The wagecuck as the antithesis of both FIRE and NEET

[JR5]

Bill Gates, the FIRE community and the average NEET have more in common with each other than the wagecuck because they are both in charge of their time and the wagecuck is not. The below post explores the implications of this...

https://neofeudalreview.substack.com/p/the-wagecuck-as-the-antithesis-of

 

[bubs]

That was an good read and interesting article. I can see how a person’s time is stolen from technology. I telework and have managed a reasonable workload. If I were to be hyper focused and high energy, I could probably get all my work done in 5-6hrs on average. Where I have gaps from meetings during the day, I opt for spending about 1 hr reading/posting on here and watching YouTube, doing house /yard chores etc vs doing a hobby or things I really would enjoy. Then my work day expands and I may start working 7am and end by 6pm with little gaps in between of either technology stealing my interests or doing home ownership slave chores that aren’t much enjoyment. I think many people get sucked in to this whether they are FIRE, wagecuck, or NEET.

 

[Blade Runner]

That was an good read and interesting article. I can see how a person’s time is stolen from technology. I telework and have managed a reasonable workload. If I were to be hyper focused and high energy, I could probably get all my work done in 5-6hrs on average. Where I have gaps from meetings during the day, I opt for spending about 1 hr reading/posting on here and watching YouTube, doing house /yard chores etc vs doing a hobby or things I really would enjoy. Then my work day expands and I may start working 7am and end by 6pm with little gaps in between of either technology stealing my interests or doing home ownership slave chores that aren’t much enjoyment. I think many people get sucked in to this whether they are FIRE, wagecuck, or NEET.

But it's not stressful or risk oriented like some jobs are. What you'll find as you age is you want to interact with the world, exercise, and read new and interesting things or ideas (at least if you're a thinker). The "wagecuck" doesn't have much time for any of these. I can barely get but my best friends who are married to even call me on the phone, let alone when it's a time not convenient, so the husband cuck is an issue too (I'm not saying he's cheated on, just using the funny term).

Again, the biggest issue once you hit 40, or approach it, is monk mode vs acting out sexually because you aren't a monk and there are no women of value for the long term. That's why you gotta go overseas, but again, the age thing might hinder various connections in light of your being a foreigner. As they say, tradeoffs only, no solutions in complex systems.

 

[Hannibal]

The FIRE mentality is just wagecuck to aspiring retiree.

If you cut down on your 4 or 5 biggest expenses, you can basically guarantee that level of living standard forever, provided that you take what's left over and invest it. If you save 3/4 of your income, you can get it done in 4 years. 1/2 of your income, 12 years. 12 years is far more doable for most.

It provides you a way out of the wagecuck life, but for most people it is not a pleasant way to live. No one wants to have a room mate when they are old, no one wants to get around town on foot or by bus when they are old. Also women tend to by nature be consumers, so the biggest windmill you have to tilt at involves getting your woman on board with this. Sometimes that is impossible.

No, not everyone can pull it off. It generally helps if you make 60k a year or more in an area without a very high cost of living and you don't have kids, which hilariously is a bigger problem because it ensures that that kind of thinking eventually dies out.

The biggest expenses generally being something like

Medical - get insured and dont get sick lol

Health - should be a byproduct of lifestyle, do some strength training, some cardio, "eat healthy", get enough sleep, don't be too fat, don't gain too much weight in general etc. This ties in to medical, ie don't get sick.

Food - generally lighter on the meat because that's expensive, stick to big staples like beans, oatmeal, rice, lentils, etc. I make a lot from scratch, but I'd rather eat nothing but ground beef and homemade bread than seriously sit down and eat a pound of lentils over rice. To me, it was disgusting.

Transportation - basically travel using bikes or the city bus. Every mile you drive with a car costs approximately 65 cents per mile, all costs considered. This adds up. A good compromise is an electric bike, or even an electric car (provided you live in an area that isn't hostile to those lithium batteries and the cost of electricity isn't astronomical).

Housing - do the math on whether or not renting or owning is a better deal, and get a room mate (more is better).

Entertainment - stick to free hobbies, cheap hobbies, or hobbies that make you money. A library card is your friend. Avoid subscription anything, it is better to buy equipment and lift with that than it is to get a gym membership with this line of thinking.

Children - don't have them, or just have one. The FIRE mentality is diseased in this respect because it tends to use environmentalism to justify not having kids, because muh carbon footprint.

It would be silly to not incorporate some of these aspects into how you live your life.

