How can one realistically live like this?

No dummy you don't fall into either extremes. It's on a spectrum. Gratification isn't going to be gratifying if you overindulge same with trying to find meaning in focusing on one singular aspect like excessively saving and investing for the future. Instead be smart with your money invest what you can while also enjoying stuff in life. Like hobbies and friends.

I think it's more like the difference between choosing to be an accountant or software engineer purely for the money, since the solitary work in front of a screen drives you crazy, -- as opposed to choosing something like being a teacher or an artist -- that would make you feel fulfilled.

Fuck Alan Watts and his fart-sniffing philosophy ruining otherwise chill EDM tracks. I hate this faggots voice over synthesizers like you wouldn't believe.

Also, Richest Man in Babylon, probably fake, but still entertaining read: 10% savings, 20% debt, 70% you. Debt free? 20% savings 80% you. You gotta enjoy life while you're alive

Reminds me of this. Most people on this board are so out of touch they think this lifestyle is admirable. It's even more pathetic considering that the "investments" people talk about here are blatant scams that will go to zero.

If you're in your 20s, fine, do what you need to do. But if you're in your 30s and living like pic rel you seriously need to reconsider your life decisions.

teacher

modern education system

fulfilled

I'm in my late 30s and my investments and savings amount to $2000. There's nothing to really reconsider if you get into this position, that's the fake American "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality. Some people just get fucked (or fuck themselves) in this game, and since we decided the end all be all was gonna be jew numbers in computer and "diversity" rather than 0% unemployment and a homogeneous population, there's just going to be more and more of us losers as time goes by.
At this point I just pray things hit critical mass sooner rather than later and that between all the immigrants, unemployed, losers and alienated people everything will just come apart at the seams.

It's trivial to re-write this about being broke all the time and how it makes life miserable. Typical strawman argument. Oh, you ONLY care about money? You work 24 hours a day? Pffft, sounds miserable. Being broke all the time is much more reasonable and fun ;^)

Ideally you'd be born, grow up, parents would teach you how to use money as a tool, give you some seed capital, and you'd be "made it" at age 18. Or earlier. Even in a worse case scenario, where you don't get seed capital, you'd work hard for a few years, save up some money, and FIRE at something like 25-30, have a bunch of kids, and then set them up for the ideal scenario.

Instead you get SERFS, not even peasants, working their entire lives, broke their entire lives, putting their children in government schools, coping and seething their entire life until they die. That's the world we live in. Read John Taylor Gatto.

Just delay gratification until you "Make it"? Trade your youth to be free in the latter part of your life?

Fatty cope. No, you don't need to buy a $7 starbucks every single day. No, you don't need to eat out two meals a day. No, you don't need 12 different subscriptions for digital content. No, you don't need a brand new car and new clothes every season.

Yes, you delay gratification. Moderately. Is it so hard to spend only 90% of your income compared to 105%? Is that last 15% REALLY so vital to your life satisfaction?

Is that last 15% REALLY so vital to your life satisfaction

What's the point of this 15%? Just a buffer for emergencies or vacations? Or is that for retirement?

Alan Watts is a psyop to make you poor

What's the point in money if you already figured out how to be content with life?
Isn't it a bigger psyop to keep working so you can consume more things you don't need?

Watts was a kook and real shit tier "guru" to follow.

Jesus zoomer get help

this is just midwits lazy people seeking justifications for their inherent laziness and trying to pinch a few bucks
if he really believed the bullshit he said the books etc would be freely available, but yeah lol

anyways it isnt hard to see where he goes wrong
he is so low iq and unexperienced in the different levels of life/wealth he cant grasp anything else than waging and thinks more money can only happen from waging harder and longer
which is indeed correctly seen as a retarded and horrible way to spend your life
the solution of course as all of Anon Babble knows is that waging and careers are traps for the status obsessed midwits and the only ways to wealth are ownership either in investments or starting your own business
so just live below your income and invest that spare part or use it as seed capital for your business
you really dont have to live ascetic monk mode either to achieve this, just find things you enjoy that dont cost lots of money, dont burn your income on pointless status symbols and certainly dont think you can chase girls with displays of retarded money burning

as a clearest example only get a cheap car, it saves so much of your income and doesnt impact your qol at all yet so many are psyopped into getting the expensive car on loans because otherwise i dont get the girl and the other men will laugh at me

how can one realistically live like this

Not for long according to the guy who said it

$23k net worth

yeah that is broke

my parents are teachers and spent their whole careers being pissed at the Board of Education

If you are poor, you will be doing A LOT of things you don't like doing.
If the goal here is to maximize "doing things you like" and minimizing "doing things you don't like". You inevitable end up with some version of FIRE (Financial Independence, Early Retirement). In which case your life, at least in the early years all revolves around making money..

