Getting paid for doing nothing

[jerome len]

My money is working for me because when I earned it and paid taxes on it I didn't spend it. I invested it. Now, I can enjoy it and pay more taxes on it. That's our system, I worked hard and now my family and I can enjoy it. Lucky me and everyone else on this blog that did the same......I have absolutely no guilt about cashing my dividend checks each month.

 

[unclemick]

Anyone here ever get weirded out that as a passive investor you get paid for doing nothing?

Just today my stock portfolio went up with several thousand dollars and got a big dividend payment too.

That's more than most 'normal' working people earn in weeks, in some countries even months.

I do realize it can and will go down just as easily, but still. Capitalism is a strange system.

It's a medical condition especially the male of the species but not exclusively.
Took a long time to admit I had the problem.

Not a 12 step program but:

1) full auto since 2006 - VG Target Retirement. I don't manually rebalance but let those trusty computers do it for me.

2) it helps to watch football in season - Geaux Saints!

3) and yes I still have 2 or 3 - a few good stocks. Nobody's perfect.

Don't go to any meetings but lurk over at the Bogleheads Forum several times a week to maintain my passive state of mind.

heh heh heh - A tad tongue in cheek with a dose of the straight skinny.

 

[photoguy]

I think I have enough when I can buy two business class tickets to Sydney without flinching. Note that I did not say 1st class.

Hey that's my own test for when I truly have it made (flying business class without worrying about the cost). I don't foresee this happening though.

 

[robnplunder]

I don't agree. It's what someone's thinking about. That's why we're here!

I didn't mean to imply anything negative. I am pretty silly myself (some of my posts are dead giveaway ). This was/is an interesting thread. Otherwise, I would not have read it, and/or post a response. BTW, we are getting paid by the number of posts we post, right? I am waiting for a check which I am willing to donate to E-R.org .

 

[FIREd]

I think I have enough when I can buy two business class tickets to Sydney without flinching. Note that I did not say 1st class.

Let's see, 2 business class seats to Europe from the West Coast will set me back about $10K. I don't know if I could ever spend that kind of money without flinching. But... after flying to Europe in business class for the first time ever last month, I am sold. Now, how to pay for such luxury... Good thing I have not caught the travel bug.

 

[FUEGO]

Let's see, 2 business class seats to Europe from the West Coast will set me back about $10K. I don't know if I could ever spend that kind of money without flinching. But... after flying to Europe in business class for the first time ever last month, I am sold. Now, how to pay for such luxury... Good thing I have not caught the travel bug.

To come full circle back to "getting paid for doing nothing", I think of flying coach vs. business class like getting paid for doing nothing. I used to earn $30-40/hour while working in exchange for sitting in an uncomfortable seat in meetings for a couple of hours at a time. To make sitting in those meetings more gruesome, my employer occasionally required me to be awake and even attentive.

Now, I can choose to save $4000 by buying a coach ticket instead of a business class ticket, and the airline will pay me $200 per hour (after tax!) for 20 hours or so of sitting in the coach class seat and doing nothing (or reading a book, or snoozing, or watching the in flight movie).

I think I'd have to have a lot more than I have right now to turn down the opportunity to make so much from simply doing nothing! Although I do hate sitting in an airplane.

 

[AnIntentionalRoad]

To come full circle back to "getting paid for doing nothing", I think of flying coach vs. business class like getting paid for doing nothing. I used to earn $30-40/hour while working in exchange for sitting in an uncomfortable seat in meetings for a couple of hours at a time. To make sitting in those meetings more gruesome, my employer occasionally required me to be awake and even attentive.

Now, I can choose to save $4000 by buying a coach ticket instead of a business class ticket, and the airline will pay me $200 per hour (after tax!) for 20 hours or so of sitting in the coach class seat and doing nothing (or reading a book, or snoozing, or watching the in flight movie).

I think I'd have to have a lot more than I have right now to turn down the opportunity to make so much from simply doing nothing! Although I do hate sitting in an airplane.

+1

 

[Meadbh]

OK, I have an idea.

A business class ticket (PHX-SYD) costs 5-6X more than a coach seat. I can now buy a coach seat with no sweat. To do the same with a business class seat would then require me to have 5X more money.

I will never get there. I remember looking at FIRECalc runs. I will not live long enough.

I have been thinking about a trip to Oz. The long flight is definitely a deterrent. It seems to me that a cheaper and more enjoyable solution for one who is ER would be to stop off for a few days in Hawaii.

 

[Meadbh]

And another thing......

I am not being paid for "doing nothing". My hard earned money is earning an ROI by virtue of its utility to the firms whose shares and debt I own. It's just economics. Nothing to be guilty about.

 

[NW-Bound]

Now, I can choose to save $4000 by buying a coach ticket instead of a business class ticket, and the airline will pay me $200 per hour (after tax!) for 20 hours or so of sitting in the coach class seat and doing nothing (or reading a book, or snoozing, or watching the in flight movie)...

