Cheat Codes for Life I Know at 36 That I Wish I Knew at 26

https://timdenning.com/cheat-codes-for-life/

by smn1234 • 4 years ago

39 78 4 years ago

PaulHoule2• 4 years ago

I'd expect that somebody who believes

   "The world wants you to be normal. F*ck being normal. That’s when being extraordinary becomes impossible."

would probably treat service workers poorly (they're normal, F*ck them) but instead there is the advice

   "Watch how people treat service workers. It tells you a lot about their character."

dottedmag• 4 years ago

Non sequitur.

yonixw• 4 years ago

Why does being extraordinary require being a jackass to people who are often merely a front? (Is the service worker in control of the discount rates, for example?)

PaulHoule2• 4 years ago

See (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism ("I'm special") and (2) vulgarity as a tracer for a lack of conscientiousness. ("The F*ck" bit)

That is, I'd expect people who use vulgar words gratuitously to be rude in general.

One interpretation is that this person is narcissistic but they are also Machiavellian and knows they'll be judged for how they treat service workers.

barabba• 4 years ago

That's a rather creative expectation to form from that sentence.

theandrewbailey3• 4 years ago

He also says:

Taking things for granted is a slow demise into madness. Be grateful.

mberh7• 4 years ago

I feel the opposite, being normal is highly underrated.

ilc• 4 years ago

What does normal even mean?

trts• 4 years ago

Depends on what attributes you attach to the word "normal" but I somewhat agree. The bad version tracks with "incurious" or "credulous" for me, the good version is aligned with "emotionally stable" or "grounded", although that doesn't feel too normal in 2022.

neodymiumphish2• 4 years ago

Is there an assumption here that all service workers are "being normal"? Nowhere in this blog is there a point about treating others differently for "being normal".

giantg210• 4 years ago

For number 4, what should one do other than work? Number 6 seems to be their answer, but that's still "work" just not at a salaried job.

For number 6, any details on avoiding taxes? Are they in a different jurisdiction? My experience is that self employment taxes (FICA), and the need for benefits makes it so you cannot earn half as much and still take home more.

theandrewbailey3• 4 years ago

Have goals and people that aren't work related. Pursue your own personal interests instead of focusing on your work or career. He kinda gives it away at the end:

36. When you stop having big dreams that’s when you’ve died, despite not being buried yet.

giantg210• 4 years ago

How do those dreamers support themselves?

neodymiumphish2• 4 years ago

If you're self-employed, the income can go into the business and you can pay yourself based on what you actually need, while the rest of the income gets put back into the work/business. Even when taxed, those taxes that aren't individual income are taxed much lower than income taxes, so you can "avoid" paying taxes directly until you actually reach a point of profitability where you want to extract that wealth from the business you've grown (aside from the money you actually need at the time, which would still come out of the company to yourself in the form of payroll).

Not an accountant, so I'm likely not perfectly stating the point.

giantg210• 4 years ago

Yeah, there's distributions and draws. But you still can't make 50% and take home more than before.

spywaregorilla3• 4 years ago

I'm pretty sure that applies to something like a non passthrough LLC, but would explicitly not apply to a sole proprietorship, which he is advocating for.

PebblesRox3• 4 years ago

I share your skepticism about the author’s outrageous claims, but I can give details on how self employment has given my family more flexibility with taxes and benefits.

We set up a solo 401k let us max out tax-deductible contributions on the employer side as well as the employee side, which is great for our early retirement plans because we have a much higher limit than if we were contributing to a typical employer’s plan. We are also able to work part-time without forfeiting our ability to participate in the plan, unlike a lot of employers which only offer retirement accounts to full-time employees.

We also realized that at least in our state, the income threshold for qualifying for state-sponsored health care is based on adjusted gross income. Our ability to contribute so much of our income to pre-tax retirement accounts means that we can qualify for health care despite earning significantly more, as long as we’re putting all the extra into the retirement accounts. We have to keep our spending low to be able to save that much, but that’s in line with our FIRE goals anyway.

giantg210• 4 years ago

Just curious, what is the state sponsored healthcare? Where I'm at, I'm only aware of Medicaid and CHIP.

Comevius• 4 years ago

I started fuming about the cliches, but then I kept reading and there were many great points, but then I started fuming again because the author wrote a self-help book and they are the worst, but I still kind of want to read it.

the-printer2• 4 years ago

Resist. Resist. Just copy and paste the relevant points into a text file like I may do, and move on. A broken watch can be right twice a day, Patek Phillipes are no exception.

Edit: Don’t even waste your disk space.

this_user• 4 years ago

Most of this reads like the pseudo-inspirational BS that people post on LinkedIn. Things that seem deep, but are so blindingly obvious and/or incredibly broad that they are of absolutely no value to the reader.

luckylion2• 4 years ago

Cheat 37: people will upvote based on the title, not the content, regardless of education or social status.

randomcarbloke• 4 years ago

Some of it is self evident from a young age, the rest seems silly or plain wrong (earn less but take home more...that's not normally how tax works).

