Over the past two weeks, I've seen at least four different versions of a story touting the inspiration known as "Sean" who saved $250,000 for retirement by the age of 28. People talk about amazing examples in the hope of inspiring others, to help them think about what could be. The trouble with those examples more often than not lies in the fact that they represent outliers, that they’re not about normal people or normal circumstances or normal outcomes. For better or worse, I like to give people an honest assessment. When students ask about potential employment, I tell them that the range of salaries is more of a guideline and that, no matter how rosy the projections, they should manage expectations and plan to earn near the bottom of the range for most of their career. On the mountain when I meet hikers, I tell them the truth even when they say “we’re almost there right?” or “it’s just a short bit further, right?” because if I lie to them to appease them, I’ll be blamed and they’ll be miserable. Just this past weekend, I told a work outing they were just shy of halfway, and they turned back. Maybe I spoiled the day, but it would be worse if they were too exhausted or ran out of water! An inspiring story is good for us, but they must be chosen judiciously. Far too many of them emphasize outliers, ignore exceptionally good fortune or hold up an exception to the rule as the rule. Since the rules apply to most people, it’s best to find an everyman who improved rather than a paragon on whom it’s impossible to improve. This story gives just enough detail to make it sound awesome without giving enough to know whether his pattern is even possible for you. It's done to make headlines, attract readers, and gin up business and not because the people who post it think you can do it. How can they? They don't know you, and neither do I. You will have to find what strategy works for YOU, and only people who really know and understand you can provide anything useful to inspire or direct you. Too many inspiring stories aren't, and too many people think their story isn't as inspiring as it really is.
The subject of this article enjoys incredibly good fortune. He found a girlfriend who pays about half of the costs of living, allowing him to enjoy a status of life by sharing costs equally. I don’t know about you, but most of the girls I meet aren’t looking for a share as an equal partner; they are looking for someone to take care of them in exchange for coitus. On top of that, she’s willing to split all the bills, pay half of the mortgage, and demands nothing of him in the form of special treats, baubles, or favors. Where do I get a unicorn like this? After only five years, he’s been promoted to a pay grade $30,000 more than he earned when he started. Most people don’t get raises that quickly or of that scale. Either he’s incredibly talented or he’s incredibly favored. After eleven years at my current job, I have managed to acquire $20,000 more than when I started. That’s less money in twice the time interval (possibly because I’m not a boot-licking toady, but he might not be a toady; he might benefit from good fortune or be exceptionally valuable). On top of that, his salary is the average household salary, but that doesn’t include whatever his girlfriend earns. Since they share expenses and living arrangements, it’s actually disingenuous to proceed from his $50,000/year salary since it ignores the monetary contribution his girlfriend may proffer, putting him far above average as a household. Let’s also remember that the average household is not headed by a 23 or 28 year old. Those are still very young people. Most households are not young people living together but unmarried and withotu children. Many households are overflowing with children. Furthermore his investments largely occurred when the market was at a low and then rose. If he started investing in 2013, the market has climbed astronomically since he started. I finished college in 2002, when the market was in shambled after 9/11, and it didn’t recover nearly that quickly or that thoroughly. I didn’t finish college during a boom; I finished during the dotcom bust and then passed through the housing bubble.
Despite his current portfolio, the subject of this article did nothing special. He didn’t invest in bitcoin, gold, or any special stock, allegedly. He didn't buy Apple or Amazon when it was cheap and make out like a bandit. He is not Warren Buffett, and his father didn't give him $10 million like Trump when he turned 21. Now, he does have $116,000 in a brokerage (which tells me he trades stocks individually), and I have money in mutual funds instead. I tried years ago to trade stocks, but you have to do it daily and really have a good handle on either financials or fads in purchasing, and I didn’t pick things that regular people buy. I short sold Facebook at its IPO because I thought it was worthless, and I bought 500 shares of Washington Mutual when they were rescuing banks only to have it be the only bank they didn’t rescue. The rest of his money is in a 401K. Well, I don’t actually have a company 401K, since I’m in academia, and they don’t match funds, so I have a retirement investment that earns money, but I didn’t make enough to put in money from the getgo. Most people end up working all their lives, which isn’t bad, because it gives them purpose and fulfillment. It’s very unnatural for anyone to completely retire at 38, and I suspect that he won’t actually stay retired. How long will that nest egg actually last? Have they had any real misfortunes with health or accidents or natural disasters? What about his girlfriend? Is she going to stick around as his bank account drains or will she demand that he go back to work? You don’t know what the future will bring, which is the problem, and most people make plans that don’t actually work out. On top of that, his girlfriend is a partner. My ex-wife took everything from me in the divorce except for the 1995 Saturn I love. So, he didn’t do anything special. He didn’t have a disaster set him back $200,000. It’s not that they’re especially frugal or that they worked things out to budget or discuss money or invest above anything else. He makes no mention of how the relationship dynamic tended towards success, meaning that they either didn’t have to have those discussions or she just follows his lead. Well, if you marry a shrupshire sheep who follows your lead and you want to save, you’ll save a lot too. Picking a partner is key, but there’s no evidence that he spent any kind of time or made herculean effort to get a good partner. The evidence suggests they’ve been together for years and that he’s not had to do a lot of dating or sort through the ruderal dreck in search of a partner like most people do. Although he claims his expenses are small, he spends about $500 per month on travel. Does that include car travel? Most people don’t have $6000 to spend each year to travel. The article leaves out a lot of detail that would help; in fact the first time I heard about it, the article omitted his salary. He’s living fairly lavishly but not thinking it. If you do the math on his figures for “eating out in restaurants” that comes to roughly $25-$30/week, which means he’s not eating out in fancy restaurants or at least not often. Maybe his girlfriend goes Dutch and pays half, but that’s also not common for most folks where the man foots the bill and the woman luxuriates at his expense. Also, $5 a day is like a cheap combo meal or like once per week. Do they do any other dating? Dating can be expensive. Even if you don’t’ spend money, you still have to work at any relationship, the house will eventually need repairs, and he’ll probably want better things eventually even if he is frugal.
