Author Topic: Frugality stifling talent?  (Read 8590 times)

undercover

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Re: Frugality stifling talent?
« Reply #50 on: March 16, 2017, 09:08:25 AM »
Frugality, if practiced correctly, only enhances your ability to go farther and accomplish more.

You're confusing frugal with "cheap". Price is a primary concern when you're cheap and you feel like money is a limited resource. If you're debating a purchase from a frugal perspective, you're asking yourself how much value does will this thing add to your life. If a great amount, price should mostly be irrelevant (although not completely irrelevant since we live in the real world).

Yes, I admit that there's a fine line. But it's all about how you see the world. Do you see an abundance of resources that should be managed effectively and efficiently or a limited amount or resources that should be used as sparingly as possible?

I do definitely believe that being "cheap" holds people back. If you're only ever focused on "expenses", where's that going to get you? If you only ever think in terms of "I have this much money to work with" then you'll probably never get ahead. Of course I'm not saying that in reality people do not have limits, it's just you'll never expand if you don't allow your mind to. You need to be able to think like a rich person but live like a below average person. You have to balance the present you with the future you and slowly grow into that person.Someone who is wealthy would not care about the price of things that make them happy and bring value to their lives. But since maybe 0.5% of people here are worth $10m, you still have to make prudent choices with money.

Refusing to only buy the lowest priced electronics/clothes/household items, bike everywhere you go, line dry all your clothes, do everything in your house yourself, make all your own meals, etc? That's cheap in my opinion if you haven't considered or tried alternatives that will free up space/energy inside your mind to do things more in line with what makes you happy. I know this is sort of the anti-thesis of what MMM preaches but it's true if you're ONLY doing aforementioned things to save money. It should never be to only save money - it should be that not only do you save money but you gain energy and enjoy what you're doing at the same time.

Mr Chin Stubble

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Re: Frugality stifling talent?
« Reply #51 on: March 16, 2017, 09:13:33 AM »
To respond substantively, I think your point is that being frugal requires a lot of time and energy to the point that it stops you from chasing your dreams.


Yup. It is not just being frugal with other goals in mind. The goal is really a frugal lifestyle which leads to a frugal retirement right? Otherwise, why are you on this board?

Tyson

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Re: Frugality stifling talent?
« Reply #52 on: March 16, 2017, 09:24:36 AM »
There's no difference between frugality in a "general sense" and the MND "lifestyle". MND is just one dataset that shows that it's easy to grow your wealth if you don't chase status symbols. That's it.

Well then you obviously never read the book or weren't paying attention. When I think of MND it is not necessarily a high earner. In fact many of the occupations could be classified as dull normal; Welding contractor, dry cleaner owner, janitorial services business owner, a frugal teacher etc.

By the same token I would think Keanu Reeves is frugal. I have seen him with a fleet of motorcycles some that cost over 100,000 dollars but he also rides the subway, and presumably lives within his means. His means happens to be a lot higher than the millionaire next door.

Oh, I get what you are asking.  You want to know "If I make it big, like really big and become incredibly wealthy, should I still live a frugal life".

I think that depends.  From a financial standpoint, as long as you are not spending more than 4% of your wealth per year, you can spend on whatever you want and never run out of money.  Obviously 4% of 50 million is a lot more than 4% of $750k. 

I notice that people who become very wealthy very suddenly often have a desire to show off the fact that they are wealthy, so they buy a big house and a super nice car and start to move in different social circles.  With enough wealth, it's certainly possible to do these things and still be living within your means.  If that interests you, then sure, go for it. 

But a word of caution - after a while the house becomes just another thing to maintain and the car won't bring you the joy it did initially and the new higher social status friends will turn out to be boring or nasty or condescending.  Just remember, you are not locked into that life!  If you realize that you're not any happier with an inflated lifestyle (which is likely, IMO), it's always possible to cut those things out and move back to a simpler lifestyle.  People with a lot of wealth often say that they feel like they are trapped into a certain life and into certain choices.  But that's not true, it's always possible to make different decisions.

talltexan

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Re: Frugality stifling talent?
« Reply #53 on: March 16, 2017, 09:38:55 AM »
Some people manage to have a high year (think of MC Hammer earning over $30 million in a year in the early 1990's). In some cases, that year cannot be replicated.

The extent to which earning a lot of money RIGHT NOW gives a clue to what your lifetime resources will be is...wide open in my opinion.

Mike Tyson was worth over $300 million at one point. He could have sustained a lifestyle of $1 million/month indefinitely (4% rule) from that, but it doesn't seem he managed to do that. But perhaps his $3 million/month he was spending would have been reasonable if he could have put together just two more big fights and stayed out of jail.

ReadySetMillionaire

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Re: Frugality stifling talent?
« Reply #54 on: March 16, 2017, 10:21:17 AM »
To respond substantively, I think your point is that being frugal requires a lot of time and energy to the point that it stops you from chasing your dreams.


Yup. It is not just being frugal with other goals in mind. The goal is really a frugal lifestyle which leads to a frugal retirement right? Otherwise, why are you on this board?

