1

Please do not take my question as being offensive. It's meant to be funny or at worst, bemusing. At best we can learn a lot about the community.

This is a Stackoverflow full of people giving each other financial advice. Almost all is well-meaning and much is backed up with personal experience or other information.

But something struck me - if I was wealthy, so wealthy I could spend all my time doing whatever I wanted, would I be on Personal Finance and Money advising strangers?

I would probably not be nor would I ever go to work at a job. I'd probably spend all day on my Yacht with my friends drinking champagne and eating Fabergé eggs.

So, what is the case? Is Personal Finance a network of experts helping those who know less or valid as well, a network of parallel learners, none of whom have succeeded but are all making progress?

7
  • 8
    ".... drinking chapagne and eating fabrege eggs" You might want to spend some of your vast wealth to buy a spell-checker and perhaps an encyclopedia. Eating Faberge' eggs indeed!
    – Dilip Sarwate
    Feb 10, 2015 at 22:58
  • 4
    I don't see how you made a connection between personal finance and personal wealth. These are unrelated terms.
    – littleadv
    Feb 11, 2015 at 6:57
  • 1
    @littleadv Probably the best case I've ever heard for 'the most expensive advice is free advice'
    – Code Whisperer
    Feb 11, 2015 at 13:55
  • 5
    Most wealthy people don't flash their wealth with yachts or expensive champagne. Echoing what Joe answered, I would also suspect the kind of wealthy people more likely to participate here would be closer to "Millionaire Next Door" types than "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" types. Be careful not to mistake high income and/or obviously high spending for wealth.
    – Chris W. Rea
    Feb 12, 2015 at 11:45
  • 1
    Define wealthy. Plenty of people on here are living comfortably within their means. Plenty more are living either comfortably or within their means. Based on the range of questions, we've got people struggling by on a pittance and others with plenty of cash to spare.
    – Jon Story
    Feb 12, 2015 at 18:31
  • the real question you need to ask yourself is what will you be doing AFTER you spent all day on the yacht, after you got dehydrated from the champagne and after the doctor said you need to make key lifestyle changes, the answer is probably very similar to what you do right now
    – CQM
    Mar 19, 2015 at 9:19
  • "It's meant to be funny or at worst, bemusing" Do you mean "amusing" rather than "bemusing"?
    – Flux
    Oct 4, 2020 at 20:05

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
12

The words wealthy and rich are tough to define. There's a level of assets that allow one to not work, but maintain their lifestyle. This probably doesn't include a yacht. There's a few orders of magnitude higher than this. I suspect any members here you'd consider wealthy are more like The Millionaire Next Door than the yacht crowd.

Disclosure - I hit my number and don't need to work. I am retired but still keep busy. I've been a blogger for over 10 years as a hobby. I enjoy the subject and enjoy helping people. I have an MBA with a finance concentration and completed the CFP coursework, but not the final exam, as I didn't plan to practice.

The members are a mix, and I don't know that there's any one typical profile for the group as a whole.

2
  • Good to know, Joe! Sounds like you have the experience to back up your advice
    – Code Whisperer
    Feb 10, 2015 at 21:12
  • I think I've hit my number, but haven't yet sat down to do the math. I'm a couple of orders of magnitude away from yacht. I'm not retired, but then I'm in my early 40s.
    – ChrisInEdmonton
    Mar 3, 2015 at 20:10
12

What makes you think wealthy people are the experts at personal finance issues? Chances are the "super elite" have a team of financial advisers doing a lot of the work for them. Granted, unless they inherited that wealth they are likely very smart at business and business finance, but that isn't what this site is about.

Contributors on this site include professional CPAs, tax people, finance bloggers, brokers, wealth managers, software developers with specific domain expertise, and successful professionals from other domains—some retired, and some not.

Also, don't discount the layman who just has a nose for finance. Anecdotes, self-study, and book learning can provide useful answers for some types of questions.

5
  • Probably, if having an elite team of advisors is a good way to get rich, I'd want one.
    – Code Whisperer
    Feb 10, 2015 at 21:13
  • 6
    You can make a small fortune with an elite team of advisers...as long as you start with a large fortune.
    – JohnFx Mod
    Feb 10, 2015 at 21:19
  • Alas, I am not any of "... professional CPAs, Tax People, Finance bloggers, brokers, or wealth managers" nor am I a layman who just has a nose for finance.
    – Dilip Sarwate
    Feb 10, 2015 at 23:00
  • Same here Dilip. Although I do work for the world's largest accounting firm, I am not myself a CPA nor do I play one on tv.
    – JohnFx Mod
    Feb 11, 2015 at 1:14
  • Edited your answer to be more representative. ;)
    – Chris W. Rea
    Feb 12, 2015 at 11:56
6

If someone on this site is giving advice as to how to get rich quick*, then yes, I would agree with you that it is reasonable to expect that the person giving the advice should be rich, and, if not, they should not be giving that advice.

However, this site is so much more than just "get rich quick" advice.

There are lots of questions about income taxes, HSAs, insurance, debt reduction, budgeting, and many other topics that you can be an expert on without being "rich." However, an expert in these topics is probably winning with their finances. I would consider someone who is spending less than they make, has very low debt (ideally debt free), and is building wealth toward a comfortable retirement is winning with their finances. Such a person might or might not be considered "rich," depending on your definition. And I'm sure that there are quite a few people on this site, myself included, that are winning.

