125

Like they're so shamelessly blatant about who their reader base is nowadays I just can't

Here's the article if you want to read it I can't summon the energy pain https://web.archive.org/web/20240507210734/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/07/magazine/retire-early-saving.html

all 35 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] invo_rt@hexbear.net 77 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Long story short, kid has a rough childhood, develops a police scanner app in the wild west app store days, people pay for it for some reason, he's a multimillionaire. Not exactly a career path you can scale.

[-] Tabitha@hexbear.net 26 points 1 week ago

think-about-it if the success story was reproducible, they'd be reproducing it, not sharing it.

[-] the_itsb@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

develops a police scanner app in the wild west app store days, people pay for it for some reason

is listening to the scanner not a common pastime where you live?

It's been a while since I've seen one (I don't go in other people's houses much anymore, and presumably most people don't have a dedicated machine anymore), but it used to be super common to go in an older person's house and see an emergency & police scanner in the corner. It was great for getting the latest, juiciest gossip and keeping track of what the pigs were up to, if you had the patience to listen long enough to decipher what they were saying. (As an unmedicated AuDHD kid, I did not.)

One of the most popular local Twitter accounts just did scanner posting all day for years, it was awesome.

[-] LanyrdSkynrd@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago

Most police/emergency radio systems are trunked now, requiring more complex hardware to listen in. It makes using these apps a more compelling option, even though they're charging money for(or inserting ads into) what is essentially public information.

More and more police agencies are encrypting their radios, so this will all be gone soon enough.

[-] radiofreeval@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

They encrypted it in my city kitty-birthday-sad

[-] tactical_trans_karen@hexbear.net 47 points 1 week ago

I'll happily help them end their careers.

[-] EmoThugInMyPhase@hexbear.net 42 points 1 week ago

If I ever see my neighbor with a Supercar and bazinga gadgets, I will be sure to give anyone who wishes to rob them their address

[-] radiofreeval@hexbear.net 38 points 1 week ago

savers

McLaren in background

[-] BurgerPunk@hexbear.net 35 points 1 week ago

All i need is my health, my solid gold house, and my rocket car

[-] Xx_Aru_xX@hexbear.net 14 points 1 week ago

That's a Lamborghini Aventador

[-] radiofreeval@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago
[-] Xx_Aru_xX@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago

I'm just surprised that it's usually the otherway around, people see a Mclared and call it a Lambo, now the one time it's actually a Lambo someone calls it a Mclaren

[-] AstroStelar@hexbear.net 34 points 1 week ago

He started coding around the clock, tinkering on D.I.Y. software ideas whenever he wasn’t at work, barely sleeping. He doggedly pushed one project after another to the App Store, praying for something to take off. Eventually, one did: an app that let users tune in to police scanners around the world. Then another. Their runaway success took even him by surprise. By the time his peers were splurging on their first West Elm sofas, he was a self-made multimillionaire.

One simple FIRE rule of thumb is to first calculate your target “FI number” by multiplying anticipated annual retirement expenses by at least 25, and then squirrel away as much as possible into interest-accruing or tax-advantaged buckets like 401(k)s, low-fee index funds, certificates of deposit, HSAs and Roth IRAs until you hit that number.

The first quote sounds like religion: sacrifice everything in the here and now and you may enter heaven. The second quote just describes "passive income" schemes that depend on paying less taxes and the stock market, which is highly speculative and relies on actual labourers to do the work that makes these companies so valuable as they claim.

The article mentions three "tomes" of the FIRE movement: one by a former astrophysicist, another one by a software developer. Jobs paying above $100,000 are most common, which is just 6 percent of the US population.

My interpretation of the FIRE movement is that it is an attempt to revive the "American Dream" by telling you to live an ultra-minimalist lifestyle and "hustle" for in most cases more than a decade, and relying on the stock market and tax breaks instead of actually producing things with your own labour. It feels like an ultra-charged version of the capitalist mindset, realising the boot on workers but only caring about saving yourself. It's the ending to 'Ready, Player, One'.

[-] AstroStelar@hexbear.net 25 points 1 week ago

Also, the author mostly writes about fashion and other frivolous stuff that rich people are interested in. No wonder that people living paycheck-to-paycheck weren't mentioned at all.

