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Our generation's lack of work ethic and money skills.

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I've seen countless people including my grandparents and parents working their ass off only to instantly lose most of what they earned and saved due to a medical illness or butting heads in court with someone "well connected".

There is really no incentive or assurance that working your ass off during your prime to geriatric age will pay off and the "American Dream" is BS for most of us and was only briefly relevant during the baby boomer generation.
 
God Mode said:
I've seen countless people including my grandparents and parents working their ass off only to instantly lose most of what they earned and saved due to a medical illness or butting heads in court with someone "well connected".

There is really no incentive or assurance that working your ass off during your prime to geriatric age will pay off and the "American Dream" is BS for most of us and was only briefly relevant during the baby boomer generation.
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Depends how you define the "American Dream," but otherwise I agree with you. My dad worked hard all his life and died at 63 before he could enjoy retirement.
 
EliteRetard said:
Even if it were 6% (double the average) Id still be doing OK. Actually some of my investments would benefit from inflation (they were made with that in mind).

And who says I only invest in America? This country is snowballing downhill...so many stupid people here its amazing. I'm certainly not putting all my chips on that number.
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lol please tell me you invested in europe or china cuz it's even worse in europe and china has cooked books and weak laws to protect your investments.
 
brianmanahan said:
lol ok financial-end-of-the-world swami, so what should i invest in for my future?
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invest in yourself. make sure the skills you refine to use for your career are always relevant and useful. no hard asset, metal, paper, etc is immune to the shitstorms to come.
 
EliteRetard said:
TROLOLO another person who cant comprehend living great on $12K a year. I understand your to weak to open your own candy bars but you don't need to pay somebody to do it for you, you can just ask somebody to open it for free when you buy it.

You'll live a miserable life because you only make $100K, far less than you need to be a "rich" man. You'll never be able to "keep up with the Jones'". Me, Ill live fantastically well...eat great, go have fun, see places, do new things, wear good quality comfortable clothes, enjoy music, etc and Ill do it for a tenth of what you make because its easy to do. I do think it would be great if everybody could understand this, but somehow most can not.
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Living on $12k a year at a below average income and enjoying it explains a lot more. But when you start your story with "I'm living in Japan", you give the initial impression of being a rich person who likes to travel the world and blow lots of money. Obviously, you're not.

And you got it wrong, I'm stupidly frugal because I am easily entertained. Not as frugal as you, but save the majority of my paycheck hoping to live off investments one day and working for "fun".
 
I agree. Many have a spend all you can philosophy and feel when times get tough someone else will bail them out.

This is why the whole 'ObamaCare' is really being implemented IMHO. Too many know they can always go to the ER for anything and never pay a dime even those making decent salaries.
 
Imp said:
Living on $12k a year at a below average income and enjoying it explains a lot more. But when you start your story with "I'm living in Japan", you give the initial impression of being a rich person who likes to travel the world and blow lots of money. Obviously, you're not.

And you got it wrong, I'm stupidly frugal because I am easily entertained. Not as frugal as you, but save the majority of my paycheck hoping to live off investments one day and working for "fun".
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I never said I was living in Japan, just that I have the time and money to visit for a few months because I properly manage my time and money. I congratulate you if you are frugal, but your previous statement that you need at least $100K a year to live well is disgustingly wrong. In fact you don't need to be rich to travel the world...my total cost (including flight and room) for three months here should be about $5K. A trip like this occasionally shouldn't be impossible even with low income, as long as your not throwing away your money the rest of the year.

Personally I think this is far more enjoyable than bragging about the fancy clothes I have and getting drunk with people who admire how much I wasted on said clothes. Today for fun, I'm going to go to the hooters (Nagatacho Station) here in Tokyo...see how they compare 😀

And the place I'm staying, currently there are 5-7 french girls sharing rooms. They like to walk around topless and share the shower. Wasn't planning on that, but its a pretty cool bonus. They can't really speak english, and I highly doubt I'm gonna get any...but I'm not complaining.

And for those who do like to drink, you can get dinner and all you can drink (nomihodai) for 2 hours for like $20 here. I tried it once just for the heck of it and you can get a very large variety of drinks, not just beer. Now I know what alcohol is like and I didn't have to spend a ton. Actually I had some edamame, bacon cheese things, and some kind of ice cream parfait type thing that were all great as well. I didn't actually get real food because I had already eaten (didn't know meal was included at this place).

