Whether in real life, on screens or on social networks, we always find "winners" everywhere. You know, those who boast about having found the right fortune and who live the high life, at least in appearance. These pseudo-rich people buy their SUV on lease, accumulate small loans, neglect their financial obligations on basic needs in favor of superficial goods, are reported to prosecution offices, ask their relatives for loans or advances from their employer, etc.
As I specify in my e-book, saving is not a problem of income, but of expenses. Of course, salary is important, up to the threshold allowing to cover the incompressible expenses. This is the great difficulty of the "working poor". However, the "winners" would have no difficulty in making ends meet if their lifestyle was adapted to their income. It is anything but a question of salary. I have lost count of the number of high, even very high income earners who have found themselves in poverty just because their spending slider was badly positioned. I know some senior executives who have not been content with excessive debt, but who have even gone so far as to commit financial embezzlement to continue living the high life.
Whether they are dishonest, fraudulent or just a little too indebted and spendthrift, they all have a fairly strong ego, always ready to show off their "good deeds" and show off their outward signs of wealth. A few luxury brand items, a valuable secret tax tip given to them by a mysterious friend, a crowdfunding platform in a still unknown technology, the latest trendy game to make easy money (like a Ponzi scheme), etc. Listening to them, one would almost get the impression that "wealth" has an exclusively obscurantist dimension, reserved for a privileged elite, which they deign to share with us. As if they were granting us an immense favor.
And when we answer them "And apart from that, have you ever invested in stocks?", everything collapses. The pretty theories, the Colgate smile and the cheap shots fall back on the "winner's" face, making him fall from his pedestal. "Investing" is against nature for him who is used to spending. He then answers a little crestfallen: "Ah no, stocks, that's much too risky"...
But it's already too late. You've understood and he knows you've understood. The "winner" can go back to his niche.
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I found this sentence great: “there is nothing more supremely irritating than watching your neighbors get rich”.
Found in:
https://www.gmo.com/americas/research-library/waiting-for-the-last-dance/
The author (Jeremy Grantham) is super reputable and has incredible experience in the market. Read by a huge number of value investors. If you are interested in the topics of valuations and bubbles, enjoy reading.
Yes, I highly recommend reading it!
Could your article be inspired by this “entrepreneur” who almost made me die laughing? 🙂
https://www.google.ch/amp/s/amp.lematin.ch/story/menace-lentrepreneur-vaudois-fait-annuler-son-proces-249297749057
Oh no, not even, but indeed 🙂
Investing is a bit like sex, those who brag about it the least benefit the most!
Right, lol 🙂
Thomas, it's always nice to see you around!
Thank you Jérôme for this article which calmly puts things back in place. I am the first, we live in a society of the immediate and are, for many, ready to jeopardize our economic balance for the simple reason of "I want" and unfortunately not that of "I need". I remember when I was young hearing the father of a friend explain how after nearly 2 years of saving he had been able, little by little, to put aside money to buy himself a camcorder while laughing at having taken so long to save the sum because suddenly the camcorder he initially wanted had been replaced by a newer, even better model.
Investing is really a long-term job above all, but to access it, you have to think far, very far in time. Unfortunately, our society of (over)consumption distorts this idea that it takes time to acquire things, and through the different forms of credit poorly controlled by individuals, an impression of power and accessibility to wealth is created when, as you say so rightly, it is towards ruin that many of these people are heading…
Thank you AGU. The example of your friend's father reminds me of a counter-example, that of a former colleague, a senior executive. He said: "you may receive pay rises, but at the end of the month there is always the same amount left in your account". At the time I had just finished my studies and I did not understand why he said that. Today I understand that he was caught up in the whirlwind of the Rat Race, like a large majority of people. If I met him again today I could tell him that on the contrary "you may not receive a pay rise, but at the end of the month there is always more left in your account" 🙂!