Most people can’t actually channel him as an example because he’s not representative of the normal population. Although he claims that he’s earning about the median family income, he STARTED at $50,000. Most people dont' start in the middle; they start near the bottom. By definition, half of households in America earn less than he does, and most people don’t start with that high of a salary. When I finished college, I earned $24,000 a year teaching classes as a graduate student. Furthermore, that household income is for a family of four, and he’s a family of two that only reports HIS income. What about hers? Is the savings figure also indicative of what SHE saved? Does she save at all? In my experience most of the wealthy people I know either got lucky on a boondoggle or they live in two income households where one paycheck covers the bills, the frills, and the kids and the other paycheck is put away entirely into savings or frivolity. Now, if that’s the case with this couple, then he’s not a good representative for any traditional family where the wife stays home and either spends the husband’s money or tends the children. He’s also not probative for single income earners who don’t have anyone to share expenses or receive no contributions to a common account. I only have what I earn, and while I get to keep it all for me, I pay all the bills myself. Most of you can’t skimp on cell phones and internet and eating out and travel because your kids need rides to violin lessons and instruments and phones so they can fit in and internet so they can stay competitive in school. Many families I know with kids have to prepare multiple dishes because they have picky eaters; the more people you have in your family the more difficult it is to find something on which they all agree. Sean has only to discuss things with his girlfriend (or dictate to her if she’s beta), so he doesn’t have the compromises or the conflicting obligations that you do. He can focus on work and retirement because he doesn’t have screaming children demanding his attention. On top of that, he’s very rare when it comes to academia. Besides myself, I know ZERO people who finished college sans debt unless their parents contributed greatly. He got some scholarships and financial assistance from his parents. That’s not normal. Most people have to either take out loans or get a second job, and they did even in the 1980s. One professor in my department has paid ZERO towards her student loans, and she graduated 15 years ago. Instead, Sean finished college without any debt whatsoever. That’s definitely the exception to the rule. After graduating, he immediately got a job in his field with a good entry salary without experience. Students complain to me incessantly about having to study things that don’t portend to utility in their vocation. Most programs don’t prepare you to get a job, they just qualify you to get an interview.
We talk about “self-made millionaires” or about beatified Saints or about Agincourt because we hope to convince people that miracles are possible. However, most people will work their entire life and not become millionaires, even in America, most religious efforts won’t result in mass conversions or miraculous salvation, and most battles in a swamp against a vastly superior force end in favor of the bigger army. Like it or not, the subject of this article, Sean, is not your average story. Very few people finish college and immediately land a well-paid job without any experience and just a bachelor’s degree. Even fewer people rise in might and wealth as quickly as Sean. Only a handful find a partner whose avarice and pride don’t exact most of the excess monies in order to establish a lavish lifestyle. The exceptionally rare are frugal enough to invest that much that early even if they desire it because our world stratifies people based on optics rather than achievements. Most people choose to spend money on the optics of success, but Sean doesn't have to look successful to entice a mate because he already has one. His results are not typical. He’s that testimonial that they trot out in nutritional ads or for exercise machines like the Bowflex or for investments, someone who did astronomically well, but in this article, there is no asterix affirming that even if you applied this formula you’re likely to get mediocre results at best and nowhere near approach him, and that’s ok. Everyone’s life and luck differs, but if you use this as a metric, I think you’re headed for disappointment. Even if I saved every penny I earned from the age of 23-28, I would not have that amount today, and you probably would not either. But that’s not the real point. The real point is that most Americans don’t have ANYTHING put away for a rainy day, and so if you do, you’re already better off than most even if you didn’t manage to save $250,000 before you were 30. That should inspire you with hope and a sense of accomplishment. Whether you agree with this or not, you should at least consider the points of this video in determining what actually inspires YOU and how inspiring your story can be when you forget the outliers like Sean and realize heroes also started out as ordinary people like you:
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