So you’re saying

Buy Lambos

Yeah?

I mean, I’m not saying not to

The reverse is also true

Unless you have an income in the first place - and more to the point, an income that is sufficiently higher than your expenses such that you can save - your savings will be zero.

At best, you might argue that they are equally important.

Therefore, the point in the op - that the idiom about earnings being unimportant relative to the rate of savings - is exposed as pure cope from low income earners who somehow think they’re smarter than people on higher incomes because “muh frugality”

There is probably some kind of messed up confirmation bias at work where Dave-Ramsey-cels focus on that one person they know of who (apparently they have intimate knowledge of other people’s financial affairs) has a high income but somehow is in debt, and uses that to justify their world view.

And that’s cool, but it’s also cope.

reported to the Australian authorities

You guys are arguing about the same stupid ****.

Have you maximized your income? If yes, then saving is the only way to increase savings rate. If not, then you can continue spending the same amount of money while maximizing your income and increase your savings rate.

Most people haven’t.

Most people haven’t even asked themselves the question.

I've never maximized my income. I'd consider myself lazy if I'm being honest. But it doesn't matter because I save and invest

None of what you're suggesting is contrary to what Dave Ramsey would recommend.

What you're suggesting is essentially "make a lot of money". Life changing advice there bro. Real Warren Buffet chit lol

Neither matter if you're locked down forever and can't go out to enjoy life

Make decent money and still use coupons at McDonalds crew

I'll take a life of leisure over slaveceling 100% of the time.

I don't even remember the last time I logged a 40 hour week. ded fukin srs.

fair enough.

I like the idea of semi-retirement starting in your 30's.

I don't plan on ever fully retiring.... It's not like I'm working the coal mines or anything lmao.

I can only do this through wise saving & investing. FACT.

Its almost like you have no idea who Dave Ramsey is or what he advocates

Some faulty logic by OP.

Your savings rate is arguably more important than your amount saved. If you live on 400k a year but only save 10% (40k) that is more than the teacher who lives on 55k a year but saves 25% (~13.75k). So yes, while 40k > 12.5k, the first person needs 360k to live while the second needs only 41k. The income will take the second person alot further. In terms of retirement and financial independence, the second individual is closer to those goals unless the first is willing to take a DRASTIC quality of life cut.


Also, money saved = money invested = future income. When people talk about their income they generally just talk about how much their employer pays them. In reality in terms of net worth building looking at it as your income + return on investments is a better indicator. If someone makes 120k but spends nearly all of it, compared to someone making 60k but has $500,000 invested, that second person generally will be making more money YoY and can build their wealth easier. So the second guy sounds like he is 'coping' but is in better financial position going forward both in total and on an annual basis because of his habits saving.


MOST Americans, even high paid white collar professionals (even doctors, lawyers, etc.) have two issues. The first is complete lack of knowledge when it comes to investing, so even if they save money they either stock pick and but stuff they see in the news or put a little money down because it's 'gambling' OR they are bought into the consumer culture of just spending money on crap - many times both. Because of this if you invest aggressively you can easily lap people that make far more money than yourself. For example a teacher following dave ramseys plan will have a higher net worth than an average doctor at 50 (look up stats from white coat investor) and will eventually earn income from those investments to match.

That said, no one wants to do beans and rice poorcel life and I cant blame them. But if you have a reasonable income (70k+) in a low or medium COL town then you can really build wealth pretty quickly by just aggressively investing. Nothing is sadder than the middle manager earning 150k but living paycheck to paycheck

Read this blog post OP. Savings rate > amount saved, generally speaking. Since the opposite of your savings rate is how much you need to live on. Of course this is more about financial independence and retirement than true net worth building so it’s all about your goals but a good read nonetheless






https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012...ly-retirement/

1. Depends what you consider to be an emergency. If you're saving only $1-200 a month over the course of a year. Is a $700 water heater considered an emergency? It shouldn't. I've never had an "emergency" come up because I started saving money early to create that buffer of cash. Some months I spend a lot more than I make, in consecutive months, because I saved and had the buffer from years before.

2. Saving no matter how much you make is training for when you do make money. It's discipline that is the key. And yes, you should spend more time on how to save money and making smart purchases because you're currently not making enough income with your time. If you take that time and spend it on better career, then it comes more debatable, like when is it going to pay off and how long will the new training take? Is it a guaranteed increase of income if you spent time/money on a new cert vs spending time saving money?

