WSJ: A Retirement Wealth Gap Adds a New Indignity to Old Age

[razztazz]

Luck is the intersection of opportunity and preparation.

In other words: "Luck." Without clairvoyance ie knowing what to prepare for, when, and to what extent, preparation can be filed under wasted resources, wasted time, etc. Unless of course you get lucky guess right. And were lucky enough to be able to have access to the necessary resources. But you could still end up being successful anyway, if you get lucky.

Opportunity equals luck. I think this is what they call a tautology.

 

[Cut-Throat]

Luck is the intersection of opportunity and preparation.

I agree! .... Except that you have to admit that Opportunity does not show up equally for everyone....

Poor People are not all Lazy and Incompetent individuals. Some that I have known have played the Best hand that they could have with the cards that were dealt to them.

 

[NYEXPAT]

Luck is the intersection of opportunity and preparation.

And some people turn left,some turn right and others plod along forward!

 

[foxfirev5]

I agree! .... Except that you have to admit that Opportunity does not show up equally for everyone....

Poor People are not all Lazy and Incompetent individuals. Some that I have known have played the Best hand that they could have with the cards that were dealt to them.

Yeah. Sometimes I can't help but feel a sense of arrogance here that we are so brilliant that we control our destiny. At this point I am merely grateful for what I've got and my lot in life.

 

[timo2]

I think many posters here have too narrow view of luck. The primary luck issue is lifelong health to be able to stay employable. example: I know a millennial kid who was really smart and his car was hit by someone running a red light. He is now brain damaged now and can't hold a job. So no 401K or market timing for him.

There are many people who stop being considered 'employable' by employers for a variety of reasons. No lucky runs of the stock market or magical home appreciation for them.

 

[Bigdawg]

I agree! .... Except that you have to admit that Opportunity does not show up equally for everyone....

Poor People are not all Lazy and Incompetent individuals. Some that I have known have played the Best hand that they could have with the cards that were dealt to them.

I agree!.... Except that opportunity isn't always where you are at. Sometimes you have to be willing to leave your couch, house, town, county, state, country to embrace that opportunity.

 

[HI Bill]

Yeah. Sometimes I can't help but feel a sense of arrogance here that we are so brilliant that we control our destiny.

While we can't control our destiny completely, we can do things that will help us have a better chance of success. We (here) plan to retire by (generally) LBYM, saving, investing, delayed spending, learning, etc. While not everyone in the world has the opportunities to do this, most in the US do.

Many choose to spend on houses, iPhones, cars, and travel while they're young, with no eyes looking toward the future. I think the difference between 'us' and 'them' is on average, the willingness and ability to plan for the future. Just MHO. I've given two talks to the professionals in my office on retirement planning, and except those who have $ coming from prior government jobs, almost none of them will be prepared to retire before they reach FRA.

 

[Oz investor]

luck ( and inheritance ) worked for me

all hard work did was broke my heart ( literally )

certainly not the low risk way to do things

but gee surviving on Millennial education sounds tough as well

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I think many posters here have too narrow view of luck. The primary luck issue is lifelong health to be able to stay employable. example: I know a millennial kid who was really smart and his car was hit by someone running a red light. He is now brain damaged now and can't hold a job. So no 401K or market timing for him.

There are many people who stop being considered 'employable' by employers for a variety of reasons. No lucky runs of the stock market or magical home appreciation for them.

That happened to the most popular, teen heart throb type from my high school days, the most likely to succeed kind of student. He was in a car accident, had brain damage and was never really the same again. Last time I saw him he was still a really nice guy and had a low skill kind of job, but he wasn't likely to ever have the same college and career opportunities I had, through no fault of his own.

 

[HadEnuff]

Luck is the intersection of opportunity and preparation.

sometimes, luck is just luck...

 

[pb4uski]

.... Studies show luck plays more of a role in success than many successful people would like to think it does:
The Role of Luck in Life Success if Far Greater Than We Realized
https://blogs.scientificamerican.co...life-success-is-far-greater-than-we-realized/

Academic bullsh!t.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Yeah. Sometimes I can't help but feel a sense of arrogance here that we are so brilliant that we control our destiny. At this point I am merely grateful for what I've got and my lot in life.

"Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia." -- Jose Ortega y Gasset

 

[Gumby]

In particular, I believe with Shakespeare that "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and miseries."

Ha

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves"

 

[daylatedollarshort]

This is another interesting article on the subject:

Why Luck Matter More Than you Might Think: When people see themselves as self made, they tend to be less generous and public spirited

"...a growing body of evidence suggests that seeing ourselves as self-made—rather than as talented, hardworking, and lucky—leads us to be less generous and public-spirited. It may even make the lucky less likely to support the conditions (such as high-quality public infrastructure and education) that made their own success possible.
Happily, though, when people are prompted to reflect on their good fortune, they become much more willing to contribute to the common good."

