Successful Slowlaner Rebukes Fastlane (My Response...)

[MJ DeMarco]

Here's the article.

http://www.businessinsider.com/i-be...-advice-i-can-give-you-about-investing-2016-2

Rut Roh!

Folks, it's time to sell your business! Give up! Stop what you're doing! Give everything to Wall Street!

So here's my rebuttal...


-------------------------------------

Hmmm, where do I start?

How about... congratulations?!

Yup, a big fat congratulations because you know what?

You've accomplished something extraordinary.

In fact, it's something so extraordinary and rarely accomplished that it deserves special attention and reporting in the New York Times, on the front page of Yahoo (where I found the article) and in Business INSIDERS's vast treasure trove of financial nonsense featuring Wall Street dependence and rip-your-hair out frugality.

Yup, your story is so uncommonly remarkable (and ridiculously improbable) that it warrants the mainstream media's attention.

Any that's the entire point of the Fastlane and the investment dogma that it attacks.

However, you know what story WILL NOT be featured in the New York Times?

My story.

I became a multi-millionaire in my early thirties. And I did it BEFORE "cashing out". I didn't rely on Wall Street. I didn't rely on experiential starvation or mind-numbing frugality. I didn't deprive myself of experiences, toys, or whatever else I found inspiriting. And I certainly didn't obsess over money, so much so that I named myself "Money MJ" or "Dollar DeMarco".

You see I just didn't become a multi-millionaire in my thirties -- I RETIRED.

That means I never have to work another day in my life, ever again. I don't need to peek at the S&P500 index every day. Stock market up? Down? I don't give a shit. I don't need to fondly spy a steakhouse, an exotic car, and or a cabin in the woods and persuade myself, "Meh, I don't want OR need that... right??????" I don't need to worry that the economy could go into the shitter. I don't need to lose sleep over inflation and the fact that our government is printing trillions annually. I don't need to hold up the checkout line at the grocery store because I have 22 coupons.

You see, I don't need to do anything.

But again, my story-- no matter how remarkably free and awesome it is-- won't be spotlighted in the New York Times.

My story won't make it to the pages of Business INSIDERS.

And my friend who travels the world six months out of the year, owns a free-and-clear house with a fancy Audi R8 parked in the garage, and by no account, starves himself of nothing?

Just like my story, his story won't be told either. And neither will the dozens, perhaps hundreds of other millionaire-in-the-making stories that hide behind the pages of this forum.

Their stories go UNTOLD.

Ya know why?

Because these stories are NOT extraordinary in the world of entrepreneurship. They are NOT unusual. They are NOT so unbelievably uncommon that they deserve air time on the news, in newspapers, and in any racket worshiping the narrative that financial success must go through Wall Street's slimy hands and the corporations it serves.

Your story, however, IS remarkably uncommon.

And you should be proud.

In other words, it's about as likely as Kanye West winning a CMA award.

You see, the Fastlane is not about "cashing out" as your strawman argument implies. It's about creating a business entity that takes advantage of controllable unlimited leverage so you can earn five or six figures monthly and become a millionaire in a few short years WITHOUT depending on Wall Street, a fragile economy, and a money-printing government. It's about NOT surrendering your entire financial future into the unpredictable and unreliable markets, obsessing over money, saving $2 on shampoo, and whatever else the "settle for less" investment plan requires. Cashing out? That's called "F*ck you" money and the big "F*ck you" is directed at Wall Street.

While the Fastlane certainly isn't immune to it's own survivor biases, your story is suffocating from it, as evidenced by it's national newsworthiness.

And yet, this is the plan the common man should be rejoicing over?

Perhaps we should throw some actuarial science behind the financial plan of hope-and-pray.

• The odds of the stock marketing returning 10% a year and not crashing over 50 years?
  10%? (Odd, your analysis excluded the 40% decline of 2007/2008??)
  
• The odds that you're alive after 50 years?
  50%?
• The odds that you have a job for 50 straight years, actually being able to save 966.00 month?
  5%?
• The odds inflation doesn't hyper-inflate your savings during those 50 years?
  70%? (Because ya know, the government is such a good steward of our currency!)
  
• The odds you start in your early twenties?
  5%?

I could throw in a few other variables in there relating to a national debt of $20 trillion and a few other things OUTSIDE of your control, but why bother.

What we get is (10% X 50% X 5% 70% X 5%) = .0000875%, or in other words, .00875% -- the probability of someone actually repeating your success story. Of course, I know these variables are debatable (and the example isn't truly actuarial) but that's not the point. My point is the entire plan is an improbable gamble based on a bunch of variables you will NEVER control. Theory is one thing, practice is another.

In effect, the word "millionaire" means nothing if it isn't allowing you unrestrained freedom from Wall Street's servitude system. The people here do NOT aspire to be Wall Street millionaires, they aspire to be free from the dogmatic tenets of culture and society-- the very such tenets that are espoused ubiquitously on Business INSIDERS and Yahoo Finance.

Unfortunately the truth is that Slowlane dogma remains no better than buying a lottery ticket for anyone older than 35. And if you miss buying that ticket in your 20's, forget it.

Game over.

Life does not wait. Experiences do not wait. Time does not wait.

Of course, none of this is to impugn your incredible accomplishment, an accomplishment that no doubt requires an outstanding disciplined effort faithfully executed throughout the decades -- and that commitment deserves its respect and its props-- a commitment which is respectably and honorably no doubt... "Fastlane".

- MJ

 

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[beatgoezon]

Read this yesterday and knew you'd write about this sooner or later

That's just the reason these type of articles are featured on big news sites; they give people hope that what they're doing (or just believe) works.

I've had the privilege of having the front row seats in seeing what the truth about this financial plan is; most people never even come close to achieving it, let alone following it in the first place

I know it's hard and grueling at times, but I don't think there really is any other measurable way to achieve true financial wealth other than what the Millionaire Fastlane teaches
I think that's why age old wisdom teaches that the path leading to the most prosperity is least traveled, most people would rather have society think for them and land them in a ditch than make the scary choice of thinking for themselves

 

[mrarcher]

Why bother arguing with someone who says you shouldn't get into business and you should invest NOW!!!!! But has this on the bottom of the site he owns:
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