No, You can't retire rich at 30 if you sell your startup

Re:No, You can't retire rich at 30 if you sell your startup by yummyfajitas on Monday August 23, 2010 @04:48PM (#1628004)

A quick google search finds many links suggesting house sizes have gone way up. This one says 1500ft^2 in 1973, 2500ft^2 in 2006.

http://www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/pages/News2007032701?Ope...

In spite of the purported declining income and increasing energy prices, people in 2007 have more and better material goods and services than in 1967, far more than the mere $10k increase in real incomes would predict. You could be right, the next 40 years may be different from the last 40 - I'll leave predicting the future to you and Ray Kurzweil.

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Re:No, You can't retire rich at 30 if you sell your startup by aswanson on Monday August 23, 2010 @06:31PM (#1628293)

There was a ridiculous downgrade in credit quality to facilitate that build out of McMansions over the last 10 years . A better analysis of how much real income and how much purchasing power per sq foot of home would have to take in credit quality/debt into account over time to be anywhere near informative. Secondly, increasing energy prices are not purported, they are real: http://www.eia.doe.gov/EMEU/steo/realprices/index.cfm

Real income analysis would require more time than I'm willing to commit right now.

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Re:No, You can't retire rich at 30 if you sell your startup by jimbokun on Monday August 23, 2010 @09:12PM (#1628606)

That's an excellent visualization. Thanks for the link.

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Re:No, You can't retire rich at 30 if you sell your startup by jshen on Monday August 23, 2010 @05:20PM (#1628100)

"I'll leave predicting the future to you and Ray Kurzweil."

Except that you did try to predict the future earlier. Energy prices haven't risen much yet. You have an odd pattern of dodging my main point, and picking at tangential details.

Btw, I put a caveat on the house thing, I live in a major city and I'm sure it's different in most parts of the country. I'll bet this changes when driving long distances to work becomes much more expensive.

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Re:No, You can't retire rich at 30 if you sell your startup by yummyfajitas on Monday August 23, 2010 @05:35PM (#1628133)

I didn't try to predict the future - I explicitly qualified that everything I wrote applied only under certain circumstances: "If the past 40 years are a guide to the future..." You even quoted my qualification.

As for dodging your main point, let me address it more carefully now. You seem to believe that incomes (by which I assume you mean income adjusted for CPI) is decreasing. And yet, over a period in which CPI adjusted incomes remained flat, quality of life dramatically increased. So why do you believe that decreasing CPI-adjusted incomes are worth worrying about?

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Re:No, You can't retire rich at 30 if you sell your startup by jshen on Monday August 23, 2010 @06:11PM (#1628242)

" why do you believe that decreasing CPI-adjusted incomes are worth worrying about?"

I've said it at least three times already. Because it is highly probable that energy prices are going to increase significantly.

Btw, how do you measure quality of life. I always find it funny when people throw around that term relating to economics.

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Re:No, You can't retire rich at 30 if you sell your startup by yummyfajitas on Tuesday August 24, 2010 @10:18AM (#1629836)

You are concerned oil prices might increase by a factor of 8? Like in the 70's?

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article1375.html

In any case, I'm not sure what this has to do with CPI-adjusted incomes.

By quality of life, I'm only estimating the direction of change rather than the magnitude. I'm assuming that having more stuff is better - I'm happier with flush toilets/a washing machine/Bioshock than without.

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