401K millionaires post balances on social media

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Originally Posted By: Donald
Good way to get your children kidnapped while the criminal forces you to withdraw from your 401k.
I was thinking the same thing.... I don’t want people knowing: my net worth, how much cash I’ve got, how much ammo, how many guns I own, or where I’m keeping any of that stuff... In fact, when I was still driving my 1990 4Runner, it was a great “operational deception” vehicle. People would make all kinds of assumptions about me, and my net worth, or cash situation...
 
Frugality and compounded interest has been kind to me over the years. I still prefer to drive my 18 year old car. Others show off their new cars. I don't care to impress them. My favorite story is where I was in Florida sitting in traffic at a light, and a transient started approaching to beg for money. He bypassed me (in my old car) and went straight to the guy in the new BMW behind me. Another one is where the wife had her old Volvo rear-ended. She has a new car she uses to meet with friends, but still drives the old car to work and shopping, to "use it up." She once had someone anonymously pay for her meal at the drive-thru. I pointed out to her that she looks like a needy person in that smashed car.
 
On paper only. The next 2008 could wipe out 30% or worse. I once hoped our investments would reach a million but 08 ended that. I like to see the monthly statements up a few thousand but that doesn't mean squat. The next big crash is just around the corner. Don't quit your day job.
 
There's all sorts of stuff people post on social media that they shouldn't. I can't even stand it anymore. Some of the "bragging" of what people do, like vacations, foods, eta is one thing. It's part of their life. But bragging on net worth, bank balances, politics, etc. are just wrong. I fear even posting some images of stuff that I have on forums, let alone social media. I can't fathom the danger of people logging into everywhere and everything via Facebook, then showing their life on there.
 
Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
You make a very valid point. Kim Kardashian flaunting and updating on social media is what got her robbed in that hotel.
Allegedly.
 
Originally Posted By: Astro14
Originally Posted By: Donald
Good way to get your children kidnapped while the criminal forces you to withdraw from your 401k.
I was thinking the same thing.... I don’t want people knowing: my net worth, how much cash I’ve got, how much ammo, how many guns I own, or where I’m keeping any of that stuff... In fact, when I was still driving my 1990 4Runner, it was a great “operational deception” vehicle. People would make all kinds of assumptions about me, and my net worth, or cash situation...
You are 100% correct !
 
Originally Posted By: ZZman
Must be nice. The top 10-20% are doing great.
Perhaps you mean the “over age 50” are doing great? It doesn’t take big bucks to get to a million, it takes TIME...and lots of it. I’ve been investing for thirty years...I’ve been working for over forty. May I ask how old you are, and how long you’ve been investing? I would also like to point out that over the duration of my investing experience, there have been several big market corrections. Periods during which the value of my investments lost large percentages. There have also been lots of mistakes, like buying shares in a fund just before annual distributions. In that case, the fund lost money, but I still had to pay taxes on the distributed gains. I turned a $5,000 Investment into $4,000 but had to pay taxes on the gains anyways...Nueberger Berman “Guardian” fund...what a dog...I will never forget that lesson... Point is this: it takes time. Time during which you’ll make mistakes. Time during which markets will correct, or even crash. But time during which you must absolutely remain firmly committed to a plan for your Long-range future. Commitment, over time, equals wealth. “Sour grapes”, complaints, envy, and other wastes of your time will never get you there. Never.
 
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Originally Posted By: Donald
Good way to get your children kidnapped while the criminal forces you to withdraw from your 401k.
Meh. Real estate records are public; in most places you can see who owns what, what the county says it's worth, without leaving the comfort of your easy chair. And unlike social media, it's real and the incentive is to undervalue. Haven't heard of anyone's kids being snatched. Not since Lindbergh. That said, I would still agree that kind of public overshare of private information is ill thought out, at best.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
.... I fear even posting some images of stuff that I have on forums, let alone social media. I can't fathom the danger of people logging into everywhere and everything via Facebook, then showing their life on there.
I think that is a valid concern. I posted one picture of changing the oil in one of my cars at my car shop. My social media thing is wide open - I want people to be able to contact me. Now the only thing left in my car shop is the Xj12, and a few other things that were just too heavy to load into my truck and steal. Are the two related? I dunno, but I consider it another life lesson learned.
 
Originally Posted By: Astro14
Originally Posted By: ZZman
Must be nice. The top 10-20% are doing great.
Perhaps you mean the “over age 50” are doing great? It doesn’t take big bucks to get to a million, it takes TIME...and lots of it. I’ve been investing for thirty years...I’ve been working for over forty. May I ask how old you are, and how long you’ve been investing?
56. I never actually invested separate of my 457 at work. There really was no extra play money. And younger professionals with high incomes are doing well. The old saying still holds true: it takes money to make money. And the facts are the top 10% own almost all the stocks.
 
