7 ms·

If you're scared about your financial situation with over a $2M net worth either you are prone to paranoia or you're living well above your means. I'm constant

If you're scared about your financial situation with over a $2M net worth either you are prone to paranoia or you're living well above your means. I'm constantly surprised how many well-off people try to pass themselves off as "one of the poors". My family and friends do okay with a net worth way below that, in the Bay Area. I've worked minimum wage jobs here in the bay, and had co-workers actually struggling to make it to the next paycheck. It really gets on my nerves when someone in software chimes in with "we're all struggling"—No, we are not all struggling on the same level. Guess how much the person making your fast food or working at your local grocery store is making... And think about how they still live in the same city as you. "$2M isn't that much". Man, I can't imagine what it takes to come to that conclusion.

michaelt 2y ago
I'm not one of these rich people that drives a gold-plated Lamborghini, like my obnoxious boss with his huge collection of supercars. I just drive a regular, normal Lamborghini - like my father, and his father before him.
RHSeeger 2y ago
> If you're scared about your financial situation with over a $2M net worth either you are prone to paranoia or you're living well above your means. As someone who was layed off and went without a job for 13 months (tech bubble), I am _always_ scared about my financial situation. Sure, if I lose my job, I have the resources to hold out while I find another, but - It _will_ impact my lifestyle, because I'll need to be more careful about what money I spend - It _will_ make my family unhappy, for the same reasons - I've been in the position where it's "do we eat or pay rent next month?", and it sucks. I likely won't get back there, but the fear of getting there persists. Look, I get it, $2M is a lot of money. But there's a fair number of people that can get to that amount (especially living in an area where a 2br dwelling is easily $1M of that), still be saving _more_ money, and still fear the idea of being out of work for months. Especially if it's a single earner household. And especially if there's children.
- maeil 2y ago
  You intentionally moved to that area, and it even sounds like you own real estate there. Yes, it will impact your lifestyle, and you may have to be more careful about what money you spend, depending on how you're currently spending it. So what? 99% of people on earth live like that, and most do just fine. The fact that having to live a non >$2M net worth lifestyle would make your family unhappy sounds concerning.
  - RHSeeger 2y ago
    1. The discussion of what I've gone through, where I am in my life, and how the idea of losing my job (again) is concerning to me... is totally separate from the discussion of someone having $2M in net worth and living in an expensive area. Neither of those are true about me. 2. The vast majority of people, if they suddenly had to live with $0 income for a while, would be concerned, regardless of how much they make now. 3. The vast majority of people, if they suddenly had to live with 1/2 their normal income, would be concerned, regardless of how much they make. People make life decisions based on their income, and having that thrown up in the air generally causes people worry and stress.
  - jjav 2y ago
    > The fact that having to live a non >$2M net worth lifestyle would make your family unhappy sounds concerning. The phrase "$2M net worth lifestyle" does not mean anything. A 2M net worth could be a 1.5M house (which in the bay area is a simple nondescript house) and 500K in a 401k (which you can't touch until you're 60, so it's off limits). That's it. Neither of these can be used to pay any monthly bills. So this person with a 2M net worth (locked in assetts) is still 100% dependent on that monthly paycheck to cover all expenses.
- zappchance 2y ago
  Then you are living above your means. Having $2M in assets puts you in the top 5% in the USA, let alone with world. If you can't figure out a way to pay for food with this much money tied up in assets, you should spend some of your savings on a financial advisor. There are literal minimum wage workers getting by in the bay. I really can't understand this obsession with not wanting to admit that you are well-off.
hn83746 2y ago
It makes especially... interesting reading to those of us from the global South. To make $2 mil at my current salary, I will have to work for about 100-150 years, saving every penny and spending nothing, and I make decent money by our standards. There's even no relatively safe way to make some smart investments (which I imagine is how most of this money was acquired) because of incessant economical crises and non-existence of startup culture. Man, some people here are completely out of touch with the average Eathlican. I'll have to show this discussion to my friends. With that kind of money you could just... you know, move pretty much anywhere on the planet and live comfortably for many years, until a good opportunity comes up. Depending on the place, it might last you the entire lifetime (see my salary above).
- erik_seaberg 2y ago
  (Who are Eathlicans? I find no search results.)
  - recursive 2y ago
    Earthling maybe?
maeil 2y ago
> I'm constantly surprised how many well-off people try to pass themselves off as "one of the poors". The amount of people I've seen on here saying "It's just not an option to quit Google/Meta no matter how awful they are, I have a mortgage to pay!" even when the tech job market was still red-hot is quite incredible.
silverquiet 2y ago
Try having a chronic health condition. My ability to continue walking will at some point depend on paying doctors to replace part of my skeleton; that doesn't come cheap in America.
- zappchance 2y ago
  I wasn't speaking to exceptions. There will always be those who require ridiculous amounts of money to live comfortably—this is not the norm.
  - silverquiet 2y ago
    Hip and knee replacements are amongst the most common surgeries performed. I'm quite unusual in how young my issue struck, but everyone gets older.
SkyPuncher 2y ago
For a software engineer, or really most professionals, $2M really is not _that_ much in terms of retirement. It’s absolutely enough to live a frugal retirement on, but not some sort of massive nest egg. You can safely withdrawal about $80k/year from that without it diminishing. Don’t get me wrong, that’s the average income in the USA, but most deep career professionals would be taking a step down in terms of purchasing power. No real source of income means you can’t really finance anything. Major purchases are essentially pulled straight from that nest egg.

michaelt 2y ago

I'm not one of these rich people that drives a gold-plated Lamborghini, like my obnoxious boss with his huge collection of supercars. I just drive a regular, normal Lamborghini - like my father, and his father before him.

