On 7/27/2014 10:50 AM, Ignoramus12347 wrote:
On 2014-07-27, amdx wrote:
On 7/26/2014 10:44 PM, jon_banquer wrote:
iggy's not mechanical. iggy never will be mechanical. iggy will
never be any kind of decent machinist because he can't think and
reason. iggy thinks he's really clever asking others on Usenet to
think for him.

He doesn't realize how much he hurts himself with this
mentality. What's worse are people that for years make every excuse
for this kind of behavior. It makes me sick.


I have a feeling that iggy is doing just fine for himself.
He could even be that secret millionaire living next door.

MikeK, I appreciate your sentiment, but I want to say something about
millionaires.

Being a millionaire used to mean a lot. Say, 100 years ago,
millionaires were very rare, and a million dollars was significant
wealth, enabling the lucky millionaire to live an extravagant,
enviable lifestyle.

That rarified millionaire lifestyle 100 years ago, accidentally, was
worse than the life that a regular middle class person earning
100k/year enjoys nowadays. They did not have air conditioners, cell
phones, the Internet, comfortable cars, Viagra, TV, modern medical
care, modern airplanes, and many other things.

So, I would much rather earn 100k per year today, than be transported
100 years back and given a million dollars to play with.

Today, in terms of social standing in the wealth percentile
distribution, a million dollars in 1914, would be an equivalent of,
perhaps, 50-100 million dollars in 2014 money.

A million dollars nowadays, is a very boring sum of money, unless you
are willing to blow it and spend it all in a few months. You can only
derive $40,000 or so of income per year without endangering the
principal. This would not give you any ability to live
extravagantly. A million dollar home, in most areas, is a very nice,
but not remarkable house. Etc.

A million dollars still sounds like a lot of money to a lot of people,
but practically this is no longer the case to those who think about
this in practical terms.

What is still true, however, is the saying that "the first million is
the hardest". A million dollars is a sum that allows one to open
business ventures without being hobbled by bankers and investors, and
to make and compound the money without having to work for someone else.

i

Looks like you have paid attention to building a net worth* and what
income it will generate.
It's true a million dollars ain't what it used to be. But, if you
follow the 4% rule and add in a husband and wife's SS, you're looking
at $75,000 a year. For me that's more than comfortable.
Less than 5% of the population has a net worth over $1.4 Million.
Interestingly, 50% of the population has a net worth of under $57,000.

Here is an article showing what has happened to wealth in the last 10
years. It has a chart of wealth of American households.
http://web.stanford.edu/group/scspi/...lth-levels.pdf

Here's where I started to get that pdf.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/bu...hird-less.html

Mikek

* net worth calculated as, the total value of all financial and real
assets minus debts.