However, my wagecuck compromise here is to do 50 bucks a week into a brokerage account that buys nothing but index funds. After 30 years you will have upwards of half a million dollars. This does not include other things that you should be doing like 401k through your job, health savings account, etc. Obviously, earlier is better. If you can get your kids started mowing lawns and doing this at the age of 15, by the time they are 55 they will have 1.2 million.

Between government programs, retirement accounts, and the 50 bucks a week retirement plan, you should be comfortable.

 

[Blade Runner]

People aren't built that way - they never feel secure unless the money in the "bank" (which funny enough you can't count on anymore) is pretty darn huge. Even at ages up to 70. It's amazing to me.

Also women tend to by nature be consumers, so the biggest windmill you have to tilt at involves getting your woman on board with this. Sometimes that is impossible.

This is another nudge to go overseas to lower costs of living. If you don't work alongside and cooperate with a woman from a young age and live through all those years, looking back fondly of "doing it together" most women later in life turn into overspending hags. I'm only slightly overstating that. Promoting women to work and taking them out of young ages of marriage will guarantee that you have major crises in 2 generations.

 

[TheSurveyor]

Funny enough, the only way that I could see something like FIRE being somewhat feasible is with lots of children. One of the main reasons why people can be finacially ruined over one bad day is the fact that there is no social safety net provided by large families like in the past.

I come from a large family and whenever a relative passes away. Everyone would chip in to afront a lot of the finacial burden associated with a funeral and burial.

When I used to do fundraising I learned fast that it's easier to get $1 from 100 people than $100 from 1 person.

FIRE is only effective as a community particulary with lots of children. It promotes a rejection of materialism for future financial security, which sounds good to me.

 

[Australia Sucks]

The FIRE mentality is just wagecuck to aspiring retiree.

If you cut down on your 4 or 5 biggest expenses, you can basically guarantee that level of living standard forever, provided that you take what's left over and invest it. If you save 3/4 of your income, you can get it done in 4 years. 1/2 of your income, 12 years. 12 years is far more doable for most.

It provides you a way out of the wagecuck life, but for most people it is not a pleasant way to live. No one wants to have a room mate when they are old, no one wants to get around town on foot or by bus when they are old. Also women tend to by nature be consumers, so the biggest windmill you have to tilt at involves getting your woman on board with this. Sometimes that is impossible.

No, not everyone can pull it off. It generally helps if you make 60k a year or more in an area without a very high cost of living and you don't have kids, which hilariously is a bigger problem because it ensures that that kind of thinking eventually dies out.

The biggest expenses generally being something like

Medical - get insured and dont get sick lol

Health - should be a byproduct of lifestyle, do some strength training, some cardio, "eat healthy", get enough sleep, don't be too fat, don't gain too much weight in general etc. This ties in to medical, ie don't get sick.

Food - generally lighter on the meat because that's expensive, stick to big staples like beans, oatmeal, rice, lentils, etc. I make a lot from scratch, but I'd rather eat nothing but ground beef and homemade bread than seriously sit down and eat a pound of lentils over rice. To me, it was disgusting.

Transportation - basically travel using bikes or the city bus. Every mile you drive with a car costs approximately 65 cents per mile, all costs considered. This adds up. A good compromise is an electric bike, or even an electric car (provided you live in an area that isn't hostile to those lithium batteries and the cost of electricity isn't astronomical).

Housing - do the math on whether or not renting or owning is a better deal, and get a room mate (more is better).

Entertainment - stick to free hobbies, cheap hobbies, or hobbies that make you money. A library card is your friend. Avoid subscription anything, it is better to buy equipment and lift with that than it is to get a gym membership with this line of thinking.

Children - don't have them, or just have one. The FIRE mentality is diseased in this respect because it tends to use environmentalism to justify not having kids, because muh carbon footprint.

It would be silly to not incorporate some of these aspects into how you live your life.

However, my wagecuck compromise here is to do 50 bucks a week into a brokerage account that buys nothing but index funds. After 30 years you will have upwards of half a million dollars. This does not include other things that you should be doing like 401k through your job, health savings account, etc. Obviously, earlier is better. If you can get your kids started mowing lawns and doing this at the age of 15, by the time they are 55 they will have 1.2 million.

Between government programs, retirement accounts, and the 50 bucks a week retirement plan, you should be comfortable.

The problem is not saving 3/4 of your income for 4 years. Anyone can commit to that if its only 4 years. The problem is if you want to retire in that method you have to permanently live on 1/4 of your income forever!