I agree that it is highly seductive to allow myself be tortured, OK not tortured but greatly inconvenienced, to save $200/hr. But I would not imagine that the airline was paying me that money. Else, I should just imagine that I could just stay home and get the airline to pay me the cost of the whole ticket.

Anyway, before I made the earlier post I made a sample price check. A round-trip coach seat to SYD was around $2K, a business seat was $8K, and a 1st class $21K on Qantas. Does anybody really pay for these 1st seats and not get it via upgrade? It's mind boggling how much money truly rich people have.

PS. By the way, on a long flight like that, a business seat allowed me to lean way back and go to sleep through most of the flight, waking up only for meals (3 of them!), and the flight felt so short. I have also flown business class to a Middle East country for work, and the experience was also positive. We have flown to Europe on business class, but as the flight leg was shorter the difference in comfort between coach and business was not as pronounced as the super long flights.

 

[Hopeful]

Speaking of making money for doing nothing.... Today my stock account shows the added Apple shares for a 7:1 stock split. The price is still showing $645 until it opens Monday at it's adjusted price. My account value went up by a million dollars. To bad on Monday it will be all gone.

 

[marko]

Anyway, before I made the earlier post I made a sample price check. A round-trip coach seat to SYD was around $2K, a business seat was $8K, and a 1st class $21K on Qantas. Does anybody really pay for these 1st seats and not get it via upgrade? It's mind boggling how much money truly rich people have.

Back in the day, NorthWest called their 1st class seats "business" on long hauls. A lot of companies would pay for business, but not 1st. So you got a 1st class seat and would submit a business ticket to accounting.

As an aside, some NorthWest planes would have only 8 seats on their 747 upper deck to Japan. On one flight, I was the only person there....a cabin the size of a living room and an extra large bathroom from MSP to NRT! It was like my own private jet!

 

[John Galt III]

As a conservative investor and frugal person with low expenses, I just love getting $540 a month from my almost risk free stable value fund, all in a 401k and tax free.

When I get a "weirded out" is when I see so many middle aged people strolling around "dong nothing" during working hours (like me ). Walking their dogs in the neighborhood, sauntering casually through stores. Come on folks, get back to work to keep the GDP going !! We can't all retire early !

 

[Alan]

Anyway, before I made the earlier post I made a sample price check. A round-trip coach seat to SYD was around $2K, a business seat was $8K, and a 1st class $21K on Qantas. Does anybody really pay for these 1st seats and not get it via upgrade? It's mind boggling how much money truly rich people have.

PS. By the way, on a long flight like that, a business seat allowed me to lean way back and go to sleep through most of the flight, waking up only for meals (3 of them!), and the flight felt so short. I have also flown business class to a Middle East country for work, and the experience was also positive. We have flown to Europe on business class, but as the flight leg was shorter the difference in comfort between coach and business was not as pronounced as the super long flights.

That does seem a crazy price for 1st class. We are flying Business to Sydney round trip in a few weeks from LA and the price is $5k including all fees. A milestone for us as we've never paid for a Business class ticket anywhere before, although have flown Business many times for work plus a few personal trips using FF miles.

We decided to fly Business to the UK last year but found that that a cruise over was much cheaper, and since we are retired we could take the 8 days "the crossing" takes.

 

[Mulligan]

I agree that it is highly seductive to allow myself be tortured, OK not tortured but greatly inconvenienced, to save $200/hr. But I would not imagine that the airline was paying me that money. Else, I should just imagine that I could just stay home and get the airline to pay me the cost of the whole ticket.

Anyway, before I made the earlier post I made a sample price check. A round-trip coach seat to SYD was around $2K, a business seat was $8K, and a 1st class $21K on Qantas. Does anybody really pay for these 1st seats and not get it via upgrade? It's mind boggling how much money truly rich people have.

PS. By the way, on a long flight like that, a business seat allowed me to lean way back and go to sleep through most of the flight, waking up only for meals (3 of them!), and the flight felt so short. I have also flown business class to a Middle East country for work, and the experience was also positive. We have flown to Europe on business class, but as the flight leg was shorter the difference in comfort between coach and business was not as pronounced as the super long flights.

I finally got my first taste of first class through an airline employee deal of rd trip for $200 this spring. It was cheaper than coach. Pretty nice setup in first class. Trouble was it was all on standby and we damn near didn't get out of Vegas to get home. Finally we found a path back to Midwest through Miami. Doubt if I ever do that again, but at least it was all in 1st class.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[scrabbler1]

One of my Fidelity bond funds (the one I often refer to as the "big bond fund") just paid a cap gains distribution of $5,400 yesterday. Because it is all LTCG, I will pay no federal income tax on it, only state income tax (about $350). I also figured out that having reinvested this amount in more shares, it will pay me about $20 extra per month every month....forever!