3. I don't disagree, but some people actually get off on saving money, you might not be that type.

4. Well duh.

5. If that works for you. But without the budget and discipline, it likely won't work as well as being disciplined with whatever amount you make.

6. I agree it should be invested, but saving is better than being broke all the time. It causes stress.

Yes, you should always work on growing your income because life gets better for most people with excess money, but you can create excess money by managing your budget no matter how much you make. Talk to anyone that's turned their life around in regards to money and they act like they're a changed person and much happier for it. People talk to me about money because they know I'm good at managing mine. A friend of mine talked to me about changing his diet to something really basic, just to pay off credit card debt from his divorce and he lit up just talking about how much he was saving and knowing he was on a better path within a year and will be out of debt in 2.

Well slightly more nuanced than that

It’s more that:

“Saving money by cutting your expenses takes time, and is often prone to failure.

Spending some of that time and effort on growing your income is likely to generate as much if not more increase in your wealth.

Reductions in spending are finite; increases to your income are not. You won’t know til you really, really try”

That’s why the saying in the OP is cope. It’s an excuse to LDAR.

You are wrongly dissecting a simple quote that is meant to point out someone who makes a lot of money can end up with a lot less than someone who doesn't, if the person who makes a lot of money spent it all.

Re: Ric Flair

What OP is saying makes a lot of sense up to a threshold. The old cheap me back when I was making $15k a year was doing all types of stressful things to save a few bucks. I ate cheap food and deprived myself of a lot back when I should have been enjoying my early 20s.

I can now save more in a month than I could in a year back then. All of the missed opportunities and enjoyment of life I missed in my early 20s cannot be bought back.

From my understanding of the post, do not sweat so much about a few pennies if you are not doing well. Do not spend to excess, but try to enjoy life as much as you can within your means. Push yourself to make enough that you have something left to save after a reasonable lifestyle is achieved.

I cannot remember which athlete said this, but he intentionally always spent all his money so he was broke. It made him hungry for victory since it was the only way he was going to get fed. I find this a bad thing to do intentionally, but this may be where OP's statement of it causing you to strive outward versus go inward on yourself saving.

In school they always told those stories about the poor little sewing woman that lived in a shack. When she died she left $100k to some charity and how great she was. I always thought it was a crappy way to live your life, but to each their own.

It’s true

Quotes are often misconstrued and corrupted over time

People often say “great minds think alike”
I.e we both agree so must be correct

The second half of that saying is “…but fools rarely differ.”

I.e consensus does not mean you are correct.

In terms of the quote in the OP perhaps originally it was used to convey that “just having a high income won’t help you if you piss it all away” - fair enough.

But now it’s been corrupted by wagecels to convince themselves that they know something, that the rich guy in the big house doesn’t.

I.e cope

^^^also an important point

You can increase your hourly income but we still only have a finite number of hours in the day

Which is why the focus on increasing “income” needs to shift away from trading hours of your life for money, and towards letting your capital work for you.

I haven’t worked a 40 hour week in years and am gradually winding that down as the business takes off.

Ultimately all that wealth buys you time. Gotta build it first though.

Facts dawg

This is actually the truth. When I was a brokecel I didn't buy chit and wasn't really motivated to make money because money wasn't 'fun.' As soon as I started enjoying blowing money, it made me want to make more because I was enjoying the fruits of my labor. The faster I spent it, the faster it came back...

What’s the coolest/most enjoyable/most motivating thing you have bought or experienced with your money?

doesnt make sense. you lose the time spent and the money you got from working. better off not doing anything.

Carola driving cuck spotted.

Income is everything.

Doesn't matter if you save 90 percent of your income if you make 40k and some guy that makes 150k spends 70 percent of it. The guy making 150k will still have "saved" more even though he didn't give a phuck and spent whatever he wanted.

It's also much easier to make money when you already have money. Saving is for poor cells. Just lol at having a million when you're 80 and on your deathbed.


OP is right.

I reckon Mike Tyson may present as a counter example.

Inner peace and happiness

oh no wait, i had to learn that after i had exhausted all options when it came to buying happiness.

In the vast majority of cases people who are smart enough to make a lot of money are smart enough to keep it.

A few NBA players and professional athletes don’t disprove the rule, they are just notable and very uncommon exceptions.

Nailed it. You can save 100% of 30K/yr and still only have 30k. Good luck compounding that. The reality is people need to focus more on increasing that income.


And wannabe financial gurus tell themselves all kinds of cope. They say Buffet drives an old car! Rich people drive Toyotas and got their by being frugal and not buying coffee and avocados! LMAO.