The [SCRIPTED] Vault (Dogmatic Social Engineering)

[G-Man]

(as if that's a thing)

It's not, but, if you make money selling books on the topic, you might have a different opinion

 

[G-Man]

Overall household debt now over the prior peak in 2008. Did something happen in '08?

 

[MidwestLandlord]

5 facts that prove Americans don’t know anything about managing money

"60% of Americans wouldn’t have enough savings to pay for a $500 expense if it came up unexpectedly"

"U.S. consumers owe $1.0004 trillion on their cards, up 6.2% from a year ago"

"owe more than $1 trillion for our cars"

And the kicker:

"Americans report being more concerned about affording that vacation (36%) than having adequate retirement savings (32%)"

Come on people! You can take that vacation when you're 70 and retired with millions! That 401(k) ain't gonna fund itself!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Will buying coffee keep you from getting rich? Here's what Kevin O'Leary and other experts say

And yet, none of these "experts" got rich skipping their coffee. Same ole, same ole hypocritical BS. Generally a fan of K. Leary, but he lost some points here, not to mention he's wearing some god-awful coat that probably cost $2,500 -- why was that purchase not foolish, but your $2.50 coffee is?

It's absolutely infuriating when guys worth 9 figures or more continue to preach this garbage about investing money saved on coffee.

I get it -- discipline is important as is investing. But this shit advice is equivalent to pissing in a lake to combat a drought. Frugality is the front door, not the entire fn house.

 

[mindfulimmortal]

College Degree = $10hr job!
College Degree = $10-Hour Job

 

[G-Man]

This Week in Appropriation: Kooks Burritos and Willamette Week

Portland social justice types shut down a burrito joint because owners aren't correct ethnicity. Apparently, recognizing and appreciating a quality product, and trying to import it to your home market is now "colonialism".

Script = miserable crabs telling you you can't do something because you're white/black/brown/yellow/man/woman/straight/gay/christian/muslim/fat/skinny/ugly/pretty just so they can keep you in their bucket of F*cking misery.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

From the Lending Club thread compliments of @fastbo ...

 

[SquatchMan]

When I was in elementary school all the boys wanted to be pro athletes:

"I want to be a football player and make millions."
"I want to be a baseball player and make millions."

Teacher: "It's extremely rare and not likely, but if you work really hard and don't get injured you might make it."

(2 kids became MLB players)

My career aspirations were a little different:

Me: "I want to own an NFL team. If Tom Brady gets paid 20 million year, then imagine how much the person paying him makes."
Teacher: "SquatchMan, that really isn't possible unless you're born rich."

Ignore Mark Cuban, Arthur Blank, Jerry Jones (he had some spectacular failures), Al Davis, Wayne Huzienga, Steve Bisciotti, etc.

EDIT: I don't even want to own a sports franchise anymore. However, I like that the mindset of boss vs employee was present even as a little kid.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Here ya go: Snowflake training for your future employees who can't take criticism. From a major SEC college.

This one is particularly interesting:
"If you feel unduly stressed by a grade for any material... email the instructor what grade you think is appropriate and it will be so changed."

This is incredibly valuable in the real world.

If you think your $28K salary is unduly stressing, no worries, tell your boss you're worth $250K/year and it will be so changed.

WTF is happening to our universities?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

This video is funny because I feel it tells the tale of TWO different categories of millennials...

The first group, portrayed in the video, shows the tribulations of a millennial who has followed SCRIPTED doctrine -- college, loans, jobs, get a house, blah blah. He cannot afford to live in a nice house, despite working hard in a job.

The second group, the one you don't see or hear about, is the millennial who has NOT followed SCRIPTED doctrine.

He walks into the house and pays cash for it because he's an entrepreneur who's learned how to create his own job.

It's kind of sad because the first group is working hard in a system that worked 30 years ago, but it doesn't work today.

They've been sold a lie.

 

[Yoda]

I'd rather be working remotely while on vacation with the family, even if I had to do a 12 hour day or two during part of the vacation, because you still have that freedom.

This is slightly different, because I think you need to consider her relationship with her Dad. She may look at it like she's waited all this time to go on vacation with him and he's not even 'there' the first two days.

Sometimes it's about the quality of time, not necessarily where it takes place.