Began writing a substantive response, but your reading comprehension is terrible and it's not worth the time.

ReadySetMillionaire

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Re: Frugality stifling talent?
« Reply #55 on: March 16, 2017, 10:55:45 AM »
To respond substantively, I think your point is that being frugal requires a lot of time and energy to the point that it stops you from chasing your dreams.


Yup. It is not just being frugal with other goals in mind. The goal is really a frugal lifestyle which leads to a frugal retirement right? Otherwise, why are you on this board?
That's not it at all. Its about living a frugal life so you can do whatever the hell you want. If that's retire early fine. If that's start your own business fine. If that's becoming a guitar hero fine.  Do what ever the f*** you want in your life and quit blaming frugality for stifling your talent or ability to use your talents. Quit your job, move out of the burbs into the city, pursue your dream. If you make it great. If not you can go back to work and pursue something else. No ones and nothing is tying your hands but you. If that's not an option then do what many here do - work a job and do your passion/talent in your spare time. If you are the rare snowflake amongst the 7 billion other snowflakes who succeeds you can quit your day job and be a huge success. If you aren't special or talented enough to succeed professionally at your passion then at least you'll have the FU or FI money to do whatever else you want in your life.

Well said.  Unfortunately this has been said a hundred different ways so far and OP continues to boo-hoo around like a baby, so I'm not if he or she is going to get it or not.

Gondolin

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Re: Frugality stifling talent?
« Reply #56 on: March 16, 2017, 10:58:30 AM »
God bless you Spartana.

Your post was my original response but, I didn't want to punch too hard right out of the gate.

Tyson

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Re: Frugality stifling talent?
« Reply #57 on: March 16, 2017, 10:58:37 AM »
One thing I really like about MMM is the whole idea of "enough".  It was something I'd never really considered, because in the past, as soon as I got more money (raises), I spent it on nicer things.  Then I realized at some point that 'nicer' was not nice enough for me any more.  So I started pining and planning to get something EVEN NICER.  The thing that I'd lusted over for so long and finally had bought 6 months prior was just not doing it for me any more. 

Don't get me wrong, I still like things that are high quality.  But I've learned that having something of good quality is enough and I don't need 'the best'.  It's a mental shift and it's made the accumulation of wealth possible for me, for the first time in my life. 

Mr Chin Stubble

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Re: Frugality stifling talent?
« Reply #58 on: March 16, 2017, 11:59:16 AM »
To respond substantively, I think your point is that being frugal requires a lot of time and energy to the point that it stops you from chasing your dreams.


Yup. It is not just being frugal with other goals in mind. The goal is really a frugal lifestyle which leads to a frugal retirement right? Otherwise, why are you on this board?
That's not it at all. Its about living a frugal life so you can do whatever the hell you want. If that's retire early fine. If that's start your own business fine. If that's becoming a guitar hero fine.  Do what ever the f*** you want in your life and quit blaming frugality for stifling your talent or ability to use your talents. Quit your job, move out of the burbs into the city, pursue your dream. If you make it great. If not you can go back to work and pursue something else. No ones and nothing is tying your hands but you. If that's not an option then do what many here do - work a job and do your passion/talent in your spare time. If you are the rare snowflake amongst the 7 billion other snowflakes who succeeds you can quit your day job and be a huge success. If you aren't special or talented enough to succeed professionally at your passion then at least you'll have the FU or FI money to do whatever else you want in your life.

Well said.  Unfortunately this has been said a hundred different ways so far and OP continues to boo-hoo around like a baby, so I'm not if he or she is going to get it or not.
fear masked as denial? Fear of failure? Fear of risk? Fear of others perception of you and your life? I don't know. I'm always of the opinion if you really want something in life, and you are obligation free,  then you need to get off your ass and pursue it in one way or another. Quit blaming other things from holding you back. Especially something like frugality. Really? Unless your talent/passion requires a huge capital expenditure to make it happen there's no reason most people can't pursue their dreams. Sure they might not work out for you if you quit your job to pursue them and you find yourself at 45 having to flip burgers for a living. But for some people that might be a trade off.

OK big mouth. Lets hear what you like to do at age 42 and what some of your goals are.

Meanwhile I deliberately tried to keep my own personal ambitions and life goals out of this and tried to just speak in a general sense about this. But it was always: "what do you want to be?? an actor...OK well then go act." What do you want to do ? A start up tech firm ...OK well go be frugal and then you can have the money do start up a tech firm."

I was really talking about everyone. And by everyone I am assuming you are here because you really do not want to be working in the traditional sense but early retired. Unless you are a pro athlete where it's expected to be retired early I would think an early such retirement is a commitment. And I cannot imagine making it big as real estate developer as your dream (example not mine) when your alternate goal is to live off 30k a year and ride your bicycle everywhere.

swick

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Re: Frugality stifling talent?
« Reply #59 on: March 16, 2017, 12:05:36 PM »
MOD NOTE: Topic locked, this is obviously gone about as far as it can go with the OP. Thank you to those who shared their wisdom and personal experiences so that others benefit from the thread as well.