[BeetleB]

If you give "start a business" advice to people, the majority will end up poorer than the advice he is complaining about. Sure, you may have more options to invest and pay less taxes, but that's only if your business is making money, which most don't.

[hogFeast]

I agree with the thrust of the article. Most personal finance experts are...a bit weird (I have no idea why Tony Robins is an expert...he knows literally nothing, isn't he a motivational speaker...only in America could this be a job).

But there is a reason why spend less is the best advice for most people: they can't start a business, they have limited scope to increase their earnings significantly, and you can actually become relatively rich if you just spend less.

Personal financial advice really isn't about attempting to become rich, it is about stopping people doing things that make no sense. We aren't talking about becoming Jeff Bezos...that isn't the goal for most people, the aim is to help people retire with dignity. Telling everyone to start their own business is terribly unhelpful because it won't improve anything as most people will fail (this is why personal finance experts exist...because most people think in these unreasonable ways i.e. the only way I can become rich is by taking huge risks...rather than just not buying stupid shit I don't need, ppl reason in very weird ways).

To say this another way, most people do not understand the long-term value of a $1 saved today. Obviously, exactly how you calculate this is a little complicated but if people realised that $1 now was worth $4 or $6 or $8 in 30 years then they would consider what they do today more carefully (and even then, some people are just weird...they will say: I am going to die before then, or I don't care...then they will get to retirement and everything is fucked).

Btw, I used to work in this industry, I have seen people who didn't consider any of this. We had a client who worked all his life in a decent paying job but had little savings, took to drink, wife divorced him, lost his job in his late 60s, got drunk one day, fell down the stairs when he was on his own in his rented house (he lost his house a few months before), died. This all happened within a few months. It will happen. You will get old. You can't control everything in life but something that is relatively easy to control is your spending. I try not to give people specific advice but the number one thing that everyone can do is: control your spending, think about what you need, you can't avoid some expenses but the peace of mind later down the road from small changes is huge.

This kind of thing is unfashionable as hell though because it does put that pressure back onto the individual. Lots of young people today have this attitude of: everything is rigged, telling me to change anything when X person is so wealthy makes you an oppressor, etc. Unsurprisingly, this attitude tends to be linked with taking decisions that are unwise, and abrogating all responsibility for the consequences.

[leetcrew]

> To say this another way, most people do not understand the long-term value of a $1 saved today. Obviously, exactly how you calculate this is a little complicated but if people realised that $1 now was worth $4 or $6 or $8 in 30 years then they would consider what they do today more carefully (and even then, some people are just weird...they will say: I am going to die before then, or I don't care...then they will get to retirement and everything is fucked).

I think for most people the idea that $1 will grow a lot in thirty years just isn't very motivating. I hear that as saying I could either have chipotle today or a fancy dinner in thirty years. okay, but thirty years is a long time and chipotle is still pretty tasty.

personally, I find it much more motivating to frame it explicitly in terms of passive income. every time I spend $20, I am forfeiting $1/year in perpetuity. every time I don't spend $20, I've added $1 to my yearly budget in retirement. instead of delaying material gratification, I am eliminating my need to work.