One of the big taboo subjects in the New Economy is long-term financial planning. We like to pretend we're all part of this brave new world where all who choose to have the right attitudes and take the right kinds of risks will have comparable outcomes. We like to pretend that just because people with very diverse financial profiles live similar lifestyles in similar gentrifying metro neighborhoods, doing similar "new economy" work, that our financial trajectories won't diverge too much as we -- and by we, I mean assorted bloggers, podcasters, freelance coders, designers, non-unicorn startuppers, Etsy merchants etc. -- grow older and less healthy. This is of course, insanity. The world emerging today has a tiny fraction of big-exit winners, a slightly larger fraction of people who win options lotteries and make big gains in secondary markets, and a vast majority -- including most with "new economy skills" that on paper prepare them for surviving and thriving -- who are basically in complete denial about the financial realities of their lives. If you aren't one of the lucky ones, working for a big tech company (ironically among the last few places where you expect an industrial-age style retirement), you have to wake up to a lot of very grim realities. But there's light at the end of the tunnel.
So You Think You Can Retire, Punk?
So You Think You Can Retire, Punk?
So You Think You Can Retire, Punk?
One of the big taboo subjects in the New Economy is long-term financial planning. We like to pretend we're all part of this brave new world where all who choose to have the right attitudes and take the right kinds of risks will have comparable outcomes. We like to pretend that just because people with very diverse financial profiles live similar lifestyles in similar gentrifying metro neighborhoods, doing similar "new economy" work, that our financial trajectories won't diverge too much as we -- and by we, I mean assorted bloggers, podcasters, freelance coders, designers, non-unicorn startuppers, Etsy merchants etc. -- grow older and less healthy. This is of course, insanity. The world emerging today has a tiny fraction of big-exit winners, a slightly larger fraction of people who win options lotteries and make big gains in secondary markets, and a vast majority -- including most with "new economy skills" that on paper prepare them for surviving and thriving -- who are basically in complete denial about the financial realities of their lives. If you aren't one of the lucky ones, working for a big tech company (ironically among the last few places where you expect an industrial-age style retirement), you have to wake up to a lot of very grim realities. But there's light at the end of the tunnel.