Quote: (05-20-2014 10:37 AM)Samseau Wrote:
A million dollars isn't jack shit? That's easily in the top .1%. What the hell are you guys talking about?
A million doesn't feel as rich as it used to, because of inflation, but put things in perspective. The average income in the USA is $44,321.67.
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/AWI.html
How do you think the average people feel? Things are getting more expensive every year and they feel lucky if they can keep their house and car.
A million dollars in cash is pretty good. That'll set you up for life in many parts of the world.
Or it buys you a modest condo in Santa Monica. Everything is relative. It definitely doesn't put you in the .1% though.
Frankly, I don't give a shit how the average Joe making $44,321 feels. The average Joe is the same guy that buys into the game that perpetuates the system we're in, he's just too ignorant to know otherwise. The average Joe shops at big box chain stores, eats fast food, buys into the consumerist lifestyle, has to have his big screen TV with 300 channels, takes on debt he can't afford, and generally lives beyond his means, so fuck the average Joe.
I'm gonna channel Westcoast right now since I know he'd have a field day, but while all the armchair skeptics are trashing the American economy and trashing investing in stocks, there are millionaires being born from that every day. I'll use my dad as an example.
My dad's net worth is ~2mil, about 1.3 liquid. When I was growing up, he owned his own business which yielded him about $60,000 annually, or $108,000 in 2014 dollars. He's still got a business out of his garage that he does for pleasure but still gets him about $50k per year, which is pretty much just gravy money. Back then we were middle class, but I grew up in very humble circumstances. The house I grew up in cost something like $200,000, this is Southern California mind you. I always had to pay for my own car, started working at 16, zero handouts. I didn't even know we had that kind of money until I was out on my own. He followed the conventional advice of Ben Graham, dollar cost averaged into blue chip stocks, and now he owns his own house that he paid for in cash up in the mountains on a couple acres of wilderness. He drives a Prius and an F150. There's nothing about his lifestyle that screams "millionaire". Most of his neighbors fall into a similar story. A few decades of hard work, frugal living, smart investing, and they live comfortably and debt-free.
"Millionaire" conjures up all sorts of romantic, fantasy-ridden imagery, but the reality is anything but. It's completely attainable, and almost entirely up to the individual. On the other hand, there are plenty of "millionaires" that don't actually own anything. These are the ones with $80,000 cars, living on beachfront property, eat at fancy restaurants all the time. Take away their money supply and they'd be fucked. They live fast and hard, and part of me respects that; anyone could die tomorrow so might as well enjoy it right? But that's not me personally.