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Anyone have an anti-wealth mindset?

rastapasta

Don Juan
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I'm just curious if there are any people out there that have a similar financial mindset as myself. So far I haven't really found any and most people look at me like I am crazy if i discuss this stuff with them.
To summarize, I've spent most of my professional career in accounting / finance. I started in the music industry and was promoted pretty quickly after I finished college. This isn't really a passion for me or anything, it is just a job, but I take my job seriously, I like to think I am pretty good at it and it has paid my bills. Currently I own a small accounting biz with one client (outside the music biz where most of my experience is). It pays OK, lets say my salary range over the last 8 years has been approx $70-85K per year depending where I was working, etc.

In my 20's I was all about work and really busted my ass. Worked tons of overtime, etc. I wouldn't say I was extremely thrifty but I saved something. Definitely made some poor financial choices as a young 20 something like a lot of people. About the time I hit 30 I realized I had wasted most of my 20's being obsessed with work, and all so I could have a savings account with maybe like 40 grand in it and drive a nice car, live in a nice part of the city, etc. Another important time was the financial crises of 2008, where I saw a lot of people get laid off and suffer financially. Fortunately this wasn't me, with the exception that I was basically given twice as much work with no pay increase over approx. a 4 year period. But what I noticed was that hard working people who made the right choices were getting screwed, while people who overextended themselves and bought **** they couldn't afford were basically no worse off. A friend of mine (and I don't judge him for this at all) basically lived in a house for over a year rent free and walked away from it. I saw this everywhere around me, people basically not having any real consequence to living beyond their means except for MAYBE losing whatever they could never afford in the first place.

Everything is cyclical and eventually we're going to have a financial crises again. I'm not trying to time it really, but I am pretty sure it is going to be a lot worse than 2008 and is not that far off. I also think any intelligent person can see the entire farce that is our debt based global economy and fiat money system. With that said, I made some poor investment choices a few years back and got into business with a friend. That failed for a number of reasons and after a year I cut loose and walked away. So here I am, no savings, living (quite nicely actually) paycheck to paycheck, with probably 40-45K in credit card debt from that investment and living beyond my means. The old me would have been eating ramen until everything was back to equilibrium but to be honest I think I am going to just keep riding this out until I can't any more. I don't want to be a sucker who saved only to have the system reset and find out it was all for nothing, either unable to earn any real return on capital I had while actually losing purchasing power due to inflation. I'd rather live beyond my means at this point, and enjoy these prime years of my life. Even if the system doesn't reset, then worse case I file BK and reset myself anyways. Then I'll just have to live at or below my means and like it.

I don't really have a desire to own a house where I live (nor could I ever afford to), I have no wife or kids to support or pass anything down to and I just don't care about new cars and other shiny tech crap any more. I'm happy driving a 17 year old car that runs better than my friends brand new Jeep. I'm more happy with the simple things in life then aspiring to "own" anything material. I do love living beach side, and eating good food and other nice things and know that all takes $$$ (at least in this city) but is it really sustainable?

Anyone else out there kind of have this "fvck the system, now I am just going to milk it for what I can" view or am I just being totally stupid?
 

speed dawg

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I get it. I see it all the time. Used to have a neighbor that just didn't make his house payment, said he knew it would be 3 years before Bank of America came after him. He and some his brothers/friend ran a bunch of shady companies, basically living off credit and investors with WAAAAAAY too much time/money on their hands. No matter how much trouble they got in, or how many people they f*cked over, they always seemed to get out of it. And....he never quit spending money, his kids always had the best stuff, had nice vehicles, etc. Very competitive people in general.

And here I am, keeping myself in the black, yet I seemingly have more stress than he did. I am not jealous of his situation, but I WAS jealous of his ability to simply NOT CARE. This guy had 3 kids too. Let me add, that his wife worried enough for the both of them, however.

I don't know if there's an answer. I have children so I must provide for them and leave them something after I am gone. But I've always been a conservative saver type, I hate to waste anything. Just my nature.
 

Bible_Belt

Master Don Juan
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Wealth is an idea. Everyone is going to have their own concept of it.

I never was impressed by numbers on paper. The bank sends me a piece of paper every month; the numbers on it seem largely irrelevant to my actual life. A long time ago, those were big numbers. I bought a fast car, a motorcycle, a law degree, and several years of martial arts lessons. The car eventually blew up, and I sold the motorcycle after a drunk driver ran a red light and missed me by just a hair going about 75. Learning how to sue people and how to beat people up were two things I was interested in at the time. I don't want to ever do either one, but I also want to know how in case I ever have to. I'm glad I spent that money. I don't especially regret the car or the bike, either. I had a lot of fun with them too. These days, I have a much less expensive motorcycle and truck, but they are all I need.

Lately I'm interested in tomatoes. I want to build a business growing and selling them. I've been at it for a few years now, and I'm just starting to get good at it. Pursuing what I want to do is my concept of wealth. Obviously it takes money to meet one's basic needs, but beyond that, I'm not worried about numbers on paper.
 
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