> How do we factor in retirement needs and inflation?
Use inflation-adjusted calculators. Any good savings and retirement calculator will have an option for this.
Inflation is commonly misunderstood in long-term financial planning. It’s important to consider inflation for expenses and future savings amount, but many people don’t realize that inflation will also life their investments to some degree.
For example, if a common house costs $5,000,000 on your future retirement date and you’ve been saving your money in cash this whole time, you’re in a bad spot. However, if you buy a house in your 30s that meets your needs, the value of your house will also rise with inflation. Inflation is also loosely coupled to rising stock prices (except for hyper-inflation or other economic catastrophes) and asset prices. Just don’t keep your money all in cash, because that’s the only guaranteed way to lose out to inflation.
Yes, because despite being _insanely_ intelligent he was _also_ insanely hard working. Its questionable whether aiming to be an outlier is reasonable, but it was a revelation to me that most of the wildly successful outliers I knew of growing up were also harder working than anyone I'd ever met. Yet no one ever talked about that, only how lucky it would be to be "born with" X. From there I realized that most people have this fallacy where they discount what they can achieve because they don't see how hard others work to get to whatever level they are at. Aiming for Bill Gates would be foolish, but understanding the recipe is not.
So why not showcase the data that supports the point rather than pick an outlier and have people question if the recipe really works?
The successful people I know mostly got there by luck. Sure hard work and intelligence played a role, but I know people who were smarter and worked harder and didn't get half as far.
I'm arguing that working hard is not the main goal. PG completely misses how you need to be in a position to benefit from that hard work. Without that positioning it will be pointless/useless.
Gates was also extremely lucky and in the right place at the right time born to the right parents. Gladwell covers this in one of his books. As a 13 year old he got access to a time share computer. His school even bought hours on one and the school was only able to do that via the PTO which was wealthy and run by his mother etc...
Yes he was interested and worked hard but there's a lot more to it.
Use inflation-adjusted calculators. Any good savings and retirement calculator will have an option for this.
Inflation is commonly misunderstood in long-term financial planning. It’s important to consider inflation for expenses and future savings amount, but many people don’t realize that inflation will also life their investments to some degree.
For example, if a common house costs $5,000,000 on your future retirement date and you’ve been saving your money in cash this whole time, you’re in a bad spot. However, if you buy a house in your 30s that meets your needs, the value of your house will also rise with inflation. Inflation is also loosely coupled to rising stock prices (except for hyper-inflation or other economic catastrophes) and asset prices. Just don’t keep your money all in cash, because that’s the only guaranteed way to lose out to inflation.