RHSeeger 2y ago

> If you're scared about your financial situation with over a $2M net worth either you are prone to paranoia or you're living well above your means. As someone who was layed off and went without a job for 13 months (tech bubble), I am _always_ scared about my financial situation. Sure, if I lose my job, I have the resources to hold out while I find another, but - It _will_ impact my lifestyle, because I'll need to be more careful about what money I spend - It _will_ make my family unhappy, for the same reasons - I've been in the position where it's "do we eat or pay rent next month?", and it sucks. I likely won't get back there, but the fear of getting there persists. Look, I get it, $2M is a lot of money. But there's a fair number of people that can get to that amount (especially living in an area where a 2br dwelling is easily $1M of that), still be saving _more_ money, and still fear the idea of being out of work for months. Especially if it's a single earner household. And especially if there's children.

maeil 2y ago
You intentionally moved to that area, and it even sounds like you own real estate there. Yes, it will impact your lifestyle, and you may have to be more careful about what money you spend, depending on how you're currently spending it. So what? 99% of people on earth live like that, and most do just fine. The fact that having to live a non >$2M net worth lifestyle would make your family unhappy sounds concerning.
- RHSeeger 2y ago
  1. The discussion of what I've gone through, where I am in my life, and how the idea of losing my job (again) is concerning to me... is totally separate from the discussion of someone having $2M in net worth and living in an expensive area. Neither of those are true about me. 2. The vast majority of people, if they suddenly had to live with $0 income for a while, would be concerned, regardless of how much they make now. 3. The vast majority of people, if they suddenly had to live with 1/2 their normal income, would be concerned, regardless of how much they make. People make life decisions based on their income, and having that thrown up in the air generally causes people worry and stress.
- jjav 2y ago
  > The fact that having to live a non >$2M net worth lifestyle would make your family unhappy sounds concerning. The phrase "$2M net worth lifestyle" does not mean anything. A 2M net worth could be a 1.5M house (which in the bay area is a simple nondescript house) and 500K in a 401k (which you can't touch until you're 60, so it's off limits). That's it. Neither of these can be used to pay any monthly bills. So this person with a 2M net worth (locked in assetts) is still 100% dependent on that monthly paycheck to cover all expenses.
zappchance 2y ago
Then you are living above your means. Having $2M in assets puts you in the top 5% in the USA, let alone with world. If you can't figure out a way to pay for food with this much money tied up in assets, you should spend some of your savings on a financial advisor. There are literal minimum wage workers getting by in the bay. I really can't understand this obsession with not wanting to admit that you are well-off.

hn83746 2y ago

It makes especially... interesting reading to those of us from the global South. To make $2 mil at my current salary, I will have to work for about 100-150 years, saving every penny and spending nothing, and I make decent money by our standards. There's even no relatively safe way to make some smart investments (which I imagine is how most of this money was acquired) because of incessant economical crises and non-existence of startup culture. Man, some people here are completely out of touch with the average Eathlican. I'll have to show this discussion to my friends. With that kind of money you could just... you know, move pretty much anywhere on the planet and live comfortably for many years, until a good opportunity comes up. Depending on the place, it might last you the entire lifetime (see my salary above).

erik_seaberg 2y ago
(Who are Eathlicans? I find no search results.)
- recursive 2y ago
  Earthling maybe?

maeil 2y ago

> I'm constantly surprised how many well-off people try to pass themselves off as "one of the poors". The amount of people I've seen on here saying "It's just not an option to quit Google/Meta no matter how awful they are, I have a mortgage to pay!" even when the tech job market was still red-hot is quite incredible.

silverquiet 2y ago

Try having a chronic health condition. My ability to continue walking will at some point depend on paying doctors to replace part of my skeleton; that doesn't come cheap in America.

zappchance 2y ago
I wasn't speaking to exceptions. There will always be those who require ridiculous amounts of money to live comfortably—this is not the norm.
- silverquiet 2y ago
  Hip and knee replacements are amongst the most common surgeries performed. I'm quite unusual in how young my issue struck, but everyone gets older.

SkyPuncher 2y ago

For a software engineer, or really most professionals, $2M really is not _that_ much in terms of retirement. It’s absolutely enough to live a frugal retirement on, but not some sort of massive nest egg. You can safely withdrawal about $80k/year from that without it diminishing. Don’t get me wrong, that’s the average income in the USA, but most deep career professionals would be taking a step down in terms of purchasing power. No real source of income means you can’t really finance anything. Major purchases are essentially pulled straight from that nest egg.