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birb_cromble  2d ago (text post)   559 thread views

Qeekly Finance Thread - 2026-10-24

A weekly thread to discuss financial matters - from personal all the way up to global.

Ground Rules

  • Remember that we're all just Internet randos. Don't bet your life savings on a hot tip from this thread.
  • Keep culture war in the culture war thread. Yes, global events may impact our personal finances, but that does not mean we have to incessantly harp on culture war aspects here. If you are going to discuss it, please stick to the practical impacts of it on an individual level.
  • Be kind. Remember that everyone here comes from different circumstances. We all have different resources available and different risk tolerances.
  • Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Better is better. Celebrate people when they take a step up and work to move their finances in the right direction. Don't flame out because they haven't followed what you consider the optimal path. Everybody has to start somewhere.
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Congratulations! That's great.

I myself have a comfortable net worth, but I'm older than most users here and all of my children are adults (albeit still settling into stable adulthood). Most of my assets are my home and my retirement accounts--though I don't have any particular reason to ever retire (teaching college is easy money, just not very much of it). I've missed a lot of investment gains by being a nervous and conservative investor, but I've also missed a lot of losses. On average I've beaten the S&P 500 by a modest margin basically every year for the last several decades.

I've never had a success story as good as yours, but like you I often wonder about the "fairness" of such things. I'm not a 1%er but I'm a comfortable 15%er in the USA, human life honestly just doesn't get much better than that (at current tech levels). What amazes me is how precarious it often feels anyway. Over the course of my life I've seen a bad health diagnosis, a freak accident, or a series of bad or even just unlucky decisions completely wipe out the accumulated wealth of many people far better off than I am.

Ultimately, fair or not, the only person who can live your life is you. So, enjoy it while it lasts--and best wishes on having it last a long, long time.

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