
If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly [pdf] - martincmartin
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29031758/If%20You%20Can.pdf
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dimitar
I wonder how applicable that advice is to other countries, especially those
that tax investment income. Also, how does currency risk factor in? If I don't
use USD in my daily life, how good of an idea is to hold all my savings in USD
denominated equity?

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martincmartin
Good point, this PDF is very U.S. specific. As long as the taxation is
progressive, it would seem to make sense to put your money in a tax sheltered
account during your peak earning years. And also to get any company match.
Other than that, I don't know.

As for home country vs foreign investment, from bogleheads:

"The relative percentage of domestic and international stocks is a subject of
intense discussion in the forum. One sensible option is to hold domestic and
international stocks in the same proportions as they represent in the total
world economy. As of October 2014, that would be about 50% U. S. and 50%
international. ... Other authorities suggest holding less than that."

[https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Domestic/International](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Domestic/International)
[https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-
fund_portfolio#Combini...](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-
fund_portfolio#Combining_domestic_and_international_stocks)

The advice still seems to be U.S. specific though.

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advisedwang
This kind of ignores the people in their twenties are often in massive student
debt and likely to be unemployed or have employment that barely makes a living
wage.

Save/invest 15% is not helpful advice to somebody with no job, or somebody who
is struggling to make rent cheques.

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pascalxus
Go to a local community college for the first 2 years, then you can transfer
to a UC or State college. Take the easiest/least time consuming classes you
can find and try to work during those 4 years. Don't allow a useless college
degree to make you broke. For most jobs/careers, You just need the certificate
~ at least in the long term.

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permatech
> Take the easiest/least time consuming classes you can find and try to work
> during those 4 years. Don't allow a useless college degree to make you
> broke.

If you take the easiest/least time consuming classes you will likely end up
with a useless college degree. Go to a state university that has a solid co-op
or intern program and major in something difficult. Take hard classes and
focus on those (EE, CompSci) because they will open up high paying internships
during school and an entry job after graduation.

Don't burn yourself trying to balance school and work concurrently, don't
waste your time taking easy classes that will leave you struggling after
graduation!

> For most jobs/careers, You just need the certificate ~ at least in the long
> term.

That may be true, but your courses/GPA will matter for the first job... or to
get the MS degree required for many jobs in engineering today.

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pascalxus
For example: a computer science degree teaches you a lot of stuff, covering an
enormous diversity of CS topics, but 80% of it won't have anything to do with
a career in Software engineering. The stuff you really need to learn, you'll
need to learn on your own. That's why I'm saying, take the easy classes, then
spend the extra time on an actual software engineering job or internship where
you can learn what you really need to learn. The degree is required for a lot
of SE jobs but that doesn't mean it's useful (as in applicable to SE).

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bcg1
This is good advice but I think it downplays the seriousness of government
insolvency and the repercussions with respect to investing.

The worst case scenario for millenials is not just getting 3/4 of our promised
social security; it could be far worse.

To wit, the national debt increased from ~$5 trillion to about ~$10 trillion
on GWB's watch (doubled). It increased from ~$10 trillion to ~$20 trillion on
BHO's watch (doubled). DJT has promised massive new spending on
infrastructure, increasing funding for border patrol etc, a massive military
buildup, no changes to SS or Medicare, and massive tax cuts - so it is
reasonable to believe we are still on track to double the national debt again
within the next 8 years. That is something not unlike exponential (and BTW
that "national debt" is just the level of outstanding treasury debt; the
actual unfunded future liabilities are much much higher).

To cover the massive debts of the government (and maintain the stability of
the economy and society) massive amounts of new money will need to be created
to monetize government debt. This has already started, as the base money
supply in the US has quadrupled since 2009. Velocity is low so we don't see
the inflation (except in things like stocks, bonds, fine art, and tech
startups) but DJT's Keynesian wet dream should get velocity up at least long
enough for inflation to start showing up in the real economy, and even that
doesn't get the snowball rolling, it is unreasonable to believe that velocity
will stay so low forever and that the new money will not start flowing through
the economy.

In any case, in such an environment bonds will get savaged and there will be
great economic dislocations. A simple index-fund based asset allocation
between US stocks, bonds, and international stocks is not necessarily going to
work in the next 30 years as it did in the past 30. Past results are not
guarantees of future returns.

That said, I think taking 15% of your income and sticking with a strategy that
you are comfortable with is great advice. The best way to get rich quickly is
to do it slowly indeed. But investing in the near-to-medium term might get
interesting, just sayin ;)

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pjc50
> massive amounts of new money will need to be created to monetize government
> debt

Really? Or they could just roll it over like normal, because the interest
rates are so low?

Even the 30 year treasuries are yielding 3%.

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bcg1
Why do you think rates are so low? Hint: its because the Fed printed a bunch
of money to monetize the debt.

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aanm1988
This honestly just annoyed me to read. To put it bluntly, I'm sick of old
people telling people in their 20s that the reason why they are having a lousy
time is because they dare to get a fucking smartphone plan and a decent pair
of shoes.

You don't have enough money? Well give up your phones, car, vacation. Wear
those old shoes. Live with a roommate, no wait that's too expensive just live
with your parents until your 30. Kids? No you don't need those. Massive
student debt? Why did you do that, I put myself through school working at
mcdonalds. You can't even get a full time job, what's wrong with you?
Millenials are so entitled.

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pascalxus
>You don't have enough money? Well give up your phones, car, vacation. Wear
those old shoes. Live with a roommate, no wait that's too expensive just live
with your parents until your 30. Kids? No you don't need those.

Actually, these are pretty good suggestions.

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aanm1988
My point is you can only tell people they can just make do with less and less
for so long before you have to admit that maybe lifestyle isn't the real
problem.

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pascalxus
Most people aren't doing the things you listed, hence: for most people,
lifestyle is the real problem.

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martincmartin
By William Bernstein, author of "The Intelligent Asset Allocator" and other
books on index investing.

Mobi:
[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29031758/if_you_can_v1.m...](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29031758/if_you_can_v1.mobi)

Kindle:
[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29031758/If%20You%20Can_...](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29031758/If%20You%20Can_K6IRK6EFXDZNG2FNC52QBW5WSIGF6YQH.azw3)

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padiyar83
Man those links are illegal and can get someone into trouble especially if
they download it (unknowingly) from a corporate VPN. Just link the books on
Amazon and leave out the dropbox referrals

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martincmartin
No they're perfectly legal. The author is giving away the booklet for free
(its only 14 pages). See the bottom half of this page:
[http://efficientfrontier.com/ef/0adhoc/2books.htm](http://efficientfrontier.com/ef/0adhoc/2books.htm)