Yet a good number of people who don't have money to invest have money for the new iPhone X, unlimited data, lease a car every 2-3 years. Heck, even my 19 year old daughter, working at Starbucks is contributing what is needed to get the maximum company match for her 401(k). She's been in it since she turned 18. When she got a raise, I suggested she bump up her contributions by the percentage of the raise. I.E. if she got a 10% raise, and she was contributing 10%, she could bump that up to 11% and never miss it as it was money she wasn't using before and should still be able to get by without it. And she's paying her way through college, just like I did when I was her age. Most people can find something they can cut so they can invest in their future.
Originally Posted By: ZZman
Originally Posted By: Astro14
Originally Posted By: ZZman
Must be nice. The top 10-20% are doing great.
Perhaps you mean the “over age 50” are doing great? It doesn’t take big bucks to get to a million, it takes TIME...and lots of it. I’ve been investing for thirty years...I’ve been working for over forty. May I ask how old you are, and how long you’ve been investing?
56. I never actually invested separate of my 457 at work. There really was no extra play money. And younger professionals with high incomes are doing well. The old saying still holds true: it takes money to make money. And the facts are the top 10% own almost all the stocks.
 
Originally Posted By: JohnnyJohnson
Yep they think when the get old they are going to be the recipient of some of that Free S..tuff and that you're just a sucker!
There is definitely a balance between "save for the future" and "enjoy the now". I lost plenty of friends at young ages, flying fighters just works out that way, and I know that most of them enjoyed their lives. They didn't live an ascetic, miserable life to have huge piles of money...and many of them who are still with us are doing quite well, because, 25+ years later, their investments; in themselves, their businesses, their careers, and in various financial instruments, have all had the time to pay off. But finding that balance, between planning for the future, and living now, is the very essence of financial planning. It must be done early, and it must be done with commitment. Another anecdote (aside from my big investing mistakes) - in 1991, I was a young fighter pilot, just returned from combat. Tax-free pay (not all of it, that's another story), and I was driving...a... Ivy green 1970 Ford Fairlane Station Wagon that I had inherited. What I saved driving that old bomb was how I funded my early investing. Sure, the wagon lacked the panache of most of the Corvettes, Camaros, even Porsches and Mercedes, that many of my contemporaries enjoyed. In fact, the wagon also lacked air conditioning, power steering, power windows, power locks, or even FM radio, but it saved me a car payment in those days, money that I used to build a future...not perfectly mind, you, and I lost money on a few things (as I posted above), making it even harder to "stay the course" on investing for the future. "Why should I be driving this old heap when all my friends, who make precisely what I do, drive such cool cars?" was the question that kept coming to mind, particularly when I lost money on things like Neuberger Berman"s awful fund. I sure felt like a sucker then. Fast forward 25 years. Summer, 2015, I was driving a 1990 Toyota 4 Runner. It had AC, but not a complete coat of paint (rust) or complete bumpers (rust, again)....and the same question arose, "why this old heap? Everyone else has a way cooler car than I do..." Only, that summer, as my wife and I crossed a critical threshold in investing, and were realizing the results of decades of hard work and planning, I didn't feel like a sucker at all. Sure, lots of folks had a nicer ride than I did...so what? I knew, beyond a doubt, that none of them had a portfolio like mine...and while people might make (completely erroneous) assumptions about me and my net worth, I didn't care one bit...
 
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Another anecdote: My buddy, "Joe", who was in my first squadron, starting buying some rental properties in the early 1990s. "Cash flow" was his mantra. As "Joe" moved up in the number of properties, he became more leveraged, and a whole bunch of things turned against him at once: a couple of unrented properties, a couple of held up sales, and a huge cash emergency developed. At the time, "Joe" and his wife were living in a cheap condo, they had rented out their "dream house" to improve their cash flow, and they were up against a wall. Now, "Joe"'s lovely wife was in the hospital, for a benign brain tumor, and when he picked her up, he was driving a [censored], faded, 10 year old Taurus. A real heap. Joe's lovely wife wasn't so drugged up that she forgot about her new Jeep Cherokee...and asked, "Joe, where's my Jeep?" He tried to beg off the question, because... He had sold it to make the mortgages, while she was in the hospital! Now, 20+ years later, Joe and his wife laugh about that day...and he drives brand new Mercedes, leased by his company, and his wife drives a brand new Acura, leased by his company, and she gets a new car every 2-3 years, because she likes them. Their company bought an airplane, and they're building a second home... But "Joe" took some big risks, balanced current spending vs. future investment (and renting out your own house is pretty committed in that regard), and he is reaping the rewards of decades of planning, and investment, and risk. I flew the airplane the other day when "Joe" took it up to Richmond for its annual service...it's a sweet ride, a Cirrus SR22...and "Joe", now in his 50s, is doing well... But it's all about the time it took him to get there, the commitment along the way, and the planning and risk involved.
 
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