Is there any point you would stop accumulating wealth (i.e. paid off home and living off index funds) or would you simply go into less risky investments as you moved up in wealth while aspiring for the highest wealth possible ($1M -> $5M -> $10M -> $25M -> $100M?

Pretty much the conclusion I've come to.
Do you think it's worth stopping at he independent NEET living and just doing whatever the fuck you want while you're still young?
Or just double down until you hit "make it" territory in this pic despite it likely taking another decade or two of your lifespan to achieve?

These are the kinds of fags that end up raging socialists demanding everyone else's wealth while pretending they never cared about it

you obviously go into less risky assets
it isnt a question of stopping accumulation once you make it to your personal number
in todays age of sustained high inflation is simply necessary to protect your purchasing power
fiat is dying after all you gotta be in some hedge

good fucking lord i hate these "you will waste your time". do whatever the fuck you want with your life, as long as you're doing what you want, there is no wasting. if you want to be a junkie wanker, then do that, who gives a shit. in the end, it's not better or worse than to make money or go partying or fuck or make kids or marry or whatever. DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO

t. crypto richfag living like a hermit and doing fucking nothing during the days

Well, I meant if there's a point you'd stick with index funds and not bother with anything that outperforms inflation? Seems anything that outperforms inherits enough risk that you'd need to constantly monitor the market.
With that said, I personally kind of enjoy it, so I doubt I'd stop

I think the point is how people today are being used as slaves without knowing it themselves. 90% of people are wasting their time lining the pockets of the top of the pyramid.
But if you do end up opting out of this system, maybe like you, then that's a better alternative.

The biggest slaves to money and resource insecurity are the faggots that adopted a "I don't care about making money" mindset, these are my parents. Handing wringing about fucking trips to McDonald's and Netflix subscriptions ain't nobody want to live like that.

well you already answered that question, i too find it enjoyable so why stop
it isnt like it requires tons of time
index fund however are guaranteed loss so i dont see any reason to go for that on top of that you get completely rugged when they devalue the currency again
i dont think you seem to understand how bad fiat is, its risky not to have a significant part of your nw in fiat alternatives right now and never forget that any etf is held through a counter party that will be law be forced to rug you when the time comes
the entire index fund strategy stopped working when the world became unstable and is completely dead in the current era of printing
i mean do you want some zimbabwe or venezuela index fund

You really think something like VTI is unstable? What about a mix of that and other things like BTC, precious metals, real estate, international ETFs, etc?
I'd just want a very stable portfolio to live off while having a risky bonus money portfolio to keep things interesting

no its not vti itself, the problem is that you dont own vti and there exists no way for you to own vti
and the holding intermediary that does actually own it is very unstable
people forget that all stonks brokers for retail are the exact same as cefi if something happens to them
your stonks they hold for you get stolen to repay the creditors in order of importance and you are so far down the line you'll be getting back about as much as the cefi estates

You simply cannot invest off of the presumption of total economic collapse of everything lol that is a loser's mentality. No one is going to be owning anything in the event that you describe so it's just a moot point. Things like VOO and VTI are some of the most boring secure funds out there.

you are still not getting it, it isnt total economic collapse
i never said the companies inside vti are going bust, i said the IOU that you think you own will be stolen from you because the holding company can and will go bust
but this is only for retail, the real interests in the economy will be spared of course so it isnt anywhere close to no one is going to own anything
but dont let me hold you back if you think its a losers mentality put all your crypto in nexo right now for that juicy yield, if you dont you are a loser right, you said so anon

opposed to choosing something like being a teacher or an artist

if only teachers didn't always bitch about how hard and important their job is and say they deserve the same salaries are white collar jobs despite having like 10 weeks vacation every year. Some of the most narcissistic people ever

I'm gonna laugh at all the 70 year old Walmart greeters in this post when I'm retired early sipping a latte on the beach.

Just enjoy life and don't think about the future man. Why work so much when you could die tomorrow?

Just turned 40, about to retire, and all the roasties that said shit like this are talking about how all they want is a little piece of land to park a camper on. Had one bitch I dated 4 years ago call me up and ask if she could come live with me. Said she would suck my dick. I told her sure, for 2 weeks. Then you gotta go. Back to the cage wagie. Don't work to hard. You could die tomorrow. I hope your hip holds up while you stand at the Walmart door at age 75.