Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

If you can't stop working and maintain a comfortable standard of living for the rest of your life, you are financially insecure.

So if you are 25 years old and cannot retire today and never work a day for the rest of your life, you are financially insecure?




Pretty much, yeah. Security is modeled using two terms, what you're trying to protect, and what threatens it. You're either secure against a certain threat or you're not, that's the idea.

Financial security is the model of protecting lifestyle with cash. If you're protecting your lifestyle with something else other than cash, then you don't have financial security, but you still may have security.

Basically it's very simple. If you have a big enough chunk of cash in the bank, you can generate enough income from it to secure your lifestyle. (defined in terms of expenditures) You can then use your cash to protect yourself in ways other people cannot. Cash is a cool thing to be able to use because everybody you're going to want to deal with accepts it. If instead you're using skills to protect your relationship, or even worse, a job, then you'll only be protected so long as you can derive cash from those assets.

Personally, I protect my lifestyle with my web development skills which I can take with me to any of a large number of companies who will give me cash. This affords me a great amount of security against hardship, but it isn't financial security. For one, I still have to work.

Also the world could decide that web development blows and it could suddenly be much more difficult to find a job. I would be forced to take whatever job I could find to secure my lifestyle, and then my security would only last as long as the job does.

Financial security is best because cash will (probably) never go out of style.


People use the term "financially secure" to mean different things. You can say you're secure because you earn enough to support your current lifestyle as long as you continue to work. That is as secure as most of us get.

But you can also consider the term like this thread to mean that you are totally secure financially for life - even if you were to become unable to work.

So in you're case you may be secure for now, but you're not yet secure for life. Very few 25 year olds are already financially secure for life, though.




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: