In this episode, I answer a question from a listener, "How the hell are we supposed to win in a game with broken incentives structures?" by Aaron Clary, an investment specialist who has made better financial decisions than I have.
00:00:27.800Hey, folks. So this requested video comes from Mina, and it's a question of lifestyle, of how the hell are we supposed to win in a game with broken incentive structures?
00:00:44.960It's the sort of question that normally you'd want to pose to Aaron Clary, and I said as much to Mina.
00:00:51.660Yeah. Not only has that man made better financial decisions in his life than I have, he's worked as an investment specialist for a good portion of his life.
00:01:04.040So if you want career advice, he's really the guy to go to.
00:01:07.540But Mina clarified and said that I'm asking more from the philosophical, the strategic type of perspective.
00:01:17.600And so I'm going to do the best damn job I can with this question.
00:01:21.660And the question is really, I think it's one that all of us are asking ourselves, because we get sent down rabbit trails.
00:01:30.460We get told to do the wrong bloody things, you know, like, oh, go, go get a line of credit so you can buy a leather sofa, for example.
00:01:39.880Go get a useless degree. Here's some free money to do it. You name it.
00:01:43.800So the real question, I think, is what the hell are we supposed to be doing with ourselves?
00:01:49.880You know, especially in the system being as messed up as it is, what the hell ought we to be doing with ourselves, with our lives?
00:01:57.100And so with that in mind, I'm going to break this video down into three portions.
00:02:04.480Number one, I'm going to examine the hidden assumptions in the question itself, because if you can understand what your assumptions are, where your question's coming from,
00:02:16.040that tells you a lot about the question, that tells you a lot about what your answer is going to be.
00:02:19.700Number two, I want to go over some basic rules of thumb, some pieces of advice that I wish that I had followed a little bit more stringently.
00:02:30.540And number three, we'll be addressing the one part of the question where he says, what are good milestones for where we should be in our lives at certain ages?
00:02:42.040What should our goals be in the strategic sense, rather than the particular unique sense for you, the individual?
00:02:51.780So with that said, I'm going to start by reading the question, because it's a great question, and I think it sums up where, well, just about where all of us are trying to figure out what the hell we're doing with ourselves.
00:03:04.980To what extent do you encourage chasing the money insofar as it provides financial independence?
00:03:15.680In our consumerist, hedonistic culture, is that even more reason to pursue financial independence in order to get out of the rat race altogether?
00:03:23.700Or is it a standalone goal that one should have regardless of his station or current life trajectory?
00:03:29.340Well, a seemingly random question I ask because, as you and others have noted over the years, institutions in general, and employers in particular, have become, and perhaps are becoming even more,
00:03:41.260anti-male to the extent that a man can lose his paycheck overnight to something silly that wouldn't matter to any reasonable person.
00:03:49.260Isn't this even more reason to build oneself up as soon as possible to get the fuck out?
00:03:53.280Going even further, isn't being financially independent a way to protect, to the extent possible, one's free speech?
00:04:01.100Touching on Roosh's keen insights, too many are silenced or even self-censored out of fear of backlash or losing their jobs.
00:04:08.280And when push comes to shove, they lack the resources to protect their interests and speak the truth.
00:04:14.440There are, these are all probably leading questions, I ultimately believe that you agree,
00:04:19.000so I was wondering more specifically what recommendations you have.
00:04:22.520If you had to stipulate, what arbitrary milestones would you establish for certain age brackets?
00:04:27.780Like if you're 25 and just finally got out of debt, that's good, but so on and so forth.
00:04:34.600In answering these questions, how would you touch on certain subtopics such as active versus passive investing,
00:04:40.440home ownership versus renting, lifestyle inflation, among others?
00:04:46.100Finally, what metric, if any, can one use to say,
00:04:49.480okay, I've won, I can quit playing this game now?
00:04:52.520In short, what do you, as a man living in 2017, do to build and protect your financial interests?
00:05:05.760So it's a broad question, as you can see, which is why I want to start off by examining the hidden assumptions in that question.
00:05:15.340So, the first one I want to touch on is free speech in the workplace.
00:05:26.160Now, you're probably thinking of Brendan, it was Brendan Eich, right?
00:05:32.020The guy behind Mozilla, he's currently doing Brave, the web browser.
00:05:36.060And he lost his position, despite an extensive career, because it was exposed that he supported gay marriage.
00:05:46.720You know, he donated $1,000 to the Prop 69, or whatever the heck it was.
00:05:52.860See, I think this is the wrong sort of question.
00:06:01.760What happened to him was fluke of nature.
00:14:29.840Generally speaking, when somebody wins the lottery, two years later, they are broke and they are now alienated from all their friends and family.
00:14:38.020And if you look at people that collect trust funds, collecting a trust fund is one of the hardest things to do.
00:14:49.580Thankfully, most of the people that get trust funds have been groomed into it.
00:14:54.260And you probably don't know who they are.
00:14:56.600Yeah, they're rich New Yorker social...
00:14:58.620Well, actually, you do, because you're from New York.
00:15:02.280But they're rich New Yorker socialites who devote their time to training classical music, to reading, to writing, to doing something to contribute.
00:15:14.780Because otherwise, they would just go on a coke binge.
00:15:22.040Financial independence ain't all it's cracked up to be.
00:15:24.320In fact, trying to figure out something to do with yourself when you're financially independent is the hardest goddamn thing in the world, especially if you're not trained for it.
00:15:35.780And most people just fall into absolute depravity and nihilism whenever they do so.
00:15:45.420It sounds like a wonderful dream, especially when you're struggling with your bills.
00:21:43.800Don't risk everything on a huge gamble.
00:21:47.820Make sure you've got the bottom line taken care of.
00:21:51.200Make sure that you've got the basic finances taken care of.
00:21:55.820You know, make sure that you can afford to go out to the bar on Friday night or go rock climbing somewhere.
00:22:01.600You know, that you're not, your buddy invites you to go rock climbing and you're driving there terrified that your car's going to break down.
00:22:09.240So that'll be a $500 repair job and you won't be able to show up to work on Monday.