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I think this board has a fair number of millionaire next door types -- if not actual millionaires, then people with maxed out 401ks/hundreds of thousands in other investments etc. My question - do you ever question your choice to live the millionaire next door lifestyle -- i.e. regular house and cars; not splurging on flashy cars or big vacations etc. and instead committing to hard core savings and investments? Have you ever gotten to the point where you've said -- I've worked really hard, saved really hard - we are going to Hawaii for 2 weeks and flying first class; or I don't care if a used Honda is more practical, I am splurging on a new BMW? If not, what keeps you plodding along? Is it fear or do you get happiness by checking your net worth or something else?
I'm a self made millionaire (not inherited, stood on my own two feet since 18). I prefer having freedom over luxury cars. From time to time the urge to buy a 25K Rolex or a Lambo in cash hits me. In my neighborhood they are common actually, many of my neighbors have them. But I prefer income producing assets. Now if I was terminally ill, it would be a different story, though I would not blow all my money, I want to leave my dad a bit of money so he doesn't have to work so hard.
Actually you do know how to act rich. Telling people you own a Lexus and Porsche and a boat would lead most people to believe you're rich.
Of course many people figure you bought new and keeping them looking mint just reinforces that. You can buy a used Lamborghini gallardo for $75k that looks new and you could tell most people you paid $250k for it and they would think you're very wealthy.
So true. Most of the like new Lambo's I look at online are about that price to 100k. That's not a ton of money frankly. If I ever become single again, I would buy one and just let women climb in my car left and right...
I think the fact that you think it is a rat race is why you will likely never have any real wealth. I spend a lot of time around wealthy people, and you know what they all have in common? They work a lot, and they like it. Any one of them can stop at any time and live a very nice life, but they don't. When you are not working, do you feel unproductive? If you don't, then you either have chosen the wrong profession or have the wrong type of personality to become wealthy. Nobody becomes successful by having a goal of "getting out of the rat race".
I find my work exciting. I love being there. I don't go to work and sit in a cubical. I spend my days figuring out how to get some very sick people through difficult surgeries without killing them. The day before my vacation started, I was in a 14 hour surgery of a patient with cancer in his mandible (jaw bone). The CT scan of his jaw was fed into a 3D printer which created a new jaw bone for him. We took a vein from his leg and a piece of one of his leg bones and attached a blood supply to the 3D printed jaw, that will create a lattice for actual living cells to form on the bone. Now, what could I have been doing at home that day that would have been better than that?
And when I come home, I don't stop working. I'm always looking for potential new rental properties. Heck, I just spent half of my vacation doing that. I don't know what your goals are. What do you think the end game is? Do you just want to spend your life traveling to diffierent places, swimming in the ocean, and eating? Is that your idea of "getting out of the rat race"? I do that for 6 weeks out of the year, and frankly, that is about 2 weeks too much. When you like what you do, there is no rat race.
If you are looking for some kind of proof you can always DM me and let me get to know you. If you are not some kind of wacko, maybe I will give you my social media handle or something. I pretty much only post pics when I'm at the summer house or on vacation somewhere because that is the only time I have the time.
One thing I have noticed over the years is that many folks who are in "helping" professions remain fulfilled due to the helping aspect of it all. I am essentially a back office paper pusher. While I don't hate my job, there is no fulfillment in these processes.
I don't think people's financial inclinations are so much a matter of genetics but rather environmental and what you grew up around
I disagree with the idea that it has to do with either genetics or just what you grow up around. I think it depends on how you process what you are exposed to.
There are people who grow up poor and see it as all they can be. Other people grow up in the same environment and see the experience as motivation to be something better.
On the flip side there are plenty of people who grow up rich or just comfortable and decide to coast through life, while others with the environment use the organic connections to grow and excel.
I disagree with the idea that it has to do with either genetics or just what you grow up around. I think it depends on how you process what you are exposed to.
So true. Most of the like new Lambo's I look at online are about that price to 100k. That's not a ton of money frankly. If I ever become single again, I would buy one and just let women climb in my car left and right...
I used to see super cars like that and though wow ! Until I got into boats, $100k is what you would pay for one 1000hp motor and drive package, you need two and then the boat and trailer, not to mention a tow vehicle. That is if purchased new.
And , no I don't have a boat like that.
I used to see super cars like that and though wow ! Until I got into boats, $100k is what you would pay for one 1000hp motor and drive package, you need two and then the boat and trailer, not to mention a tow vehicle. That is if purchased new.
And , no I don't have a boat like that.
$100K is your yearly boat yard bill on a 40 foot Concordia Yawl (wooden, tons of labor). There are a dozen of them in my harbor.
$100K is your yearly boat yard bill on a 40 foot Concordia Yawl (wooden, tons of labor). There are a dozen of them in my harbor.
wooden boats....labor of love .. for sure. Beautiful though.
Boats are a whole different game. Not only is the hardware expensive but upkeep, repairs and storage are even more expenses. I've seen guys burn thru 400 gallons of race gas in a day... I think race gas on the water is close to $10 a gallon. Move up to those 40, 50, 60 plus foot sport fishers and you are well into the millions.
Readers need to be very careful in interpreting the data provided in The Millionaire Next Door. This is a good marketing book, but a poor personal-finance book.
Consider two questions: (1) What fraction of the millionaire population drive a Toyota? and (2) What fraction of the Toyota-driving population are millionaires? Two very different questions. The book answers the first question -- about 20% iirc. It provides no conclusive information at all regarding the second question. Rather, it helps answer the question "how should I market to a group of people whom I know are already millionaires?"
The broader implication is that the book is not helpful as a guide on how to become a millionaire. Even more so, the how-to guidelines presented in the author's follow-on book The Millionaire Mind are completely uninformative, as their underlying reasoning is mathematically flawed.
I am by no means the first person to make these observations -- all of this is generally well known in the mathematically literate community.
Last edited by Hamish Forbes; 08-28-2017 at 11:09 AM..
wooden boats....labor of love .. for sure. Beautiful though.
Boats are a whole different game. Not only is the hardware expensive but upkeep, repairs and storage are even more expenses. I've seen guys burn thru 400 gallons of race gas in a day... I think race gas on the water is close to $10 a gallon. Move up to those 40, 50, 60 plus foot sport fishers and you are well into the millions.
It depends on the boat. I have a 22 foot catboat. I might burn 5 gallons of diesel in a season. My spring bill is usually around $5K with the yard polishing the hull, painting the bottom, varnishing all the brightwork, commissioning the engine, and putting the boat on the dock rigged and read to sail. The fall bill to haul and store it around $2K. I have the occasional big ticket item. Engine rebuild 2 springs ago was $10K instead of $5K. Replacing teak rub rail, bowsprit, and some other stuff the year before was $10K instead of $5K. I was unemployed last spring and did the bare minimum. I was floating for $2K instead of the usual $5K. A friend of mine who used to varnish the brightwork on those wood Concordia yawls was telling me "It's not a museum piece. Splash it and use it."
I have friends with bigger planing hull power boats. $1000 for fuel to go out for the weekend is pretty normal. If I wanted a floating living room, I'd get a displacement boat like a trawler that goes 8 knots on a few gallons per hour. $20K per season in fuel bills and another $20K in 'other' between slip fee, boat yard bills, taxes, and fixing things that break is a bit much for me.
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