Autonomy, my friends.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

This sent a shiver down my spine. The sidewalk is terrifying.

There's some statistics in my new book that were utterly pathetic. When I went looking for such data (retirement funds, savings, etc.) I was expecting a certain level of futility, but when I actually found the data, my mouth was on the floor. It was much worse than I would have guessed.

 

[amp0193]

Sometimes I think this forum is a dream and I'm dreaming because in the real world, I'm surrounded by sidewalkers and slowlaners everyday. No one in the real world shares the same beliefs as me.

Like no lie, I feel like I'm the guy from the matrix. This forum is my only sanity lol.

The longer you're out of the matrix, the more it fades away, and the more connections you make with people in your day to day life who are also outside the matrix. They are there, in your city, you just have to identify them.

Step 1 is getting out of one's day job. As soon as you do that, you are free to choose who you associate with.

 

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[Nily]

DEBT = MONEY
​

Since 1971, the US dollars are no longer backed by gold and every currency in the world is backed by the US dollars - I'll let you figure that out. Furthermore, our economy has evolved into a debt-based economy meaning that the economy will falter if people stop borrowing! The Script is over 100 years old.

MIND BLOWN.

Note: ColdFusionTV post quality content so you're not watching a conspiracy theory.

 

[mindfulimmortal]

Scripted Jobs most susceptible to automation

The Parts of America Most Susceptible to Automation

Highlights:
Most think the hardest area/jobs hit with automation will be the Rust Belt and manufacturing - Not so!
Much of the manufacturing is already automated
Areas of high concentration of food preparation, office or administrative support and/or sales will be most effected by automation
Las Vegas, Riverside-San Bernardino, El Paso, Orlando and Louisville will be hardest hit
More than 55% of jobs will be lost to automation in those industries areas

Note: follow the unscripted path and avoid becoming obsolete to a machine!

Another good example of automation technology changing Scripted Jobs:
A new business called the Tipsy Robot just opened on the Las Vegas strip. It replaces bartenders with Robots. They can make up to 18 cocktails, each taking about 60 to 90 seconds while the customer watches a timer that tells them how long before their drink arrives. When not serving drinks they can slice fruit or dance to a soundtrack entertaining customers. customers order drinks on tablets and pay with tabletop devices. No tips required. No human resource issues. Because of the new technology and being on the las vegas strip drinks are pricey ($14). Don't look for it this year in your local pub but maybe in 5-10yrs bartender positions will be limited.

 

[Pilot35]

Adults have no time? Hmm, I wonder why?

 

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[luniac]

minimum wage in new york is 11 an hour now.
if people weren't so materialistic, 1 roomate + rent controlled apartment is great.
I'm 90% sure gettin fired next month from my office job(disagreement over my intrinsic value proposition)
so i lose my 16 dollas an hour... big whoop lol im a minimalist its more blessing than a curse.
Ill get a nice labor job picking things up and put them down, gettin paid to work out and exercise! vs sitting in a F*ckin chair 8 hours a day.
ill come home and make apps on the computer, go to bed, rinse repeat until success lol

 

[mindfulimmortal]

Slowlane Pension Crisis/The Pension Gap
How a pension deal went wrong and cost California taxpayers billions

Highlights - In California the difference of what has been set aside for pensions and what they will eventually owe is $241BILLION!
Even with a market rebound pension funds have not caught up
The light on the end of the tunnel is a fast moving train not the end of the tunnel - bottom line if you are thinking your 30yrs hard work for the State of California will allow you to retire with lifetime benefits think again!
Sidenote: I know a nurse who retired from LA county. They offered her 9,500 per month for life or 1.2 million cash. I strongly advised her I would take the cash. She took the monthly benefits

 

[mindfulimmortal]

Scripted Jobs most susceptible to automation

The Parts of America Most Susceptible to Automation

Highlights:
Most think the hardest area/jobs hit with automation will be the Rust Belt and manufacturing - Not so!
Much of the manufacturing is already automated
Areas of high concentration of food preparation, office or administrative support and/or sales will be most effected by automation
Las Vegas, Riverside-San Bernardino, El Paso, Orlando and Louisville will be hardest hit
More than 55% of jobs will be lost to automation in those industries areas

Note: follow the unscripted path and avoid becoming obsolete to a machine!

