people think if you spend a lot you are rich
homeless on a beach
cheap clothes, somewhere beautiful, safe, community, loving, healthy, sunlight
if you are still signaling, you are not wealthy
few
meaning you either are making up for something
or your mental game is off, you still care
society rewards people
for things
but that does not mean that is best for the person
what is best for the person is best for the person
meaning independent of what society says
meaning dependent on another metric
not 'suCcEsS'
meaning small brain thinking
meaning asleep thinking
best people
twyla - schitts creek
larry
ron swanson
rich, stealth, happy life
wealthy, not rich
meaning outflows and inflows
meaning measure your wealth as multiples of your annual expenses
when you start with a 3 month emergency fund, then a 6 month emergency fund, most people stop
or start saving for a house, car, or something
the next goal is 25x annual expenses
25x annual expenses, invested conservatively, should last decades
assuming you do not substantially increase withdrawals
get it
better than a Rolex? 25x annual expenses invested
how? everything. cut expenses, increase energy, life satisfaction, health, happiness, increase income, increase investments, ownership of a business
be helpful. do not be boring.
create or help create something useful
ask yourself, what would be useful? at scale.
see the thing is that you see people like robin williams. entertaining. monetarily successful. 'beloved' by the public. but once you understand things, you can easily see that guy was not okay. he was not happy. he was not okay.
people feel bored. so they do novelty. novelty erases boredom. until it does not. then what?
hedonic adaptation, people think it applies to bad things. no. it applies to 'novelty' things: hot girls, increase in spending, bar tabs, think anything luxury. anything luxury will lose its lustre. anything prestige is a field that is going away. many small brain people will bristle at prestige, i mean based on prestige vs based on results. sports for example does not care. internet business does not care.
the problem, really the core of the problem, is people build on sand. they build from a place of chasing what they think will work. seeing someone do something, and it worked for them, and they are happy. instead of what can i do that makes me happy? and they are ignorant enough to think that is a good trade.
when you are starting out? you have no money? fucking duh. go work. get something going. but arc towards the solution. avoid getting stuck in a dead end job. whether it is high-paying or not.
build from a place that you enjoy. build from a place where you are happy.
how do you do that? like realistically? get a job that pays the bills. stop spending money on frivolous, short-term thinking, non-solutions (drinking, eating out, junk in the house). use your free time to build something worthwhile? what is worthwhile? you have to answer that question yourself. no handouts.
why do people do non-solutions? ignorance, really. if you knew a better solution, you probably would do that. convenience. weak mental game.
unhappy? buy a toy. hedonic adaptation is basically a law of human behavior. the toy will get boring if it is based on luxury. luxury becomes normalized.
what should you buy?
should you ever have luxury? yes. sure. but do not blow yourself up on stupid things. people buy, including myself, tshirts. what the fuck is that. you have a 20-30 tshirt. if you have 20 of those, you have $500 tied up in shirts. what is the value of those shirts? probably 0 dollars. lol 'a tax write-off when you donate to goodwill' aka 0 dollars.
listen.
what is the purpose of a tshirt? to clothe your body. to protect you from the weather. so that you can enter a building and participate in society. you probably actually have 40-100 tshirts.
are you happy?
you think buying another tshirt will make you happy long term?
you already did that shit like 100 times.
people give you compliments 'hey i like your shirt'
you think about all the cool stuff you did 'oh that was a fun vacation'
you love the way you look 'i look good in this shirt'
compliments are nice, but recognize that they are basically zero. if you are rich and happy and healthy and in community compliments are a blip on your radar. but people base their entire happiness on receiving compliments.
happiness (30% compliments, 40% new purchases, 20% luxury, 10% self)
fucking it should be 90% self.
well in actuality it is 90% self.
like you can only really get to 10% happiness with 'love and other drugs' compliments, drugs, luxury, etc. people max out that 10% and have a piddling 40% self happiness.
how do you get more self happiness?
fuck man, big question, but at least it is the right question. stop asking what is the coolnest new thing, restaurant, etc.