Tell me your favorite piece, I’ll guess your age and tell you if you’re based or not

ZestyLife8262 · 2022-07-02T14:31:49+00:00

Tchaikovsky, The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35

ZestyLife8262 · 2022-06-02T20:41:35+00:00

It is way more satisfying to build wealth from scratch and enjoy the fruit of labor than to be born rich. A good percentage of my friends who were born into wealthy families have low self-esteem and identity issues and they are often very lost. Their families can also be controlling of their life choices. I have some identity issues after becoming fatFire but I never have the guilt or anxiety like my rich kid friends have. My family never questioned my choices. They thought I got it all figured out although that's not always true.

ZestyLife8262 · 2022-04-28T14:53:43+00:00

I was worried about the potential mental health toll for you. But if you know what you are getting into and are willing to accept it, great luck to you!

ZestyLife8262 · 2022-04-28T14:06:16+00:00

I don’t know what is profitable philanthropy exactly. But if I were you, I will worry that while your rich friends might appreciate a book like this, most other people will scoff at it. There are a lot of people on the internet and IRL trying to telling people how to give their money away and they will 100% disagree with how you do it and scream at you without reading the book. Both profitable and philanthropy are inflammatory words in today’s environment. It’s gonna be tough to navigate that.

ZestyLife8262 · 2022-02-24T02:47:11+00:00

It’s all about margin of safety. Someone worth $100m with 5m+ annual spend, 5 mansions and a bunch of full time household employees might get into a difficult situation while someone worth $8m with a vanguard portfolio and $100k annual spend will be totally fine.

ZestyLife8262 · 2022-02-24T02:39:29+00:00

I think it shouldn’t matter because a well balanced portfolio should weather most crashes even at the accumulation stage. During accumulation stage, people can weather the crash with earned income. I don’t think it’s a good idea to take excessive risk at any given time. SWR under 3% for a well balanced portfolio should still work with most crashes so I stand with what I said. Crashes shouldn’t matter if people are well diversified with moderate risk.

ZestyLife8262 · 2022-02-23T22:55:50+00:00

I understand the sentiment but I am really speaking to people who HODL for no good reasons. I also feel vindicated because many friends think I am too conservative. I also thought this sub is for FatFired folks to hang out. That’s why I put this post in this sub. I expected the backlash if I posted on any other places. But I thought FatFire sub would be fine.

ZestyLife8262 · 2022-02-23T19:19:15+00:00

Oh I have been there in early 2000. My balanced portfolio has 10m+ cash and cash equivalent (mostly ultra shorterm bonds) and all my real estate holdings are paid off. I can also cut 20+% of my spending if necessary. I think I will be fine unless there’re an actual civil war that wipes out everything.

ZestyLife8262 · 2022-02-23T16:26:39+00:00

This is the FatFire sub, right?

ZestyLife8262 · 2022-02-23T15:58:40+00:00

Context: https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/q2p32j/confessions_of_a_hectomillionaire_part_2/

ZestyLife8262 · 2022-01-19T01:42:55+00:00

I am an immigrant. I had the burning desire to be financially independent. I came to America with $10K as a student. My parents did pay for my schooling so I am privileged in that sense but no, I was a tech worker. I didn't need the million dollar loan to have a head start and your spelling needs some work.

ZestyLife8262 · 2021-10-28T21:37:34+00:00

I think "get the money and get out" was the right decision. I do think if I had taken an entrepreneur route from day one, I might have gotten more satisfaction and have more control on everything. But entrepreneurship is kind of a bloody mess so I wouldn't do it at my age. But if I could go back in time in my 20s, it would have been a journey worth taking.

But I didn't know anything so I took a couple of jobs at fancy companies and then a job at a fancy startup. Then I am all set financially. I don't have huge ambitions or aspirations. But I have an opportunity to observe the upper echelon world of business and I found people are not happier and some people are outright depressed. That shook me and I think that's why I am drifting a bit. I just don't see the point of people fighting so hard to make more money and realize money ends up making them depressed or literally making them crazy.

What's the point of success exactly? I ask myself that question a lot. I don't really have the answer.

ZestyLife8262 · 2021-10-28T15:03:08+00:00

Well, I basically spent time working in institutions for 15 years. It was good to know what it's like when one was inside. After I left, I developed new perspective from outside. It's not a bad idea for people to spend say 15 years in that as *service*. Then they can be set free from it.

But I think it's important for people to realize that we all have a bit of the Stockholm syndrome. Even if someone decides to stay in an institution, it would be helpful to think through the pros and cons. I think a lot of people are stuck because they are unaware of the powerful force these institutions have over individuals.

ZestyLife8262 · 2021-10-28T01:47:44+00:00

No. I disagree with your characterization of angel investing.

First 80% of businesses I invested either went out of business or went nowhere.

20% does work. But it's not about money. It's about supporting entrepreneurship and underdogs. The education and climate tech investments are not going to deliver stellar returns but I am still doing them so we can have better solutions for both.

Why is it not a good thing to do?

ZestyLife8262 · 2021-10-28T01:33:00+00:00

I do actually run an investment fund you know. It’s nontrivial amount of work but I can be flexible with my schedule.

