NYTimes readers share their tips on “How to Prepare for a Longer Life”
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/28/your-money/longevity-finances-reader-responses.html
Here’s mine:
1.) Understand the Reagan scam from the 1980’s. Earning wage & salary income is just about
the dumbest thing you can do in America, tax-wise. Trickle-down isn’t helping you. And working uncompensated overtime in the hope of raises and promotions is usually a poor investment – switch jobs instead. I job-hopped through five Fortune 500 companies in the 1980’s before early retiring in 1994 at age 38.
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If you’re living off an investment portfolio, you almost have to volunteer to pay any taxes by selling something. Large multi-generational fortunes weren’t created by whatever productive activity the founders were up to. It’s the lack of taxation compounded over decades and generations.
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Because of the big difference in taxation, you’re really not going to lose anything by retiring early. Wage and salary growth is a small fraction of what you’ll earn with an S&P500 index fund.
Here’s a USA Today article from 2013.
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