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I’m gifting a WSJ opinion piece on how to achieve FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) by 30. It’s not about podcasts and side gigs, but about ignoring work-life balance and front loading earning. I wouldn’t want to live that way, and was happy to retire at 53, but looks like the author may well achieve his goal. He suggests that others his age are following the same path.
This sounds awful!
I think this young man may find that after “front-loading” his billions, it won’t be that easy to flip the switch at age 30. He may have already done lasting damage to his physical and mental health. Deciding that a social life and family gatherings are a waste of time doesn’t make him great partner material once he decides he wants to prioritize that. Learning how to relate to someone other than your laptop and your phone is a skill often learned during one’s college years and their 20s, and he’s choosing to skip that developmental stage. It may be too late to remediate himself once he’s 30 and a billionaire.
I think a lot of the responses to this are interesting, they presume a universality in desired outcomes that we know doesn’t exist.
I’d suggest people thinking about the person wanting to be a billionaire that he may be neuro-diverse and not value, not experience things in remotely the same way you do.
Which is likely the case with several of the billionaires now involving themselves in politics.
Seems some people do make the transition. Sharing an article from the New York Times about a guy who went from Wall Street to rescue paramedic.
Kathy,
thanks for the link
Billionaire at 30, dead at 50? When the article was written I commented to the author. In fact, one can achieve work-life balance by practicing what he calls “ruthless optimization” with a twist. This can allow for much more than getting rich, but one may have to forgo most if not all entertainment, personal aggrandizement and becoming a billionaire. I suggest that we include personal development and giving of self while one is in the peak years the author mentions.
The author states ” I eliminated work-life balance entirely and just worked…..I will have the time [in retirement] and resources to tackle problems close to my heart like climate change, species extinction and economic inequality.” Sounds like another Sam Bankman-Fried in the making.
Although I have a subscription to the WSJ, I can’t read comments on articles. Don’t know whether the problem is Firefox or my ad blocker.
There are currently 2,200 comments.
And they are great reading!
I bet he paid someone else to write up that article for him, given how valuable and optimized is his time 😂 hard pass
Maybe AI?
So he’s going to work on things near and dear to his heart like climate change but takes a helicopter to meetings, you can’t make this stuff up…
Who needs $1B to be happy?
Some things aren’t worth risking for money.
I pity the poor fool.
I don’t get the sense that happiness is the real motivator for this guy
“There’s no sugarcoating the mental-health struggles, the physical deterioration or the social isolation that came with this intensity.”
This guy’s accomplishments are truly amazing, but is the damage he acknowledged above going to magically vanish when he becomes a billionaire at age 30?
Agreed. There is no switch that can be flicked so that mental and physical return magically.
And what amount of money is worth destroying yourself for?
It certainly looks like he will be able to retire at 30, but I wonder if he will want to. The habit of work may be too strong, combined with lack of practice at anything else.
I mean, how could you stop at just 1 billion? That’s basically just giving up 😂
If I had scaled my business through takeover opportunities that were available to me, I probably could have retired by 40, or even a bit sooner. Thankfully, a combination of wanting a life and laziness intervened. I only retired at 58 because work was seriously interfering with my social and sporting life.
Firstly, thanks for gifting the article. An interesting read. The comments are also amazing and quite humourous.
Now Mr. Barr is free to live his life the way he chooses and set his priorities the way he likes. But I found his views on life quite weird and, quite frankly, scary. His views were so far away from what I would consider a good life, that it felt like satire. It was clear from the comments that many others felt the same.
One comment stood out. It asked “Would I drink two beers with this individual, or let him watch my dog for the weekend?”. I think I might drink 2 beers with Mr. Barr, maybe just to see if I can get some insight into what might drive him to be like this. (On second thoughts, I’ll skip the 2 beers – I’ve got better things to do than have Mr. Barr lecture me on how to be “successful”).
But I would definitely not leave my dog with him. I don’t think Mr. Barr has ever had the joy of patting a dog and asking “Who’s a good dog?”.
I don’t think Mr. Barr would feel that two beers with you is “optimizing his time,” no offense. But I don’t think you’re missing anything.
He’s logical and I suspect he’s right about work-life balance, I mean how many self made billionaires put the normal things ahead of their business pursuits.
That not where the link leads. I got an article about taxes and not WSJ.
I think I fixed it, sorry. (But the one on taxes was also worth reading…)
Got it. Thanks
I agree completely!
I worked until I was 60. I loved my work and my coworkers. I had excellent managers.
When I felt I was no longer able to give my employer 110% I decided it was time to retire.