* The question "How do I get rich quick?" is probably not on topic for this site.

6
  • I like the 'winning' concept. Wealth is as much a journey as it is a final destination.
    – JTP - Apologise to Monica Mod
    Feb 17, 2015 at 1:38
  • If you are debt free is chances not good you are homeless? I cant think how people cannot have a car / home mortgage.
    – Neil Meyer
    Feb 17, 2015 at 9:20
  • 2
    @NeilMeyer Not everyone who is debt-free is homeless. There are people who rent a home instead of buy, there are people who have paid off their mortgage, and there are even a few crazy people who paid for their house in cash. In any case, I didn't make being debt-free a requirement for winning. I'm also not the only one in charge of deciding what winning means. You get to decide for yourself if you are winning or not.
    – Ben Miller - Remember Monica
    Feb 17, 2015 at 12:44
  • 2
    @NeilMeyer As for a car loan, it is certainly possible, even preferable, to pay cash for a car.
    – Ben Miller - Remember Monica
    Feb 17, 2015 at 12:53
  • @NeilMeyer You can live in a rented apartment and not own a car (most people in most large cities outside North America). You can live in a paid-off house. You can live in a rental and own a paid-off car. I don't see how you equate "debt-free" with "homeless" unless you are referencing this cartoon
    – Jay
    Feb 18, 2015 at 19:17
  • My point is just that it is perfectly reasonable for a person to be wealthy and have certain 'healthy' debts.
    – Neil Meyer
    Feb 19, 2015 at 5:35
3

IMHO your views on wealth are inaccurately skewed by the media. This can be corrected by reading The Millionaire Next Door and/or Stop Acting Rich. Both works are somewhat dated but accurate in their content.

Very, very few people are "Fabrege egg" rich and no one would advocate eating them. The are art work that ranges in costs of tens of millions of dollars. I would venture to say that, if that is what you are looking for, they are probably not on the site. Much like Bill Gates or Bjarne Stroustrup will not make contributions to stack overflow. Even if they did, they would probably be down voted.

While buying a home is a dream of many young people, would you consider owning a home outright being wealthy? What about purchasing a new car for cash? What about having sufficient retirement assets so that one can enjoy retirement? By enjoying living and taking care of medical bills, a bit of travel, a late model car, and of course enough gifts for the grand kids.

For me, those are the things that I want. The number does not matter as much as what it can buy. I suspect JTP defines his number similarly.

There are people on money that are well on their way to, or have hit their number so they "can afford nice things".

Why would they be on this site? Because of a desire to teach. Perhaps they had help early in life and want to do the same for others. Perhaps they want to help others avoid the mistakes that they made. Perhaps they want to dissuade people from the false crap that goes around like day trading and FOREX.

Much like there are very skilled coders on stack overflow, there are people on money who are smart with their income.

1
  • Absolutely. And "a desire to teach" really hit home for me. As I was deciding whether to really be retired or just find something rewarding, I found a position as an in-house Math Tutor at a high school. I go in 2 days a week, and the annual income is beer & gas money, but I get to make a difference in people's lives. As far as MND goes, I drive a 12 year old Avalon, and the last watch I wore was a Timex. Funny, the champagne reference. Costco has a nice bottle that's about $10. There's "I'm retired" wealthy, but Yacht wealthy is 10X above that. I am happy to have a friend with a boat.
    – JTP - Apologise to Monica Mod
    Apr 24, 2020 at 17:58
0

I would offer a similar answer as JTP presented. The stock market and some real estate allowed me to hit my number so I was able to retire in my early 50's. I'm by no means wealthy but I have maintained my lifestyle - I can have anything that I want but fortunately I don't want much :-). My investments include some annuities and fully paid long term care insurance so about the only thing that might screw it up is ending up on a tube :-O

I've been involved in the stock market for the past 40 years, (retail not professional). For the past 20 years, I have traded as well. Although I had a few outlandish years in 2008 and 2009 when I was net short, my goal has been to augment my income and maintain my net worth. This is a full time endeavor which I enjoy. When the market is volatile, you won't see as much of me on Stack. So why am I here?

If you come across me on Personal Finance, I answer almost every option question posed. I have utilized options for 40+ years. As JTP wrote about himself, "I enjoy the subject and enjoy helping people." In fact, helping people also helps me. Options are complex securities and working out some of the situations asked about and explaining the complexities makes me focus and helps to keep me sharp. I'd compare it to making an effort to speak a foreign language so that you retain fluency.

Another aspect of this is that although I'm full time with the stock market, I don't have to stare at quotes all day long. I determine what I want to do, set my price alarms in the morning and if they fire during the day I either take action or reset them. Often, there's a lot of time available. I read the news, read a book, and as a change of pace, I put in some time on Stack. Oddly, changing focus seems to clear my mind.

You indicated that if you could, you would never go to work and would probably spend all day on your yacht with friends drinking champagne and eating Fabergé eggs. Apart from the fact that Fabergé eggs aren't edible, that's your dream. I don't drink, I don't eat eggs and I can't afford a yacht so we're not likely to cross paths at the marina. But if you ask about something market related and I have experience in that area, we'll meet on Stack.

2
  • What does "ending up on a tube" mean?
    – Flux
    Jul 8, 2021 at 15:34
  • Ending up intubated :-{
    – Bob Baerker
    Jul 8, 2021 at 18:42

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .