Comment by sidlls
9 years ago
That's what almost every one of these success stories, blogs, etc. are. They're very heavily weighted toward survivor bias and elide much context around being born into relatively privileged circumstances.
9 years ago
That's what almost every one of these success stories, blogs, etc. are. They're very heavily weighted toward survivor bias and elide much context around being born into relatively privileged circumstances.
Fuck that noise.
A lot of people are born into "privileged" circumstances in america. That is one factor. Not the only one.
To quote MMM:
"Sure, privilege does exist, and it might make it easier or harder to inherit a company or win a senate seat. But it can’t control your choice to ride a bike, buy less shit, or read library books in your spare time and I argue that frugality is the most powerful factor in earning your independence. After all, most of my equally-privileged engineering coworkers are still stuck in the office to this day." - http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/04/01/impossible-dream/
Maybe other bloggers were "privileged", but MMM grew up in a family that didn't have a ton of money, and he payed for his own college via jobs he worked as a teenager. In short, he worked his ass off.
I worked my ass off to get where I am financially. I grew up with low income, abusive, mentally ill, and alcoholic parents. I wasn't taught hardly any life skills and I had no "connections" of which to speak. I worked hard to get where I am now (I save/invest 70% of my income a year) but I don't for a second discount luck as a big part of it. Someone making similar choices as I did can surely have a different outcome.
Plus the biggest increase in my financial status came from getting married to someone who makes just as much money as I do.
Who you marry is hands down one of the largest factors in your overall financial success. Especially when it comes to the risk of divorce.
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Sure, he and his wife clearly worked for what they have. Doesn't mean there isn't survivor bias (luck) and privilege at work. For example, anybody who can pay for their own college from jobs they worked as a teenager is privileged.
Take a look at his own story: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/04/08/mr-money-mustaches...
He doesn't say he grew up in a family without a ton of money. He grew up in a frugal family. In Canada, with a number of social support systems that simply don't exist elsewhere. He could attend a local University on his teenager job savings and had a good job waiting for him upon graduation. He and his wife found a fixer-upper they could afford to fix up. And so on. These aren't things that happen to or for most people. The suggestion that his experience generalizes is terrible.
Do you mean to say he is privileged because of the country he grew up in? If so, I certainly agree.
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What's worse is when one of these "how I became a millionaire before 35" stories gets posted somewhere like Reddit, legitimate comments such as this one are heavily criticized as "you're just being mean(!?)" and "its because you're jealous."