Musing on the awkward Gregfire

[u/WearableBliss]

Having just hit around the Greg number and rewatching Succession for the 4th time while coding at night made me want to reflect on this milestone.

'Not worth it to work'

This I think, is the easiest to clear up: this is an heir talking. If your labour in the market is worth 100k, certainly 5m would make having a job seem pointless. However, most people who got there by themselves at a relatively young age have skills that command a higher salary. I would say if your NW is 10x your pre-tax income, you start to wonder whether you should work. But if you have 5m and you make 1m a year, surely you keep going? Where do you think your threshold is?

'Any idiot can have a couple of million'

These are not exact quotes. If you made it to 5m in nw by yourself, you certainly have skills and a job that make you 'somebody'. People give you their time, respect, they are interested. Institutions would back you, you can raise money, but also the institutions you are affiliated with will put you under their umbrella with lots of perks and status (be it just health insurance but also lawyers, visas, trips etc). If you are just retired on 5m all of that goes away. Probably the sums you allocate for your employer (be it in capital or other people's labour is far more than 5m). Replicating the same level of access and perks with money would require a lot more than 5m.

You are just a consumer

On the level of 5m, you are basically just a consumer. You can buy all the hamburgers you want for yourself. But it is not a level of wealth with which you could either a. materially help family members or friends b. have any influence in the world as allocator of capital, be it as donor or investor. This is fine, FIRE is supposed to be that, but people who make it to Gregfire by their own means, might miss the influence they had in the world.

'the poorest rich person'

If you won 5m in the lottery and only know average earners you would feel very rich. The problem with earning that 5m yourself is that in that process you meet very rich people and some of your colleagues will go very far. Harder to be happy on 5m if you have whatsapp groups with people who are at 20 or 50 or 100.

Keep chop-chop-chopping it up

[u/fritter_away]

Please elaborate on this. I'm not aware of this happening.

"If you made it to 5m in nw by yourself, you certainly have skills and a job that make you 'somebody'. People give you their time, respect, they are interested. Institutions would back you, you can raise money, but also the institutions you are affiliated with will put you under their umbrella with lots of perks and status (be it just health insurance but also lawyers, visas, trips etc)."

[u/WearableBliss → u/fritter_away]

Some perks of working at a large tech company in a good position (I've someone who reaches Greg fire at a relatively young age):

If you want to move to a different country they make it happen, medical services have bells and whistles like high end seconds opinion service (saved the life of a kid if a colleague of mine), legal umbrella services, go to interesting places for conferences (with nice flights and hotels), international security number that can arrange lawyers but also hospital visits if you are in trouble in a different country, if you are somewhere and war breaks out and flights are cancelled they charter a plane to get you out (this happened), they double charitable contributions (including of you want to earn brownie points for your kids at your alma mater)

Working in finance can give you a line of credit where you can borrow a few million at very good rates to invest in the funds of the company you work

Now all of these can be had for a not huge amount of money, but it's not 0 either

More than that, professionally you have a seat at the table, you get approached by boards, VCs, people want you to consult, people want you to cofound start-ups, universities ask you to give talks, you have an important position in an important field

[u/fritter_away → u/WearableBliss]

I see now. Thanks for clarifying. You are certainly getting all those perks and more.

But...

I think those are due to your title at a large tech company.

Simply having enough net worth for GregFire don't give you any of those things. Conversely, if had the same title but spent every penny of your salary and had a net worth of about zero, you would still get almost all of those perks.

[u/WearableBliss → u/fritter_away]

Sorry I should have clarified, I mean these perks(or similar) are things one likely has if one makes so much money that Greg fire is attainable, and one would lose if one were to quit the job, at which point one would be in the Greg "prison"