Any links for actual useful and rarely shared cheatcodes/heuristics for a positive life?

doix• 4 years ago

earn less but take home more...that's not normally how tax works)

It shouldn't be the way it works, but unfortunately it is in many places. In the UK it's definitely significantly better to have your own company than be a PAYE employee.

Even without being creative at all, instead of working, paying tax and then using your post tax earnings to give your kids money, just hire them. Instantly you get another 12k tax free (or whatever the tax free allowance is). Not to mention all the stuff you can expense, being more creative with how you pay yourself (dividends have a different tax rate) etc.

He's definitely right that being self employed gives you more flexibility about how you pay taxes.

It definitely shouldn't be this way though. Just another way for the rich to keep the poor down.

granshaw• 4 years ago

Came to the comments expecting the typical HN putdown on top, was not disappointed.

basicoperation• 4 years ago

Indeed. In particular, I’ve seen variations of “Watch how people treat service workers” in this kind of content again and again.

It really makes me wonder who needs telling “If the person you’re with is rude to people, they might not be a nice person”.

spywaregorilla3• 4 years ago

It really makes me wonder who needs telling “If the person you’re with is rude to people, they might not be a nice person”.

People who generally don't think of service people as people, perhaps

goldenCeasar• 4 years ago

This one seems quite obvious but many times in life we tend to look the other way, specially if we have some affection with the person in question.

d232• 4 years ago

Yeah, I was interested in this one and hoping to find more substance on the tax mechanisms that make this possible:

Working for yourself means you can earn less income than a normal salary and still make more due to tax reasons.

When I clicked through to his "money" link, it was a category for his blog where he posts multiple posts per day on making money online. All with clickbaity headlines. Hard to take this seriously.

Edit: Ah yeah, he's selling money making courses and ebooks. This is complete spam.

vikingerik• 4 years ago

The usual answer to that is you keep the money in the business entity while paying yourself a minimal salary. You spend it on business expenses (commonly stuff like travel or a vehicle or computer hardware, with some semi-plausible fig-leaf of business use), or take it as long-term capital gains later on.

The other answer that could fit the premise is a solo 401k, for the higher pre-tax contribution limit than a standard employer 401k.

I'd be surprised if there was really anything substantial besides those.

D13Fd• 4 years ago

Yeah, that one caught my eye. If this is focused on U.S. readers, that advice is extremely suspect.

apetresc• 4 years ago

When you work for yourself there’s flexibility with how much tax you pay, and most importantly, when it must be paid. That means you can earn half the salary from a job and still take home more money. Genius.

Either this guy doesn't understand how income tax works, or I don't. (Or he's just lowkey recommending tax fraud)

incomingpain3• 4 years ago

Either this guy doesn't understand how income tax works, or I don't. (Or he's just lowkey recommending tax fraud)

What you're missing is tax deductions.

when you operate as salary, you get no deductions and pay maximum taxes.

When you operate as sole proprietorship you can deduct 'business expenses'

Business travel and parking? Deducted.

Any new gadget or widget? Deducted.

It doesn't create new money, you have to still earn the money in the first place, you can't go buy a porsche but you'll be surprised at how many things you can get away with at least partially deducting and when you do this to a full extent. You end up paying little to no income tax. You take home more while earning less.

d232• 4 years ago

And then what happens when you want to pay yourself a salary? Aren't you essentially paying corporate tax rate and income tax on that amount? Maybe that doesn't apply for a sole proprietorship, but does it for a small business?

qbasic_forever2• 4 years ago

Sure hope you're getting advice from a tax professional because just deducting every gadget you buy from Amazon is not how it works. You have to prove to the IRS (if audited) that the thing is 100% for business use. The rules for stuff like home office are byzantine and complex, getting down to the level of how big the space is and how much time you spend inside it a day.

pwinnski• 4 years ago

In the US, at least, the IRS frowns a bit at people over-using business deductions. "Any new gadget or widget" might be deductible if your business includes, say, reviewing new gadgets and widgets. If you're a software developer, though, kitchen gadgets--for example--aren't generally considered deductible. In fact, if you're a software developer, very few things are.

noelwelsh2• 4 years ago

If you run your own company you have many opportunities to turn your normal purchases into business expenses.

At least in the UK:

* Dividends pay less tax than income.

* Any work related equipment is a deductible expense. Includes computer, mobile phone, etc.

* A company car, particularly an electric one, is much cheaper than buying a car as a private individual.

Those are just the basics.

still_grokking2• 4 years ago

And all of those "tips", besides the dividends thing, are actually tax fraud.

I know "everybody and her mom" is doing it, but it's still fraud. If you get caught it could have quite bad consequences.

