

There are two problems with this estimate.

First, salaries are not linked to inflation. A raise is a fucking miracle, a Big Deal, it does not happen automatically. Raises are reported in the news, which is a PR hit (because bureaucracy is eeeeevil). Now, since I started working at that particular job in 2009, my nominal salary has (nominally) doubled (from $100 to $200 - yes, seriously), however, all sorts of bonuses were cut, and the end result is that nothing changed. Well, I got a promotion, but the next promotion with a salary boost is three steps and at least nine years away, and that assuming available openings and a benevolent boss.

Second, it requires a stable job. If the housing bubble does not burst and property taxes are raised to commercial levels, I'll need to sell my room (for peanuts, because it's a room, not the whole apartment) and move someplace else. How likely is it? Obviously, kicking people out of their apartments en masse will cause an uprising. But if the government shuffles tax cuts like they already shuffle my salary so that the overwhelming majority receives a huge cut, I'm fucked - being unmarried with a higher-than-national-average salary and having a whole room all to myself (the luxury!) pretty much disqualifies me from any benefits.

erik · Post by **erik** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:48 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:
Kaelik wrote:How do you know what country Starmaker lives in?
Because she has been on this board for four years and has mentioned it on more than one occasion. I have the magic of memory.

-Username17

My Americentrism to blame, but when I think of Starmaker, my first thought is "the Russkie." I don't know when or how often it was that I read Star's origins, since it has been reinforced ever since that first reading so that I more readily pick up on cues like when Starmaker is the authority on Russian politics in the non-US politics thread or when talking about chernobyl and whathaveyouandsoforth.

The Vigilante · Post by **The Vigilante** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 12:00 am

erik wrote:
FrankTrollman wrote:
Kaelik wrote:How do you know what country Starmaker lives in?
Because she has been on this board for four years and has mentioned it on more than one occasion. I have the magic of memory.

-Username17
My Americentrism to blame, but when I think of Starmaker, my first thought is "the Russkie." I don't know when or how often it was that I read Star's origins, since it has been reinforced ever since that first reading so that I more readily pick up on cues like when Starmaker is the authority on Russian politics in the non-US politics thread or when talking about chernobyl and whathaveyouandsoforth.

Same here, even though I am not American.

Leress · Post by **Leress** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 1:26 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK2qHyF-8u8

This may help.

ckafrica · Post by **ckafrica** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 7:14 am

Koumei wrote:Is there anyone else here who is reasonably confident they won't ever be a millionaire short of going to Zimbabwe for a stint?

I make 50 million a month but unfortunately that is in Vietnam dong. At the exchange a rate that is a mere 2.5k US. but it is still about 10 times the average local salary of Saigon.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 7:18 am

My uncle went to Vietnam for the war.

He had a joke routine called, "I'm holding a dong in my hand."

That's all, carry on.

ckafrica · Post by **ckafrica** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 7:35 am

I would have thought it was how the girls were always taking their dong.

There was a condom advertising campaign here at one point that was "Invest your dong in OK condoms" I'm sure they had outside help for that double entendre.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 7:36 am

I hear the dong is up, recently. I mean, it did droop a bit earlier in the day, but there was good turnaround and it's standing tall! We can expect great returns from the dong in the near future.