Haven't gotten out of the city yet, but I hear the country is great... I'm looking forward to going out and exploring later on in my trip. I hope I come back glowing in the dark (stupid American fear mongers). I know an actual in the field professional nuclear engineer, and Ill take his word over random idiots on youtube...its safe here 😛
 
EliteRetard said:
And for those who do like to drink, you can get dinner and all you can drink (nomihodai) for 2 hours for like $20 here. I tried it once just for the heck of it and you can get a very large variety of drinks, not just beer.
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Beer is expensive in Tokyo. What you're talking about is the way to go but I've never found one cheaper than 5000 yen.

If you ever make your way into Yokohama let me know. It's a cool bay city, pretty much a suburb of Tokyo, and there are some good restaurants there. If you end up wanting some English conversation just find a TGI Friday's or any of the local English bars. Yokohama has one called Benny's that is pretty cool.

As for the country, make sure you check out some of the nearby shrine areas first (Kamakura for example) and then head into the outer areas. Hakone is cool. Fuji should be open all the way to the top right now (or maybe in August, can't remember for sure) if you're interested in hiking at all.
 
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EliteRetard said:
I never said I was living in Japan, just that I have the time and money to visit for a few months because I properly manage my time and money. I congratulate you if you are frugal, but your previous statement that you need at least $100K a year to live well is disgustingly wrong. In fact you don't need to be rich to travel the world...my total cost (including flight and room) for three months here should be about $5K. A trip like this occasionally shouldn't be impossible even with low income, as long as your not throwing away your money the rest of the year.

Personally I think this is far more enjoyable than bragging about the fancy clothes I have and getting drunk with people who admire how much I wasted on said clothes. Today for fun, I'm going to go to the hooters (Nagatacho Station) here in Tokyo...see how they compare 😀
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I grew up in the most expensive city in my country and still live there, so my concept of a "living wage" is much much different than yours🙂. That and I grew up to parents and acquaintances who preached about how you "need" to drive an expensive car and shit marbles or something...
 
Imp said:
I grew up in the most expensive city in my country and still live there, so my concept of a "living wage" is much much different than yours🙂. That and I grew up to parents and acquaintances who preached about how you "need" to drive an expensive car and s**t marbles or something...
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i grew up on 20$k total income and vehicles that were > 10 years old, lol
 
EliteRetard said:
I never said I was living in Japan, just that I have the time and money to visit for a few months because I properly manage my time and money. I congratulate you if you are frugal, but your previous statement that you need at least $100K a year to live well is disgustingly wrong. In fact you don't need to be rich to travel the world...my total cost (including flight and room) for three months here should be about $5K. A trip like this occasionally shouldn't be impossible even with low income, as long as your not throwing away your money the rest of the year.
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First, what expenses do you have each month...are you living with your parents when in the US? My wife goes to Japan each year (she was born there and her entire family lives in Shinzouka and the surrounding areas (middle Japan). A couple weeks is about $2000 and she's not spending money on lodging. $1200 of that is airfare. The exchange rate is terrible now fortunately now it is at least hovering around 80YEN per dollar...it had dropped to around 70 for a while.

To put this in perspective, even 4 years ago it was around 120YEN per Dollar. 10 years ago a bit more. Oddly the 'historic' sites don't show that picture accurately.

Most low income people couldn't come up with $5,000 of disposible income, that is about $400 per month. What kind of lodging are you doing in Japan? You are doing Hostels. You don't have a private bath, you share a room...most people wouldn't even qualify to lodge there and if they did most wouldn't want to do that.


EliteRetard said:
Personally I think this is far more enjoyable than bragging about the fancy clothes I have and getting drunk with people who admire how much I wasted on said clothes. Today for fun, I'm going to go to the hooters (Nagatacho Station) here in Tokyo...see how they compare 😀
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It's interesting that you are claiming you can do all this cheap and are still eating out at the 'expensive' places.

EliteRetard said:
And the place I'm staying, currently there are 5-7 french girls sharing rooms. They like to walk around topless and share the shower. Wasn't planning on that, but its a pretty cool bonus. They can't really speak english, and I highly doubt I'm gonna get any...but I'm not complaining.
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again a very rare situation. It's common to bath around each other and see tits and the like, especially at the hot springs...but most aren't walking around half naked outside of that. Most hostels are VERY STRICT in Japan about separating the males and females. Also your stuff is sort of free for the taking.