 

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[Yoda]

Who makes a million a year from a 9-5?

The people who pay the wages of a 9-5 employee.

 

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[G-Man]

Ben Carson Calls Poverty a ‘State of Mind,’ Igniting a Backlash

You aren't allowed to tell people that their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors keep them in poverty... Even if you're a person raised by a single mom in Detroit that grew up to be a freakin neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins.

Also of interest is how blatantly the headline mis-characterizes what he said.

 

[amp0193]

Ben Carson Calls Poverty a ‘State of Mind,’ Igniting a Backlash

You aren't allowed to tell people that their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors keep them in poverty... Even if you're a person raised by a single mom in Detroit that grew up to be a freakin neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins.

Also of interest is how blatantly the headline mid-characterizes what he said.

Ok, I get how you could maybe dismiss someone who was rich/white their whole life, trying to talk about poverty.

However, you would think they would listen to someone who was once black and poor.

nope nope nope. "Move along"

 

[MidwestLandlord]

Just go to bogleheads forum, it's a goldmine there....

Anyone else catch the ad war going on in the last year or so between Vanguard, Blackrock, Sachs, and Schwab over cheapest index fund management fees?

www.investmentnews.com/article/20170202/FREE/170209973/another-salvo-in-the-fee-wars-schwab-cuts-expense-ratios-on-index

"Chairman Charles Schwab said in a statement, “Indexing is the simplest, easiest, cheapest way for the average American to build personal wealth. It's dynamic yet predictable, and offers diversification, cost-efficiency and the potential growth opportunities that come with owning a broad basket of securities. With today's news, we're making it even easier for mainstream investors to build indexed portfolios.”

Some good sales copy right there. Charles Schwab HIMSELF said that it's a good way to build wealth. Who would disagree with an authority figure like that?

Mutual Fund Fees Are So Cheap that Goldman Executives Actually Gasped

"Mutual Fund Fees Are So Cheap that Goldman Executives Actually Gasped"

I bet.

"These days, common sense favors low-cost investing, and investors are putting their money where their mouthes are. Around 95% of all new money has gone into the cheapest fifth of the fund market..."

"Common sense" aka, the Script. Is that implying that if you don't follow the herd into low-cost index funds, you are lacking common sense? Playing the shame card haha.

"Why would anyone want to pay more for less return, especially since a small fee difference of 0.60% means an almost $100,000 loss over 30 years, from a $100,000 initial nest egg."

Excellent question lol.

"In 2014, the industry saw fee revenue hit a high-water mark of $88 billion, over $38 billion more than it was the previous decade, buoyed by a 143% increase of assets under its management, according to Morningstar. As its report aptly says, "Thus, the industry—rather than fund shareholders—has benefitted most.""

"rather than fund shareholders"

And the truth comes out.

 

[MTF]

I've always hated the idea of "having fun" by going to a bar and getting drunk, but it seems to be society's preferred way to distract the sheep and a favorite pastime for many Sidewalkers.

Happy to see somebody telling it like it is: http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/secretly-hate-bars.html

 

[JourneyToAbundance]

Three financial SCRIPTS that I listened to with the rest of the herd - Listening and following financial porn to plan my early retirement. I use to believe that time and compound interest was the only way that I can be wealthy. I can't believe I wasted so much time listening to these morons on CNBC marketing their financial products or listening to their predictions on the market.

• Listening to experts that think they can predict where the market is going
  • Long term capital management disaster in 1998 - 16 of the most brilliant minds in finance with 400 years of experience went broke by using a flawed model that didn't manage risk properly
  • In June 2005, Alan Greenspan said there wasn't a housing bubble
  • In March 2007, Ben Bernanke testified that the Subprime crisis was contained
  • Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme which promised 10-12% a year in returns.
    
  • From 2009-2011, Meredith Whitney predicted Municipal bond defaults in 50 counties in the US
• Any article on 401k by age, I use to read and follow these articles religiously. Trust Wall Street to return 7-8% a year
• Any Early Retirement Article: Retire at 62 with a million dollars and live to 100

As MJ said in Unscripted , the best defense against the SCRIPT is knowledge.

