I've seen cases where the engineer who brown-bags his lunch, and folds the bags for reuse, ends up in a 7-figure divorce. I've seen the fellow who blows $20 on sit-down restaurant lunch every workday, and then gets take-out Chinese for dinner, and who shows up with Starbucks coffee every morning... amass and maintain a very healthy sum, because even if he's profligate in the small, he deftly avoids blunders in the large.As a very young engineer I remember getting mildly raised eyebrows when I pulled out my brown bag lunch in the cafeteria. They didn’t mock me until I carefully folded up the brown bag for reuse.
Yes. Two things can be true at once.Grumpy Old Man or Sage Mentor?
Why not both?
Heh, heh, who's laughing now??As a very young engineer I remember getting mildly raised eyebrows when I pulled out my brown bag lunch in the cafeteria. They didn’t mock me until I carefully folded up the brown bag for reuse.
I was Navy submariner, an engineer, and then a lawyer. I packed my lunch every day in my grandfather's lunchbox (almost always leftovers from dinner the night before). My grandfather was an iron miner on the Mesabi Range in Minnesota. That lunchbox became famous among my office mates.As a very young engineer I remember getting mildly raised eyebrows when I pulled out my brown bag lunch in the cafeteria. They didn’t mock me until I carefully folded up the brown bag for reuse.
You are living up to your user name.I've seen cases where the engineer who brown-bags his lunch, and folds the bags for reuse, ends up in a 7-figure divorce. I've seen the fellow who blows $20 on sit-down restaurant lunch every workday, and then gets take-out Chinese for dinner, and who shows up with Starbucks coffee every morning... amass and maintain a very healthy sum, because even if he's profligate in the small, he deftly avoids blunders in the large.
Smith is adrift because he didn't have a strategy, a plan. He had it happen to him, rather than expect it, or at least, go out on his own terms before it happened. That's the point. Don't get gray-hair-riffed, unless you are getting rif'd as part of your strategy (which is what I did, but I will never go gray).Good advice, but it's double-edged. Smith saved his nickels and invested in the S&P 500... then "got exited" at age 50 or 55. He's adrift, even if the money-situation is fine.
Well, yes. But if I may, with specifics:Smith is adrift because he didn't have a strategy, a plan. He had it happen to him, rather than expect it, or at least, go out on his own terms before it happened. That's the point. Don't get gray-hair-riffed, unless you are getting rif'd as part of your strategy (which is what I did, but I will never go gray).
One of the four dams above my city might break and flood the entire city killing thousands.Well, yes. But if I may, with specifics:
1. We might have exquisitely robust and invulnerable strategy in some matters, but utterly lack such cushion, in others. A person might diligently save for retirement but have a horrible blind-spot in say matters of health, or relationships. On the other hand, somebody might flub savings, investment and retirement - but remain in great health and stay lucratively employed to 75+... doing just fine, never having saved a nickel, having $0 in the 401K and living paycheck-to-paycheck.
2. Sometimes the very act of preparing for a rainy day, brings torrential rain. Less metaphorically, it may be so, that a person who's well-prepared for early retirement, who's comfortably affluent and frugal, grows jaded and complacent and passive in late-career. If you don't need the job, why keep hustling? Then without meaning to underperform or to become deadwood, this person is the first to be let go. Management is smarter than they look! They can tell if an employee is independently wealthy, even if that person drives a jalopy and wears tattered clothes.
If you don't need the job, why keep hustling?
I'm not suggesting that we should have overwrought dread of edge-cases, stymying our lives just-because. What I am suggesting, is that there's a kind of insidious law of nature, where the well-prepared are as it were punished, while the dissolute and flighty are somehow nurtured, as if some guardian angel has mercy.You propose scenarios that could occur. Sure but so what? Are these the most likely scenarios? Are they even remotely realistic? If not, then they are just a distraction from what is helpful.
"Nature looks after the foolish, but punishes the wise"
Thank you for sharing. I appreciate hearing other people's world views. I just don't happen to hold your view. I think it is much better to be wise than a fool. Here is an ancient proverb I like:"Nature looks after the foolish, but punishes the wise".
Same here. We bought our first house because DW got a small windfall (enough for a 5% down payment and closing cost) and we didn't know what to do with the money, so we bought a house! Research says that homeowners have a higher net worth compared to the renters. My theory is that homeowners have to run a tight show (at least early in the homeownership journey) so they get used to spending less and saving more (and making more!). I remember few months after we bought the house, we realized that we barely have any money left over at the end of the month (after 401k, mortgage, etc.). That is when I started looking for a better job. I doubt if I would be that motivated if we didn't buy the house at such a young age.I was smart enough to save in the 401k, and saved enough to get into a house after 2 years working.
"It's not about getting rich, it's about not becoming broke."
Old buddy at w*rk would hear someone trying to come up with that old saying and he would always offer: "You can lead a fish to swim but you can't drink a horse" whereupon everyone would throw something at him.Something about horses and water.
Selective hearing affects some. They only hear what they want, not what they ask, or need.