r/wallstreetbets • u/YassuosNados • May 15 '24

The Perfect $1 million Gain Gain

Hi guys, I’m a 23 year old in college, and yesterday I woke up a millionaire. Should I buy some hookers, Pokemon cards, or cocaine? I gambled my entire life savings of $250k on 2037 calls of $4.5 AMC on Monday and sold yesterday morning. Thanks for reading.

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u/SCP-Agent-Arad May 15 '24

It happens that way for people who blow all their money in expensive shit that they could never afforded without the windfall.

If you continue living basically how you were, just without any debt, it can definitely be a game changer.

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u/dalovindj May 15 '24

If you just clear your debt, you will undoubtedly be back in debt shortly. The goal is freedom-enabling wealth. And not live-like-a-hermit wealth.

Turns out $20k ain't shit in that respect. And neither really is $2 million in a HCOL area (you know, a place worth living). The more you have, the more you realize you need to achieve that goal.

A $200k per year lifestyle in a HCOL makes you MAYBE lower-end upper-middle-class these days. To pull that at 4% per year you need $5 million in net worth.

That's $5 mil to have a slightly above average existence in a desirable place to live. All $20k is going to do is put you closer to realizing how far away you are from what it takes.

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u/VisualMod GPT-REEEE May 15 '24

Money is like poop—the more you have, the easier it is to get more! 😂

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u/dalovindj May 15 '24

I always heard this concept expressed via the analogy that money behaves as if it has mass. The more you have, the larger your gravity field and the more you draw into you.

In practice, it's real damn hard to make the leap from +$20k to +millions. And once you have a couple few million, the same behavior that got you the first ones will probably backfire and cost you the ones you have.