EliteRetard said:
And for those who do like to drink, you can get dinner and all you can drink (nomihodai) for 2 hours for like $20 here. I tried it once just for the heck of it and you can get a very large variety of drinks, not just beer. Now I know what alcohol is like and I didn't have to spend a ton. Actually I had some edamame, bacon cheese things, and some kind of ice cream parfait type thing that were all great as well. I didn't actually get real food because I had already eaten (didn't know meal was included at this place).
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Nomihodai is very limited. You are getting the small selections of beer, wine and some cocktails that restaurant bought, these are all the 'well drink' types. You aren't getting Patron, Moet, etc. They usually have a white and red wine, only a few beers, some regular spirits. You also only have 1 or 2 meal selections for those places.

EliteRetard said:
Haven't gotten out of the city yet, but I hear the country is great... I'm looking forward to going out and exploring later on in my trip. I hope I come back glowing in the dark (stupid American fear mongers). I know an actual in the field professional nuclear engineer, and Ill take his word over random idiots on youtube...its safe here 😛
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If you are in North Japan then things will be better as the tourism took a big dive. I know guys that clean up reactors that recommend staying away from 20 miles minimum from that disaster site pretty much for our life times. They also did not sign on to decontaminate even though it was tied to up to half million dollar bonuses. Many died and have had issues that did.

You can do Japan for $5k over 3 months...you aren't going to really enjoy places like Tokyo on that. Mt. Fuji area, the country, etc sure. If one likes just getting out in nature, it can be cheap...but you still are faced with the terrible YEN exchange. There are many islands that over a better experience and much much cheaper.
 
Working longer, saving, investing...sounds nice on paper, but reality happens.
Lifes too short. I don't know any retired folks who look like their having much fun as they sit there watching jeopardy. i'd rather be a door greeter at Walmart. besides, i know enough to recognize that if i save all my money, chances are pretty good that it'll get forced out from under me somehow before i get to retire on it.

But if you do retire, who's to guarantee that you won't end up in a nursing home and have them take everything you ever had. Thats what happened to my great granny, she had a good retirement plan....but once she had to go to the home, they took EVERTYHING. she didn't see that comming in her 20's i bet.
no fark that, i'm goin down owing outta my corpse.
 
DarkVision said:
Working longer, saving, investing...sounds nice on paper, but reality happens.
Lifes too short. I don't know any retired folks who look like their having much fun as they sit there watching jeopardy. i'd rather be a door greeter at Walmart. besides, i know enough to recognize that if i save all my money, chances are pretty good that it'll get forced out from under me somehow before i get to retire on it.

But if you do retire, who's to guarantee that you won't end up in a nursing home and have them take everything you ever had. Thats what happened to my great granny, she had a good retirement plan....but once she had to go to the home, they took EVERTYHING. she didn't see that comming in her 20's i bet.
no fark that, i'm goin down owing outta my corpse.
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You are a great American
 
DarkVision said:
Working longer, saving, investing...sounds nice on paper, but reality happens.
Lifes too short. I don't know any retired folks who look like their having much fun as they sit there watching jeopardy. i'd rather be a door greeter at Walmart. besides, i know enough to recognize that if i save all my money, chances are pretty good that it'll get forced out from under me somehow before i get to retire on it.

But if you do retire, who's to guarantee that you won't end up in a nursing home and have them take everything you ever had. Thats what happened to my great granny, she had a good retirement plan....but once she had to go to the home, they took EVERTYHING. she didn't see that comming in her 20's i bet.
no fark that, i'm goin down owing outta my corpse.
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They don't take EVERYTHING, she was lucky to have it so she was taken care of when your parent's didn't step up for her.

I don't plan on children (I am 41), I hope the day I die I am left with just enough to put my ass in the ground or cremate me. That said today I have reserves. I hope they grow to a nice nestegg around my 65th year or sooner. I too plan to keep working though.

My plan is to be more active with animal charities.
 
alkemyst said:
but you still are faced with the terrible YEN exchange.
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Yeah Japan is definitely not a bargain anymore. The exchange rate is a killer. To put it into perspective in away that many can understand, individual draft beers at a Tokyo bar will cost in the 600-1000 yen range (size, brand consideration). So you can easily pay $10-$12 for a 16oz beer. It's crazy.
 
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