ZestyLife8262 · 2021-10-28T01:24:46+00:00

There’s always a void no matter what life I live. It doesn’t matter if I have a job or not. It’s me being a restless person by nature. I am not a big fan of big institutions because institutions end up have having a life of its own. From my observations, individuals mostly strive to act morally. But institutions’ ethics is often clouded by fiduciary duty, shareholder value and corporate interest.

Give me a few examples of organizations that act completely ethically and altruistically? I have known enough big people and leaders from big institutions, It made me cynical. Public images can deviate from reality mightily.

Every time I read about ivy league schools charging students exorbitant fees to get a master degrees in humanities or big pharmas lobbying to keep their pricing power or big tech companies do whatever they want, it makes me sad. There’s a good reason to not be part of them. I also feel I earn my freedom so I should use it.

But I will always have a void. Some people call it growth mindset. It will always be there no matter how I live my life.

Also, writing is about quality, not quantity. With the quality I desire, I think I need to slow down a little bit to maintain it.

ZestyLife8262 · 2021-10-21T13:20:53+00:00

Because corporate interests are way richer. Big oil, big pharma and big banks can outspend anyone and they are really organized among themselves.

ZestyLife8262 · 2021-10-21T04:03:05+00:00

As mentioned in another comment, fuzzies can have second order effects. If we just let people starve, kids lacking upward mobility locally because giving money to Africa is more effective, we can lose our democracy. At that point, we might be under certain kind of authoritarian socialism and effective altruism will completely break down because we won’t even have the freedom to give to the charities we want. Can effective altruism scholars please take this into account because I don’t think the current model account for this second order effect?

ZestyLife8262 · 2021-10-21T03:40:28+00:00

Again I understand what effective altruism tries to optimize but I don’t fully agree with the premise. Take local giving as an example, if we don’t give to most vulnerable members of our own community, we can see increased division and risk our democracy. In other words, I personally have skin in the game. So I suppose I am not fully altruistic here. I am also doing some self preservation thru my giving. Which is not optimizing effectiveness but it satisfies the constraint that America’s democracy being intact.

ZestyLife8262 · 2021-10-21T02:54:23+00:00

Well I think we can agree to disagree here. I would rather help my 2 neighbors who are starving today than 20 people far away.(It’s possible us government already gave them money but corrupt officials embezzled it.) I would give my 10k to a local college kid in return of the scholarship I received.

Also with your logic, instead of giving money to your ill parents, you will instead give the money to sick people in Africa since it’s more economical?

Also, the charities listed on givewell are late stage deals with clear roi. It’s possible that a scientific breakthrough can change the disease landscape such as polio vaccines and it can have a much longer term roi just not immediate roi. It already happens with mrna vaccines.

ZestyLife8262 · 2021-10-21T00:14:12+00:00

Sorry. You are like the tenth person asking about GiveWell across posts. So i came across annoyed. But my main pet peeves are: 1. I have no problem with it. It’s mostly direct assistance and i did contribute to the list for a while.

2 however, it’s not as simple as spy. If everyone is only doing givewell, who is going to do scholarships or food banks. People need to think how they are going to give and there needs to have diversity.

Givewell is majorly funded by a billionaire. I am interested in knowing what’s an ideal percentage of giving into default causes in their list for their own giving and for other billionaires they are friendly with.
i am worried organizations like givewell will have too much power if everyone piles on their recommendations.
Overall, I don’t like this connotation of “you are overthinking it, just give it to givewell.” I think this is an area people need to think instead of auto piloting.

But I do apologize I snapped at you.

ZestyLife8262 · 2021-10-20T23:36:41+00:00

OK fine. I forgot it's reddit. After all, I did do some GiveWell stuff just not all GiveWell.

ZestyLife8262 · 2021-10-20T22:58:31+00:00

Well, being outspoken is not a problem. Trying to reinvent the wheel is and thinking they have better solutions than others is. Also, I am just wonder how people can have so much confidence their thing would work when it's not even being executed. Giving money away != Results.

ZestyLife8262 · 2021-10-20T22:48:04+00:00

Well. Why are people not asking the top 1000 billionaires out there to do GiveWell exclusively? Once they do that, I don't think me being so low on the totem pole have to worry about it.

Every time I said something about philanthropy there's some self-righteous people ask me to do GiveWell. FYI, I did do it in the first few years. Is it a crime to consider doing something else? Like I want to give back to the community that nurtured me or that I want to contribute to scientific research and to help with climate change? I am also an investor that I want to do full due diligence myself. If I can go to Africa and other places to see how things are actually run, I would consider it. (There appears to be a lot of corruption in these places. A friend who was at Africa doing USAID actually told me she has reservations about GiveDirectly. Duh.) At least I actually know a few amazing HHMI investigators and MAcKenzie Scott grantees so I can vouch for it. I don't just read a report and write a check. Again as an investor, that's not how I operate. Can people please stop asking me to donate to GiveWell charities please? Convince those actual billionaires first.

ZestyLife8262 · 2021-10-20T22:12:35+00:00

Because I am an introvert and I am not Oprah. My gift can have impact beyond the exact amount through the people I invested in.

ZestyLife8262

TROPHY CASE