SilasBarta comments on The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology is soliciting ideas - Less Wrong

9 Post author: Kevin 12 July 2010 11:41PM

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Comment author: SilasBarta 13 July 2010 11:15:47PM 1 point [-]

Didn't the people in that book get rich by saving a lot and investing aggressively for the long term?

How's that strategy working out?

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 13 July 2010 11:19:26PM 2 points [-]

I don't know of any follow-ups.

They invested conservatively, not aggressively. I expect they're better off than people who got heavily into debt, but probably not as well off as some people who were insiders enough to not lose too much when they made bad investments for other people.

Comment author: SilasBarta 14 July 2010 01:44:02PM *  0 points [-]

I meant aggressively in the sense of well-diversified and stock-heavy (hence the "long-term" bit). If they got rich off of bond interest, well, it wasn't investment acumen that explains their success, but a) raw earning power, and b) not spending it all.

"Assume a high income" is not all that helpful.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 14 July 2010 11:22:43PM 0 points [-]

Unfortunately, exactly what they invested in wasn't something I was very sensitive to, and I don't remember it.

Generally, they had fairly ordinary incomes, and they invested in things which were considered low-risk at the time. A fair number of them had real estate in the sense of owning car dealerships (used car lots?), with the land under the business being a large part of their wealth.

They disliked spending money. It was common for them to be men whose wives made a full-time job of running the household cheaply. (There was a later book called The Millionaire Woman Next Door.)