 

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[G-Man]

Betsy DeVos's student loan overhaul would hurt doctors, lawyers

TLDR: Don't accumulate a king's ransom in debt, then choose a job based on who promises to "forgive" said debt... they might change their minds.

How this couple paid off $200,000 of debt in 2 years

"People had me convinced that taking 30 years to pay off the debt was normal and that I shouldn't worry about it," she said.

Even better is that the article never asks "WTF would you get 6 figures into debt in the first place?" Instead it reinforces the script by recommending you be thrifty to pay said debt. Twilight Zone.

 

[ZF Lee]

20 companies offering great job security - I need to stop reading these articles

I'm halfway through Unscripted and the section on momentum paralysis in Chapter 26 is one of my most difficult delusions to re-wire - it's my kryptonite

"The greater our emotional attachments are — years of schooling, training, residency — the harder abandonment becomes, hence not choosing what’s best for the future but instead desiring to not see your past investment wasted.... Momentum paralysis keeps you chained to your past while wasting away your future. This is important for new entrepreneurs, because multiple failures precedes success"

This is where the SCRIPT has me by the balls. I keep on replaying the successes in my 17 year career as a project manager. I re-live the great successes, the pay increases early on in my career, the industry certifications that I've completed ten years ago. Part of me want to stick around for that 25 year work anniversary celebration because it's a "celebrated milestone." I need to change my narrative and the story I tell myself but my emotions are getting in the way. Trying to edit the movie playing in my head is extremely difficult.

I am going to say this.
Amazon didn't let me post this as part of my review, but I am going to say it here.

The reason why UNSCRIPTED IS the Thor's hammer, the nuke strike on the Slowlane/ SCRIPT is that the entrepreneural execution strategies and pointers aside, @MJ DeMarco actually took his damn time to walk us through the mental barriers and mess in our lives preventing us from getting rich. Thanks again.

I must admit, I used to be the guy who though that you had to be lucky to get rich.
I used to be the guy who though you should listen to others, especially experts and follow them.
TMF gave me a hint of critical thinking, which led me to make better choices of action, but UNSCRIPTED now tells us HOW to get it and HOW to develop new critical thinking. The SCRIPT is going to get more advanced in the future, so we need more usage of critical thinking than ever.

This is one of the reasons why I am staying out of getting a professional degree. For some of you, especially those who see opportunity in STEM fields, a college education might be necessary. But for me, that threat which you have mentioned above outweights the benefits, i.e the years of emotional attachments. A professional degree would suck the shit out of time, opportunities, self education and adaptability, which MJ talked a lot about in UNSCRIPTED .

Even now I am paying for my choices. I chose to go to a pre-uni education for a year and a half. I found TMF at the beginning of the semester. I badly really want to take MAXIMUM ACTION, which requires much of my time, but alas, my academic responsibilities have choked the life out of me. I am only limited to freelancing as building a business needs way more than eight hour workdays, let alone a four hour work week. Well, I have only myself to blame. Out of accountability, I have to finish what I started although I realise now it was a dud.

Could have been worse. Could have been a four year long degree suckage or a five year contractual obligation of a soul sucking job.
And compared to you Westerners, the Asian context of education even in tertiary education is harsher and far more restrictive than you people. You can party on weekends or go out freely for movies and whatnot even on college days, but for us, its the grind on the books. And they even provide outdoor benches and tables of the work effort. This is as close to the Japanese culture of work-till-death.

So, any of you newcomers from the Western countries, if you think you are bloody unlucky, consider us Asians. Of course, I have made my peace with the unlucky argument. But still, considered the SCRIPT barriers in place in Asian societies such as mine, the 'unlucky' factor is still dangerous especially for SCRIPT prisoners.

RANT OVER

Those in the SCRIPT actually have a higher chance of being scammed by crap investments. Although Ponzi did take out some high-level investors, those guys still had dough in other places or their losses were limited.