[-] D61@hexbear.net 18 points 1 week ago

999 people doing this same thing failed, 1 person succeeded.

Its a foolproof plan! inconceivable

[-] whatup@hexbear.net 28 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Allen Wong in his primary residence in Celebration, Fla.

Ewww, that sketchy gated community in Disneyworld? Jesus, Disney adults shouldn’t be allowed to have their own money. They would be much better off attending 90s kid daycare where they can watch The Lion King 1/2 on cassette tape and eat Dunkaroos.

[-] AcidLeaves@hexbear.net 27 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

There's absolutely nothing wrong with having healthy financial strategies, sometimes to the point of obsession, and aiming for FIRE especially given our fucked up government who doesn't care about us, as the author herself says

But every single person I've met who does this is a reactionary neoliberal

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 week ago

Is it actually possible to be a FIRE grindset guy and not turn into a reactionary neoliberal?

[-] MF_COOM@hexbear.net 21 points 1 week ago

Unless you're an entertainer or athlete or something and you can just sell your labour in a way that everyone wants to pay to consume specifically your labour you're inevitably building your wealth on the labour of poor people

[-] Hexamerous@hexbear.net 10 points 1 week ago

Yeah, FIRE is just living off dividends. If you coupled that with a steady treat supply, you're just doing labor aristocracy/petty-bourgeois shit. I doubt most of these people plan to retreat to a small house, grow their own food, fuel and stop treat consumption for sustainable living.

[-] TheWolfOfSouthEnd@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 week ago

I don’t follow football, but this morning I was reading a post about a somewhat local to me footballer, and how he still owns his first car, “so he doesn’t forget his roots”. There were loads of comments how much money he was worth. The man grew up in a terraced house and got where he is due to football skills. But Bezos or Richard Branson earned their money. Boggles the mind.

[-] AcidLeaves@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Almost impossible, some sort of base super structure theory going on here?

Anyways I kind of did that except I didn't penny pinch, just tried to min max financial strategies (credit cards, options trading, interest rates, etc.) but like, maybe 60% of the extent of what FIRE guys do. Still way more than the average person

And tbh, yea, I did end up becoming somebody who's weird with money and wealth despite intellectually being radicalized and now I'm still trying to unlearn all of that

I was never reactionary or a neoliberal even before radicalization, I was just thinking about money far too much

[-] coeliacmccarthy@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago
[-] AcidLeaves@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago

Do you have an OF? I'll subscribe to it

[-] AcidLeaves@hexbear.net 2 points 1 week ago

On a more serious note I give very often to mutual aid posts here. If you ever make one I'll probably be one of the donors

[-] peppersky@hexbear.net 24 points 1 week ago

FIRE is just trying to speed run becoming a capitalist. It's definitely and undoubtedly wrong

[-] TheWolfOfSouthEnd@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 week ago

It isn’t just your government though. It’s all governments, more or less.

[-] AcidLeaves@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago

Most governments give out free healthcare it's not even close

[-] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago

That article seems entirely too long.

[-] WeedReference420@hexbear.net 11 points 1 week ago

God he has the Elon Musk soythrower and everything

[-] REEEEvolution@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

*blowtorch

It's not throwing anything.

this post was submitted on 08 May 2024
125 points (100.0% liked)

the_dunk_tank

15726 readers
449 users here now

It's the dunk tank.

This is where you come to post big-brained hot takes by chuds, libs, or even fellow leftists, and tear them to itty-bitty pieces with precision dunkstrikes.

Rule 1: All posts must include links to the subject matter, and no identifying information should be redacted.

Rule 2: If your source is a reactionary website, please use archive.is instead of linking directly.

Rule 3: No sectarianism.

Rule 4: TERF/SWERFs Not Welcome

Rule 5: No ableism of any kind (that includes stuff like libt*rd)

Rule 6: Do not post fellow hexbears.

Rule 7: Do not individually target other instances' admins or moderators.

Rule 8: The subject of a post cannot be low hanging fruit, that is comments/posts made by a private person that have low amount of upvotes/likes/views. Comments/Posts made on other instances that are accessible from hexbear are an exception to this. Posts that do not meet this requirement can be posted to !shitreactionariessay@lemmygrad.ml

Rule 9: if you post ironic rage bait im going to make a personal visit to your house to make sure you never make this mistake again

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS