Cross posting from lemmy, https://midwest.social/post/29361
Yes, because I’m extremely lucky and I can, and my strong belief that this thing is going belly up by 2050 might be wrong and I don’t want to be old and destitute if business as usual continues
Honestly given the climate science it'll be hard to keep this machine going, but getting to that timeline is gonna take a while so best be somewhat prepared.
Yes, because if I save for retirement and the world is fucked then who cares, we're all fucked anyway I won't mind all my money going poof. If I don't save for retirement and the world sadly isn't totally fucked I'd rather not die. Granted this is only possible since I'm lucky enough to have a job that allows me the wage to do that in the first place.
Yep and if you are just not good at money literally just put it all in SPY (the sp500 ETF) and QQQ (the epic tech ETF). I recommend these two over your less fee intensive competitors because once you get a big enough portion and become sophisticated enough then you are leaving a huge amount of money on the table if you don't sell covered calls against your holdings, espesh if they are in a tax advantaged account and you don't get a taxable event during assignment
do you not consider owning stocks "being a business owner/rent-seeking"? if not why
I highly doubt anyone posting here is wealthy enough to have a large enough stake in a company to be considered a business owner.
Whether or not investing in stock is moral is a different question I guess, but I don't think whether a few communists/anarchists participate or not in the stock market makes any material difference to its existence, but it can have a benefit to their lives
If you're able to put aside a bit into a 401k with employer matching there is no reason not to. That money can also be taken out for emergencies I believe
Depending on your 401k servicer, you can also take out a loan against up to 50% of it, and that doesn't count against your 401k balance unless either you default on it, change jobs and lose your 401k account with that particular vendor, or if the value of your 401k account tanks and you now have less in your account than 2X the principal of your loan (which is due to happen again in about a month or three).
The loan doesn't incur any tax penalties unless you default on it, in which case, hoo boy does it ever fucking suuuuuuuck. Combine that with not doing a rollover for the remaining balance into a new account when you change jobs and, uh, you're gonna have a bad time. Possibly for multiple consecutive years.
But yeah, I had to tap my 401k a few years back to put the money towards a new (used) car after the last one let all of the magic smoke out of a crankshaft bearing, connecting rod, piston, valve, and cylinder head all in the span of a few seconds. Fuck cars, but fuck Fiat/Chrysler most of all.
To borrow from your 401k don't you have to have cash in your 401k and most people have all of their 401k in stocks or bonds? Do you sell your stocks then borrow? If so what if you need it during a downturn?
In my case, nope, it was against the "market value" of what I had in there, which was a mix of stocks and bonds. You don't have to sell those before you can borrow, and you're correct -- you are absolutely fucked during a downturn, because that reduces how much you are able to borrow, and if you've already borrowed, you can end up "underwater" on the loan, in which case you are on the hook for whatever the difference is between the current market value of (half of) your 401k account and whatever you haven't paid back yet. So this is a case where you would probably want to shuffle things around from unstable/risky securities (e.g., small- and mid-cap stocks) to more stable/slower-growth ones (e.g., bonds, maybe large-cap stonks if you're feeling lucky). But then that hurts your potential overall fund growth, which can screw you in the long run.
It's a mess, and if you can just forget it exists while still shoveling (employer-matched) money into it, you're better off leaving it alone. It's just another control mechanism for shackling you to a specific employer if you go down that rabbit hole. If you're union and plan on sticking around, fuck yeah, go for it. But if you're in a volatile field, don't dip in unless it's a serious emergency and you're out of other options.
Ah ok didn't know you could borrow against the stocks and bonds you have in there. I could use some of that to help buy an apartment. I guess I can call and check on my 401k to see if that's an option.
No. The world doesn't have 40 years left to where that is relevant.
A little bit. I make very little, so it is not much. Mostly just because I am an ascetic hermit anyway, and in case the imperial core manages to avoid a complete implosion and no revolution comes to our rescue, it would be nice to not have to keep working until I die. Probably not going to happen anyway.
if money is worthless us poors will finally be able to get land. by force.
No. I have savings and maybe one day I'll get to swap out rent slavery for land slavery.
Yes, I want to spend my life like it's always Saturday. Vacations, weekends, are just pauses on work. I want to eliminate wage slavery.
I put whatever my employer matches (4% of my salary) into a standard retirement fund. I have no idea how much there is but I hope it'll be enough for me to not be completely destitute once I grow old. I won't be allowed to retire until I'm at least 71 though (thank you, succdem scum).
Yes. I am doing my best to do LeanFire because at the end of the day there's very little in this world worth spending money on except for the promise of being able to retire before the age of 50.
Honestly people who use leftism as an excuse to not adhere to the most basic financial advice are really just shooting themselves in the foot to be cool to a bunch of online friends that would most likely be reluctant to venmo them 20 dollars to take the uber to the hospital if they broke a leg
yes people should FIRE if they can. most of us can't dumbass.
Honestly people who use leftism as an excuse to not adhere to the most basic financial advice
Give up friend, you're not gonna reach anyone.
