"Once you own a home outright, and health insurance is taken care of, the other expenses are completely manageable. I don't need to earn a lot to lead a rich life."
That is the checklist of a rich person, own home outright, health insurance taken care of, and manageable other expenses.
If you were the same age, but had no home ownership, no health insurance, and dependants how would that change your perspective?
I aim to earn about 50K a year. That's my treading-water level. Does that sound doable? My wife and I have discovered that it is possible to lead a rich life within that income in the Bay Area -- international travel, more books than we have time for, eating well with friends and so on. Insurance comes out of this amount as well.
A young person with desired skills could easily be making more than twice this amount in the Bay Area. Owning a house is strictly optional (and a bit mad, to own a house in earthquake country, esp at those prices!)
Point is, many people vastly overestimate how much they need to enjoy a rich life. There's plenty of room at the bottom :)
Now, 50K is huge for the vast majority of the population, so this is all still rich talk. But the HN community is probably in the top 2 percentile of the world's population, so I feel little freer in saying so.
You can buy a home for $50k in Pittsburgh, I would argue that doesn’t make you rich. You can keep a very easy job (think Starbucks) and your health insurance is taken care of. If you live a modest life your expenses are manageable.
I've worked both in a coffee shop and in a FANGish tech role. The coffee shop was much more brutal and physically demanding with long shifts on my feet and unpredictable scheduling -- I don't think I could keep that up as I age. I'd much rather stay in a tech job if my goal is just to keep health insurance.
It's easier in the sense that more people are able to do it. Not in the sense that doing it incurs less suffering, or in the sense that making yourself do it requires less willpower. The spectrum between easy and difficult is multidimensional.
That is the checklist of a rich person, own home outright, health insurance taken care of, and manageable other expenses.
If you were the same age, but had no home ownership, no health insurance, and dependants how would that change your perspective?