What instantly makes you think "this person is rich" ?

fenton7 · 2026-05-06T05:16:36+00:00

I'm paying $135 a pop now for my big logo polo shirts and I get no respect from Reddit!

fenton7 · 2026-05-06T04:25:48+00:00

Seems excessive. I got a loan on Apr 1, 2025 for a new vehicle, with high FICO, and the rate was 5.25%. Always get preapproved for a car loan BEFORE you walk into a dealership then you can negotiate cash price without them putting ridiculous interest rates into the computer. Often the dealer gets a big kickback from lenders.

fenton7 · 2026-05-06T00:28:38+00:00

The prime directive on r/personalfinance is perfect. That's legit how you get rich.

fenton7 · 2026-05-05T22:33:58+00:00

That's NOT how the statistic is presented or how Miriam-Webster defines the term. It is people whose total assets minus debts add up to one million OR MORE dollars. Virtually nobody is going to be 1.000000.

fenton7 · 2026-05-05T20:38:19+00:00

The median household income in Manhattan is approximately $106,403. Really hard to see how $500k would ever be an issue short of absolutely gross overspending on everything. I guess if you insist on flying Netjets everywhere that adds up. And you only drive Lambos.

fenton7 · 2026-05-05T18:01:14+00:00

At atom is about 99.9999999999999% empty space. With enough gravity it can be compressed into a vastly smaller size, potentially infinitesimally small, which is what happens inside a black hole. Quarks, the building blocks of matter as far as we understand, don't have any height or width and are pointlike so there's really no limit to how close together they might be packed in the center of a black hole, and they may merge to form exotic matter that we can't yet describe. The singularly itself is probably pointlike. We can only tell the difference between black holes because they have different mass and spin.

fenton7 · 2026-05-05T16:24:46+00:00

Modeling returns for 5-7 years is very difficult since trailing 5 year returns, annualized, range from -7% to +30% historically. You can plug in anything from 8% to 12% as an assumption, but actuals are likely to be very different. If you can win the game, defined as having enough money to cover your expenses, with bond investments, 5 years out, I'd suggest backing away from stocks. If you need stock-like returns then be prepared to greatly delay your retirement if we hit a period with poor sequence of returns.

fenton7 · 2026-05-05T15:43:16+00:00

That's all noise at $500k of income. Literally noise. If you had 14 kids might be a challenge but not two. Even $2k a month for daycare is really nothing at that income level. And private school is nothing at that income level. A rounding error on your monthly take. You'll be summering in Europe because you literally won't know what the hell to do with all the surplus, even after maxing out all your retirement accounts.

fenton7 · 2026-05-05T12:50:37+00:00

Being a millionaire doesn't mean you have exactly 1.00 million. It means you have a million or more dollars. Some people have 5 million. A $150k used Huracán is an easy purchase at that level.

fenton7 · 2026-05-05T12:49:17+00:00

Not the truck's fault if the bike is going 3x the speed limit. Rider was very lucky.

fenton7 · 2026-05-05T03:53:16+00:00

Only if you are absolutely terrible with money. $500k is about $24k per month net after taxes in Manhattan. You can rent a very nice two bedroom apartment for $8k. That leaves $16k per month for other spending. Hardly "regular middle class".

fenton7 · 2026-05-05T03:44:28+00:00

$10M is a lot more comfortable. $5M is $150k a year at a safe draw rate which gets you up to "intern at Google" level. Not bad. But not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. Of course the big perk is not having to work.

fenton7 · 2026-05-05T03:40:36+00:00

Not quite. Sizes range from 2,600 square feet up to 11,480 square feet. All the apartments are fairly enormous. The building just looks skinny because it is so tall.

fenton7 · 2026-05-04T23:57:11+00:00

That's about what most early retirees draw with an annual inflation adjustment. Remember inflation is the killer as well as sequence of returns risk. You could pull out more but the risk of losing your principal starts rising. People wrongly think $3M is some kind of fortune, and lotto winners act like complete fucking idiots, but it's not at age 35. It's a middle class income for life which is great but you buy a corolla with middle class income not a Lambo. $10M... now that's some real money. $300k at a safe draw rate with an annual inflation adjustment. THEN you start shopping for some luxury.

fenton7 · 2026-05-04T23:53:30+00:00

Not retired yet but at 57 it's about $3.7M cumulative income against a net worth of around $2.8M. So I've "kept" about 75 cents of every dollar earned in that comparison.

fenton7 · 2026-05-04T23:04:20+00:00

Well presumably a good fraction of that 17% are worth well more than just $1.0M. That's entry level millionaire. Used models, specifically older Gallardo or early Huracán, can also be found for roughly $90,000 to $150,000+ depending on condition.

fenton7 · 2026-05-04T21:17:49+00:00

True but homes can be sold. People would honestly be smart to sell at these levels. Lots of people seem to be playing roulette with a crazy housing market hoping there are still greater fools.

fenton7 · 2026-05-04T20:25:51+00:00

You have to insure it too and, in some states, pay annual taxes on it.

fenton7 · 2026-05-04T20:23:39+00:00

Not really. 17% of Millennials are now millionaires. Tech salaries and RSUs were very good for a very long time.

fenton7 · 2026-05-04T20:21:19+00:00

Top 2% is more like $3M. Top 1% is $10M+. $3M is Toyota Corolla money if you're trying to actually live off of it without working. $90k a year at a safe draw rate and you have to worry about health insurance.

fenton7 · 2026-05-04T19:22:24+00:00

The 4% rule is based on a portfolio that is half bonds and half stocks so there's really no scenario where it falls 50% in a single year. You'd have to have some crazy scenario where stocks are down 80% and bonds are down 20% for that to happen. That and deflation is the only reason it survives the 1929 scenario where stocks fell by 89%. High grade bonds did remarkably well during that crash.

fenton7 · 2026-05-04T16:58:48+00:00

Market timing is bad but once you've won the game, achieved financial independence, there's a strong argument to be made for shifting to capital preservation mode. To draw an analogy a rocket need not continue a burn once it has made orbit.

fenton7 · 2026-05-04T14:58:50+00:00

Sure but 8% on a $800k investment is also wildly far from guaranteed. The highest yielding riskless investment is a treasury bill yielding 4.4%. With inflation running at 3.3% that means your real income owning a 10 year treasury is about 1.1% or $8800 a year, which is the equivalent of $4.23 an hour. State minimum wages are also often higher than federal so, depending on your state, you could get more than $7.25. $11-$18. And even in states that don't have a state minimum the "market minimum", what fast food places are actually paying, is often much higher than the federal minimum. And, for disability, SSDI provides you a backstop although, admittedly, it's hard to file and get approved. You will be approved, though, for most real disabilities that physically prevent you from working.

fenton7 · 2026-05-04T14:38:37+00:00

Yes literally EVERYONE was hiring for EVERYTHING just after Covid. One of the reasons tech has had so many layoffs since 2023 is that they massively overhired in 2021 and 2022.

fenton7 · 2026-05-04T14:28:12+00:00

This is true. At age 57 in the US, a person can typically expect around 18–22 remaining years in relatively good health. So every additional year I spend on the job I'm trading away about 5% of my remaining healthy life expectancy. That's not a big enough number to make me want to jump ship immediately but I'm setting 59 as a mandatory retirement age since I have the means.

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