5 ms·
Earnings are important, I'm sure -- but don't mistake them for wealth. I've known people with ludicrous earnings who still lived pay check to pay check. In fa
by Locke 16y ago
Earnings are important, I'm sure -- but don't mistake them for wealth. I've known people with ludicrous earnings who still lived pay check to pay check. In fact, I suspect it's all too common.
Here's an eye opener: You're a mid-level employee at a medium-sized company and you realize you're as wealthy as your spend-thrift CEO who is making >10x as much as you are.
- sp_ 16y agoYeah, this distinction is important. Recently in Germany this report made the news how nearly a quarter of professional football players are broke at the end of their careers. Considering that these are all people who make a lot of money I was pretty shocked about this.
- aaronblohowiak 16y agoI think spend-thrift means tight with your money, or parsimonious if you prefer.
- amvp 16y agoTo be thrifty, is to be careful with your money. Oddly though, a spendthrift is the opposite. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/spendthrift http://www.thefreedictionary.com/spendthrift
- gjm11 16y agoHere's how the etymology works: thrive: prosper thrift (~= having-thrived): prosperity, hence money thrifty: acting so as to get or maintain thrift, hence not spending much thrift (derived meaning): the quality that thrifty people have; again, not spending much spendthrift: a person who spends his or her thrift; hence, someone who spends a lot spendthrift (derived meaning): the quality that spendthrifts have; that is, spending a lot.
- SageRaven 16y agoThis is very true. My last two tax filings showed I [edit: grossed] less than $15,000 for the past 2 years, yet I generally have more discretionary income now than the years when I was making ~$50,000/yr. I also have a wife and two kids. I have no debt of any kind (house and car owned outright), am quite frugal, have two monthly bills (phone/internet and power), and three yearly bills (property tax, car registration, and auto insurance). Telecommuting from a rural area helps, as does raising some of our own food. Sure, we don't live like kings, but my kids always have both parents around and we live a good, simple life. I'm not rich, but I feel quite wealthy in terms of quality of life.
- riledhel 16y agoI'm not rich, but I feel quite wealthy in terms of quality of life. actually, that's all that matters.
- SageRaven 16y agoI like to think so. I don't want to give the impression than I'm down on anyone earning (or aspiring to earn) large amounts of money. At one time I aspired to break the $100k/yr mark by age 30 (certainly not too ambitious, but it seemed doable at the time). Obviously I had a change of heart in the intervening years, and so far I'm quite pleased with things. To each their own.
- natch 16y agoThen your case is special (maybe you are just, well, more mature in years than many of us, or maybe you had family help). Most people just starting out don't own their houses outright.
- SageRaven 16y agoI'm almost forty. No family help. What we did was buy progressively cheaper and smaller homes, as opposed to the general trend of buying up. That, combined with a couple of modest (no more than $20k profit) real estate sales of raw land we purchased, we were able to pay everything off a couple of years ago. I decided a long time ago that working outside the home, and working full-time at all, was detrimental to our quality of life. As such, being financially "secure" meant not owing anything to anybody and having minimal living expenses. It took almost 15 years, but we eventually achieved our very humble goal.
- brown9-2 16y agoI'm curious - how did you become aware of the net worth of your CEO?