Not bad for doing nuthin' LOL!

 

[TuborgP]

No guilt at all and we get two pensions and two SS checks and this time of year spend a lot of time on the beach. Had to have done a lot to reach this point. We realize we are blessed and had good fortune but it wasn't just that.

 

[FUEGO]

We decided to fly Business to the UK last year but found that that a cruise over was much cheaper, and since we are retired we could take the 8 days "the crossing" takes.

I can't wait till DW and I can do the transatlantic cruises to/from Europe instead of flying. I wouldn't mind the eight to 14 day crossings at all!

 

[Chuckanut]

Years ago I worked for MegaCorp as my first job after college. A tycoon had bought one company and over a period of years merged it with two others to form MegaCorp. There were lots of older veterans of each organization who did not have much to do other than push a few papers for two to three hours a day while they sat it out waiting to hit retirement age. They were almost literally getting paid for doing nothing.

When the company started offering early retirement incentives, the Big Boss dictated that the people who chose to stay must now pull their weight. In a few months some very nice offices became meeting rooms. But, I don't blame them a bit for leaving. I would have myself if I had been in their situation instead of being a wet behind the ears, know nothing, 20-something.

 

[Alan]

I can't wait till DW and I can do the transatlantic cruises to/from Europe instead of flying. I wouldn't mind the eight to 14 day crossings at all!

You are going to love it, very relaxing and no jet lag as the time change happens gradually over a number of days.

 

[NW-Bound]

Okay, I can relate. I have my little luxuries I enjoy, too, that other people here would not choose to spend money on.

Have you looked in to the frequent flyer hacks for free air travel and upgrades? That is one of my next projects.

Now that both of us are no longer working, and then more of our travel is by RV, we do not fly much to get frequent miles. Are there some shortcuts or hacks? I have not looked into that.

I finally got my first taste of first class through an airline employee deal of rd trip for $200 this spring. It was cheaper than coach. Pretty nice setup in first class. Trouble was it was all on standby and we damn near didn't get out of Vegas to get home. Finally we found a path back to Midwest through Miami. Doubt if I ever do that again, but at least it was all in 1st class.

First class and business class in small planes such as the 737 is still nice, but nothing like the big long haulers like the 747 or 767, where the seats lean back to near flat. I slept very nicely on those, thank you.

Back on getting paid for nothin', last week I gained almost as much as what I have spent year to date. I have a feeling some of it will be taken back next week. Easy comes, easy goes.

 

[mpeirce]

I finally got my first taste of first class through an airline employee deal of rd trip for $200 this spring. It was cheaper than coach. Pretty nice setup in first class.

My one and only experience in 1st class was back in 1985. I was recently out of college and my now out of college friends decided to go on a ski week. Back then the dollar was strong against the lira and it turned out to cheaper to spend a week skiing in the Italian alps than in Colorado or Vermont.

There was also a sweet deal on Pan Am - buy a Polaroid camera and get a half off ticket on Pan Am. So I bought a ~$100 camera (earmarked as a christmas gift) and end up spending about $400 on the round trip tickets from San Francisco to Milano. These were coach tickets of course.

The college friends where scattered around a bit, so we all flew through New York to get to Milano. One friend was late getting in from Boston. The rest of us had checked in and had seats and were getting really worried about the guy.

Well, he finally showed up with maybe 15 minutes to spare before last call for boarding. BUT they had given his seat away to someone on standby.

One of our group was rather gifted in negotiating and went to speak to the Pan Am folks. He wandered back and announced that Pan Am had found a seat for our late friend. But he and one of us would have to change seats and sit away from the group. "Who wants to go with ___ (that friend)"?

I volunteered. Then the negotiating friend announced that the two folks "sitting apart" would actually be sitting in 1st class!

So I got to a 1st class seat from JFK to Milano. Excellent food. Plenty of room. Nice.

Not bad for $400 tickets. The whole trip was <$1000 for a week skiing in the alps. It was a great trip!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Now that both of us are no longer working, and then more of our travel is by RV, we do not fly much to get frequent miles. Are there some shortcuts or hacks? I have not looked into that.

There are bloggers and forum members who travel all over the world for close to free using airline miles from credit card sign up bonuses and manufactured spending, like finding ways to buy and sell gift cards at cost but making the profit on the miles or cash back of the credit cards used to buy the gift cards.

I probably wouldn't do many of the more extreme hacks because I can make more money working part time, but there are some low hanging fruit ideas I have on my to do list.

 

[Onward]

After crawling over a mountain of broken glass while being sprayed with lemon juice by supersoaker-wielding members of management, its about ****ing time.

Well put!

 

[mickeyd]

I only count my investment gains when I take the money from the account and do something else with it. Paper gains are, well...only paper gains.