This piece of news have been throwing my country up into an uproar.
https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/2140/
Cops: Over 400,000 people invested in JJPTR scheme - Nation | The Star Online

I'll save you the painful read.
Sparknotes version:
-Young founder with no banking or finance experience sets up a currency trading finance scheme, called JJPTR
(JJ Poor to Rich, literally, sounds more scammy than the Millionaire Fastlane , lol).
-Unlicensed forex trader
-promises 20% MONTHLY returns, plus minimum guarantee of receiving prior capital...word spread through mouth like wildfire (MJ's on the money of the power of word of mouth)
-claims accounts have been hacked, leading to loss of RM500 million (that is about USD 100 million plus...a fortune)

I quote from the article:
'An unlicensed forex trading scheme, JJPTR has drawn thousands of investors with the promise of a 20% monthly return, but is now in danger of collapsing like a stack of cards'

I'm not a finance whizz, but I had never heard of a return that big on legitimate investments, unless you are an activist investor like Buffett or an entrepreneur that took his company public or sold it, and then those returns are way huger than merely 20%.

Prior to this fiasco, I was urged by some concerned relatives of mine to invest in this.
They: This is a good opportunity! We have no time to learn how to invest (then talks some crap about how hard living is, with rising costs and job woes), so we can let some people help us invest. They have the knowledge, but we don't. Let them take our money and make it bigger.

Me: Nah, I'll pass. The guy running the show ain't got the experience or chops. I'm better off focusing on my things. (they thought it was my studies, but I meant my Fastlane efforts, but if I told them, I would received SCRIPTED resistance)

They: But we don't have time to learn how to invest. You need to have some investments so that you can live better in the future when you graduate and have a job.

Me: Nah, I won't invest in shit I don't understand. I want to know what I am going into so that I can control my risks and know what to do. (Later in UNSCRIPTED , @MJ DeMarco , said that there are no financial experts...cringeworthy, so it was already validated as SCRIPT horseshit)

Results, my money was saved and their money wasn't....they lost about 10 grand in ringgit in the ensuing losses....still substantial money to upgrade a typical entrepreneur's Amazon inventory and buy some ads and settle phone bills for customer service, with a bit left over.....

The SCRIPT told people that they had no time or education to learn new things, let alone business or investing, and so they have to give away their autonomy to other more' professional' people.

Best recipe for financial fracas....

One thing I learned:
You don't need to be a finance whizz to avoid scams and financial crooks, or even to identify them!
The only finance I ever read was RDPD, TMF, unscripted , the 2X method book offered generously by @V8Bill and accounting technicals. If I ever saw anything on stocks or real estate, I only read the blurbs or the first few chapters. I am as 'knowledge deprived' as F*ck compared to hard players here, yet I avoided such scams that 99% of the SCRIPT populace fell for. I saw that the JJPTR finance scheme had RED FLAGS, called them out like MJ did. But few people listened, because I was just a young a$$, and they went into the shit.

I'm not celebrating this. It's an embarassment in a heavily modernised society.

BTW, a slight derail, @MJ DeMarco , on a few more things on UNSCRIPTED . telling us to forget the commandment of Time in favour of a focus of a Productocracy was brilliant. I have been making the mistake of purposefully working towards channels of such, which limited my options and value array. Absolutely brilliant.

Plus it was good to see that you picked material from the GOLD and NOTABLE threads of the forum for the book. I chuckled as I saw them, remembering the time I found the Anton real estate and Mohammad Islam trading fiascos threads. You wove everything together into a message that basically displayed the SCRIPT in all of its masterful ugliness. Although I'm no stranger to this, you blew my expectations....again. I admit, before TMF I believed in those fibs and wanted to go into the real estate and trading fields as a result.

This money chasing error is going to be the bane of almost every entrepreneur who doesn't find the truth of the UNSCRIPTED framework.

 

[Millenial_Kid5K1]

Old news, but extremely relevant.

Chicago mayor to require an 'after-graduation' plan in order to receive high school diploma.

"[...]the plan will require the Class of 2020 to [have] in order to graduate: a college acceptance letter; a military acceptance/enlistment letter; acceptance at a job program (for example, coding bootcamp); acceptance into a trades pre-apprenticeship/apprenticeship; acceptance into a "gap-year" program; or current job/job offer letter.

Chicago Mayor's Plan To Update H.S. Graduation Has A Fatal Flaw

So basically, get a J.O.B., or we won't let you have your diploma (entrepreneurship be damned!)

 

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[amp0193]

Not to get all religious here, but I guess improving your life takes a ton of faith.

Working towards something that does not exist, can not be seen, and is not guaranteed.

It takes faith in yourself.

 

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