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazin...uck-matters-more-than-you-might-think/476394/

 

[Fedup]

I did my fair share of hustling. It was my brother who has all the luck. But I’m not complaining.

 

[FreeBear]

I got lucky. Parent taught me sense and right from wrong. I knew they loved me; this made all the difference, despite the usual challenges.


DW allowed me to marry her years ago. The "wrong" kind of women couldn't be bothered with me, so no divorces. No overwhelming health problems for me or DW, so far. We've been blessed.

 

[Scuba]

I also believe that for most people, success has come from a combination of hard work, drive, LBYM, fortunate investments and luck. In my case, I was fortunate enough to receive a full ride scholarship to college as well as to work for a Megacorp with amazing benefits that I didn’t fully understand or appreciate when I went to work there at 25. And I was lucky enough to find another great job also with some nice pay and benefits for the last 10 years of my career. My health is excellent despite many years of being a bit overweight and enjoying too much delicious food & wine. And I met and married DH 20 years ago!

So many things to be grateful for! Yes I worked hard, made sacrifices and took prudent risks but I have been very fortunate.

 

[Perryinva]

There is both good and bad luck, just like there are good and bad decisions that become that way only after time. Some seem obvious with 20/20 hindsight. There is plenty of arrogance here, which often goes hand in hand with affluence. It’s safe to say that most of the very early FIREs here were smart & hard working, but the key was a financial education that they were had the temperment for, opportunity to use, and the goodnlucknto have an environment that fostered it. While I am technically smart and hard working, I’m not particularly financially bright, so no early FIRE for me, just a well deserved age 62 or so one. But it would not be arrogant to say that MOST of what I have is because of steady investment and willingness to move to where the opportunities were. I’ve had good and bad luck, and made good and bad decisions.

 

[Golden sunsets]

Luck is the intersection of opportunity and preparation.

+++1


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[davismills]

I don’t tell people I’m retired anymore. I used too in my first two years and then found out a lot of people older than me are still working.

+1. I never reveal my retired status anymore. Much like I never revealed my salary during my working years. I found that it just creates a bunch of drama that I don't need.

 

[Maenad]

I guess I'm a little thin-skinned on this topic because I've been hearing it from family members. I went to school at night while w@rking full-time, w@rked hard and advanced my career, put away money every month, generally lived within my means, and was able to FIRE this year. But, according to family members I was able to retire early because I was "lucky".

I'd like to call back to this. While I agree that luck has a part in all of our successes here, this is a really crappy thing for your family to say to you. It sucks when the people that you hoped would be happy for your success are jealous and just try to minimize it.

And there were plenty others (likely in your own family) that had the same level of luck but chose not to take advantage of it.

DH and his brother are perfect examples of two men with almost identical luck in life in terms of sex, race, upbringing, childhood education, generation, etc., but drastically different life paths due to their own choices. So even those dealt a better "hand" can play it poorly.

 

[candrew]

Studies show luck plays more of a role in success than many successful people would like to think it does:
The Role of Luck in Life Success if Far Greater Than We Realized
https://blogs.scientificamerican.co...life-success-is-far-greater-than-we-realized/

Academic bullsh!t.

From the Scientific American report:

"The researchers argue that the following factors are all important in giving people more chances of success: a stimulating environment rich in opportunities, a good education, intensive training, and an efficient strategy for the distribution of funds and resources."

And that is "academic bullsh!t"?

In light of the fact that most of us who are here at E-R.org were born in the U.S. into at least middle class/working class families, had decent upbringings and were given good starts in our lives - those factors alone tick off every one of the report's conclusions listed above. Call it what you want - good fortune, luck, whatever. For those of us in that cohort (likely a majority here), our biggest challenge had nothing to do with pulling ourselves up by our boot straps, but rather, not squandering a randomly determined birthright.

 

[marko]

I guess I'm a little thin-skinned on this topic because I've been hearing it from family members. I went to school at night while w@rking full-time, w@rked hard and advanced my career, put away money every month, generally lived within my means, and was able to FIRE this year. But, according to family members I was able to retire early because I was "lucky".

There's a growing mindset out there that wealth is a zero sum game. That in order to succeed, someone else must fail. The whole "rich people are bad" thing.

I've mentioned here a few times about an adult nephew who, thinking he was praising me, said: "You must have cheated a lot to get where you are".
He'll find out who got cheated when my will is read.

 

[jimbee]

Once again, Star Trek explains it.

 

[Oz investor]

Luck is the intersection of opportunity and preparation.

preparation me ??

most would call me chaotic and disorganized , but i do know what opportunity is and when to grasp it ,

would the opportunities i deliberately let go , have been better options ??

they certainly would have taken me on a different path .