# What do you folks think about this article?



## asp3 (Feb 12, 2021)

I read the article and felt sad for the person who wrote it.  He and his wife were living that many people would kill themselves to be able to achieve but seemed to be disappointed because he lost his drive to achieve more.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/11/pay...gest-downside-says-self-made-millionaire.html


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## hawkdon (Feb 12, 2021)

Cain't read it, advert slides up to cover the article......boooo....


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## Jules (Feb 12, 2021)

I managed to read a bit behind the notice asking me to pay.  Paying off your mortgage is just a silly excuse for not being motivated, IMO.  Or he just wanted to write something and picked a topic that is contrary to the accepted norm.


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## asp3 (Feb 12, 2021)

hawkdon said:


> Cain't read it, advert slides up to cover the article......boooo....



Folks, sorry it came up for me without anything and I am not a subscriber.  I usually don't post things that aren't free.


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## mellowyellow (Feb 12, 2021)

Wish I was so lucky.


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## tbeltrans (Feb 12, 2021)

The ad came up for me, but if you read the fine print at the bottom of it, you can click on the part that says you don't want to contribute and the ad will go away.  Simple.

As for the mortgage, we will all feel differently, and I certainly feel quite differently than the author of that article.  To me, your home is what stands between you and homelessness.  You should have enough homeowner's insurance to cover your losses should something happen such as the disasters he mentions.  I have seen one or two folks in our condo association be naïve enough to think once their mortgage was paid off, they didn't need to carry homeowner insurance anymore.  One had a water leak that damaged the unit below and she was responsible.  Without her having homeowner insurance, I don't know what the outcome was since the board doesn't get involved, but it couldn't have been good.

We paid off our mortgage within  10 years and I continued to work as if nothing happened.  What I felt was relief because I knew that we could easily survive layoffs or the case in which one of us gets injured and can't work for some length of time.  We also were able to retire 5 years early because we had been saving for retirement for a long time.  If anything, paying off the mortgage early allowed us to put more into retirement savings and therefore retire early.  

We have always lived debt-free except for the time we had a mortgage.  Not everybody thinks like that, nor is that important to everybody.  I do read fairly often that the most frequent reason people give for stress resulting in lack of sleep is financial worry, so I would think that ways to reduce those worries would be important to at least some other folks when considering paying off a mortgage to lessen the financial burdens they may carry.

Again, I can't say that author was wrong because we each have different ways of viewing our respective worlds and differing attitudes toward our finances.  All I can do is add my experience to the conversation without doing so reflecting on anybody else's opinions.

Tony


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## MrPants (Feb 14, 2021)

_"by that time, we had amassed a net worth of $3 million), and the $150,000 in annual passive income — mostly from real estate, dividend stocks and bonds."_

And he's crying about not being motivated to grow his income? Geez, did I miss something? 
What is this insatiable greed for amassing huge stockpiles of $$? Pretty sure I could live very comfortably on a million in assets with an annual passive income of $150k

You can't take it with you and even if you could, it likely wouldn't do you any good. As far as leaving it to your kids or whatever, let them earn their own way. Nothing kills motivation faster than someone handing you a big chunk of cash!


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## mathjak107 (Feb 14, 2021)

Money may not buy happiness but many times it buys choices in life which can be very important...

the more money , the more choices while alive.

as a kid growing up in a nyc housing project I learned early on about having the ability to make choices in life and many times those choices cost money , likely more at times than you have ...so my motivation was to grow my assets as much as I could so I could have as many choices in life as I could


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## jujube (Feb 14, 2021)

An annual passive income of $150,000 and a paid-off house and I can't remember how much in savings but over a million and he's unhappy and unmotivated????

I have an idea! He can pass some of that along to me and I'll be his Motivation Coach.  I'll motivate him so much, his a$$ will be on fire.

First world problems.......


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## officerripley (Feb 14, 2021)

(If I didn't get it set correctly, fast-fwd to 0:40.)


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## Judycat (Feb 14, 2021)

Oh geez. Let's make sympathy for the idle rich a thing.


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## Aunt Bea (Feb 14, 2021)

You've got to give him credit for turning a humblebrag into a full article that's picked up by CNBC.

_"If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life."_ - Marc Anthony


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## tbeltrans (Feb 14, 2021)

Judycat said:


> Oh geez. Let's make sympathy for the idle rich a thing.


I think it already is.  Remember the bailouts of the Savings and Loan companies, the big auto manufacturers, banks, etc.?

Tony


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## Judycat (Feb 14, 2021)

tbeltrans said:


> I think it already is.  Remember the bailouts of the Savings and Loan companies, the big auto manufacturers, banks, etc.?
> 
> Tony


Nah. I've forgotten about that already.


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## tbeltrans (Feb 14, 2021)

Judycat said:


> Nah. I've forgotten about that already.


Lucky you!   

Those events, and others along similar lines, are what make paying taxes so painful since that is what the government is giving away.

Tony


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## Judycat (Feb 14, 2021)

I don't pay taxes anymore.


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## Butterfly (Feb 14, 2021)

hawkdon said:


> Cain't read it, advert slides up to cover the article......boooo....


I can't read it either.


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## Jeni (Feb 14, 2021)

i think there are plenty of other things that deserve an article not this guy..... people make their own motivation and change it when it needs to be changed... this is just a guy trying to brag about paying off early and being rich ....... boo-hoo..............


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## Skyking (Feb 14, 2021)

Sounded phony... someone selling financial planning etc. Bait, to get you to sign up for a free newsletter.


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## officerripley (Feb 15, 2021)

Glad @asp3 posted it, though. Whether the article or the guy who wrote it are phony or not, there are a *lot* of people who are really like that. They seem to be clustered in various parts of the U.S., but they exist for sure.


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## Tish (Feb 16, 2021)

Seriously? I'm with jujube on this one.

Cry me a river.


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## Liberty (Feb 16, 2021)

officerripley said:


> Glad @asp3 posted it, though. Whether the article or the guy who wrote it are phony or not, there are a *lot* of people who are really like that. They seem to be clustered in various parts of the U.S., but they exist for sure.


Like my mamma used to say "they better put bigger pockets in his shroud, he sure as @#$$ thinks he's gonna take it with him!"


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