[cloverich]

> It's actually pretty easy to lose money.

By what mechanism / who exactly? Or referring explicitly to the ultra wealthy? When I think of the normal wealthy, the 1-20 million camp, can't they just stuff all of their money into index funds for the last 20 years and everyone grows 10%+ a year (most years)? That's what the few multi millionaires I personally know have done -> step 1 put money in e.g. Vanguard, step 2 maintain job and spend based on income, not accumulated wealth, step 3 do nothing as wealth builds itself. Once they get past 2 million, I think they are making 80-200k per year at capital gains rates and maybe don't even need to put more in, just ignore it. I don't personally have that situation though so maybe I'm glossing over details or have it wrong.

[bcrosby95]

Earning $1mil and stuffing 100% of it into the stock market is a risky move.

You lay out basically the situation I found myself in. But I set aside some for a future house down payment (less risk for that chunk), future wedding (less risk for that chunk), and even ignoring that, most advice wouldn't say to stuff the remaining 100% into markets.

So maybe 60% went into markets. With hindsight it oftentimes sounds like a good idea to just drop it all in the market. But life is uncertain and crystal balls are in short supply... you would feel stupid if you made $1mil, put it all in stocks, and life came out of nowhere and took a dump all over you when the markets tanked.

Not saying I'm in a bad position, but its nowhere near "1mil at 10% per year (which is in itself kinda a wild base assumption)".

TLDR: people have a rosy unrealistic view of how this works out.

[jonfromsf]

Most people earn money over time. Putting these savings 100% into the stock market as you earn them is pretty reasonable. It’s only a sudden cash windfall that presents problems. The fix for that is to put money in 1, 2, and 3 year treasuries, and invest that money into equities as the treasuries mature.