Sometimes when I see this behavior, it is someone who is trying to convince themselves of the decisions they made.
As my kids say, “DUH!!”
=========================
I sometimes wonder what’s the point of having a ton of money, live below your means, and have (and never have had) no immediate family–no spouse, children, grandchildren. You die with a 7or 8 digit portfolio…and nobody cares. Nobody even comes to cry at the funeral. seems like a pointless life.
Just explaining the arithmetic of various financial decisions.
*You treat us like we are idiots. We understand the arithmetic. If anyone does not, they should after you have spent years posting over and over about your superior skills at saving. Sometimes when I see this behavior, it is someone who is trying to convince themselves of the decisions they made. Maybe you are finding there is more to life than a big pile of money.*PSU
When your only tool is a g/d hammer… keep on hammering. Obsessive compulsive disorder.
Yes, there’s very much the sound of what someone tells themselves when they look in the mirror. For some people, we all know somebody like this, everything in life is “like baseball” for some “honor” (or some ersatz misconception of honor) for some it’s Religion and Faith. For some it’s: “Look, I can do math.”
You die with a 7or 8 digit portfolio…and nobody cares. Nobody even comes to cry at the funeral. seems like a pointless life.
As described, yeah.
The whole point of LBYM is to accumulate enough assets that you don’t have to LBYM anymore. Your asset growth covers a really nice lifestyle (of whatever you want to do…travel…learn to fly…scuba…whatever). I have to have a family, though few friends. Unlike the funerals we see depicted on TV, you’d probably be able to count the mourners are one hand. But they would be there.
Focusing on the funeral, though, is pointless. It’s the living before the funeral that matters (at least to me).
Many people think the equity in their home is an “investment”, just like the expensive German sports sedan that’s going to depreciate 30% in the first 2 year is a “fuel-injected investment”.
LOL. You are comparing an appreciating asset to a depreciating asset? Most people don’t live in 1980’s TX, and a house is an appreciating asset, if only over the long term.
I will take putting a down payment down and then paying a mortgage less than what the property would rent for, rather than give money hand over fist to a landlord, as well as abdicate any ability to make decisions or changes to the place I live in. It may or may not exceed the stock market, but it sure as heck exceeds the bond market. It’s as close to owning bonds that I get, other than I bonds.
As a landlord, I am happy to take those monthly payments, which come to me via Venmo. Our tenants have also paid to have rooms painted professionally to a color we both agree on, as well as other improvements that then have to stay. They are not only paying the mortgage plus, but paying for improvements. What a bargain…for me.
IP
Rayvt: I sometimes wonder what’s the point of having a ton of money, live below your means, and have (and never have had) no immediate family–no spouse, children, grandchildren. You die with a 7or 8 digit portfolio…and nobody cares. Nobody even comes to cry at the funeral. seems like a pointless life.
So, what is the point of life? To propagate the species? The earth will continue to orbit the sun with or without us, no? Maybe even a race of intelligent horses might evolve and do a better job of managing the earth than we have done.
CNC
… btw, what’s the “vt” about? (Idle curiosity.)
You die with a 7or 8 digit portfolio…and nobody cares.
Nobody even comes to cry at the funeral. seems like a pointless life.
Precisely the reason to plan to die early.
The earlier you die, the more people there
are who remember you. And probably some
of them might like you enough to take the time to
come to your funeral.
Now, combine this with one of the possible anti-vaxxers’ strategies.
Purchase a multi-million dollar term life insurance policy,
and then avoid vaccinations, face masks, social distancing, etc.
at all times. Maximize face-to-face encounters with as many
people as possible, preferably in dancing, singing, drinking
settings. Then hog a bed in an ICU while dying, taking special
satisfaction in the fact that someone who actually deserved to
have an ICU bed didn’t get one.
In this scenario, there would be more people at the
funeral than if death arrived years later, and the
beneficiaries of the term life policy might even be
there at the funeral, mourning gleefully among the many
corks popping from the champagne bottles.
vez
So, what is the point of life? To propagate the species?
Yes.
The whole point of having children is to propagate the species. You see this in the entire animal kingdom. Every species actively seeks to propagate.
The earth will continue to orbit the sun with or without us, no?
Yes. But it matters to us. The metaphysics doesn’t matter. Empirical observation is what matters here.
BTW, there is a very interesting book titled “The World Without Us”.
Maybe even a race of intelligent horses might evolve …
You are too late. The race of intelligent horses was aeons ago, and they died out, leaving no trace. 
… and do a better job of managing the earth than we have done.
Always wondered about that “do a better job of managing the earth” saying. The world is what it is, as you say “will continue to orbit the sun with or without us”. The world doesn’t care, the world is happy with volcanos spewing lave, and is happy with ice glaciers covering the land a mile high.
LOL. You are comparing an appreciating asset to a depreciating asset? Most people don’t live in 1980’s TX, and a house is an appreciating asset, if only over the long term.
I’m not shy about telling people who assume renting is “throwing money away” when they don’t plan to stay put for more than a handful of years that I lost money on my first house, and that was before I factored in maintenance and insurance costs. It would have been a better deal financially if I’d rented an apartment in the complex down the street for the same period of time. It wasn’t the 80s and it wasn’t in TX. It just wasn’t in a location that was hot for buyers when it came time to sell.
But I read that as what most people think. Probably everyone here has seen (and yelled at) some car-product commercial on t.v. talking about “protecting your investment.”
(and to balance things out, I should say that Obamacare offered my family worse plans for triple the premium of what we had before and TANSTAAFO)