ASalazarMX• 4 years ago

Aren't there conditions? for example, in Mexico a company car must bear a logo of your company, and be used for company business at least half the time IIRC, otherwise it counts as a personal car. Business travel and clothes are also limited to sensible business needs, you can't your sky resort vacation as a business expense... well, you can, but if you're audited it will be very unpleasant.

dahfizz• 4 years ago

Yeah, I was under the impression you pay more taxes working for yourself, because you have to pay all the payroll taxes normally paid for by the employer. And then there is the corporate income tax you have to pay before you can pay yourself a salary. Maybe you can get more creative with deductions, but the base rate will be higher.

corobo• 4 years ago

If you say I’m busy a lot it’s a red flag.
Stop being so freaking busy. Prioritize 2–3 goals and ditch the rest.

Tripped over this one haha. If I tell someone I'm busy it's because I have prioritised 2-3 goals and am ditching them.

kbd• 4 years ago

This is a bunch of fluff:

20. The best life experiences make you nostalgic later on.

Oh really!

21. Taking things for granted is a slow demise into madness. Be grateful.

Gratitude. So insightful.

Flagged.

qbasic_forever2• 4 years ago

When you work for yourself there’s flexibility with how much tax you pay, and most importantly, when it must be paid.

Not in the US in my experience. Switching from full time to contract/1099 work was a nightmare for me. You have to file and pay quarterly expected income tax payments. If you want to maximize retirement savings (401k etc) or even just get good healthcare you have to do all kinds of machinations to create a business with yourself as sole employee, etc. and increase the tax burden, filings and paperwork even more. It's an enormous burden and I honestly would rather just work full time instead of deal with this stuff.

yamtaddle• 4 years ago

Skimmed these. Oof.

The updated post at age 46 should be pretty funny.

At 26 I had a closed mind, eating disorder, and thought I was smarter than Einstein. At 36 I’ve come a long way.

Mmm.

spywaregorilla3• 4 years ago

Now he's smarter than two Einsteins!

kelseyfrog3• 4 years ago

Genuine question: who is the audience for this? Or more broadly, what is the purpose of this piece?

Any 26yr olds care to chime in? Are there people that get something out of this? What's that like?

luckylion2• 4 years ago

what is the purpose of this piece?

selling a self-help book.

Are You Operating With Maximum Energy?
For those who are tired of dragging through the day, who want to get back the fire they once had, who are ready to reclaim your natural energy… this is your book.

the-printer2• 4 years ago

It looks like the author is somewhere between a self-help dude and a productivity chap and a “life hack, growth hacker” man. So he’s trying to sell us a book, maybe teach us how to earn passive income. Things like that.

I reckon that this post resonates with exactly who he’s describing in the title: Twenty-somethings (predominantly male), who are looking for advice that would give them (theoretically) a ten-year head start on whoever doesn’t read this post?

kelseyfrog3• 4 years ago

Fascinating. It would be a real treat to engage with someone for whom this material felt transformative. It feels like there would be a rather large gap between someone such as that and myself and it would be interesting to learn what makes them tick. Thank you.

dfdz• 4 years ago

"Busyness is a sign of poverty that will eventually lead to personal bankruptcy"

"People who like pseudo-profound quotes are not so smart, science says" [1,2]

[1] https://qz.com/566050/people-who-like-pseudo-profound-quotes...

[2] https://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.pdf

mym1990• 4 years ago

The idea that life has cheat codes that can just magically make things easier is a disservice to all the learning and the struggle that people have to go through to actually figure things out. The one thing I have figured out is to stop forcing all the things(sometimes it's okay), life really does have a way of bringing things around eventually.

spking• 4 years ago

I found this list by a 70 year-old to be significantly more interesting and useful:

https://kk.org/thetechnium/103-bits-of-advice-i-wish-i-had-k...

danjoredd• 4 years ago

Do the work so you don’t have to pray to a fake god to get what you want.

While I agree that work is needed...James 2:17 says faith without work is useless...that comment was straight up uncalled for.

oppositelock• 4 years ago

When you are 46 and look back at 36, you realize that you still didn't have the world figured out, and it was so cute how you believed that everything was your own hands. Now, I'm curious what I think at 56 in a few years.

excalibur• 4 years ago

Who drinks vanilla-flavored milk?

annacrypt• 4 years ago

"If I could describe my former mental illness in five words it would be this: thinking too much about myself."

This is an awful statement in so many ways.

If you're affected by mental illness please don't think that you're the problem. Or that it can be solved by thinking less about yourself. Even if it's the case, it's likely just a symptom, not the cause of your suffering.

You can get yourself out of depressive phases with repression and 'everything-is-awesome-actionism' but it will probably come back to haunt you. The depression wants to tell you something but you have to listen to it, not give it a pep-talk.

Maybe his ways are right for him. But almost every single point can have a detrimental effect on somebody with a mind that works differently.

I hate the way these articles tug on the part of yourself that already shames you anyway for not having 'figured it out'. Even if you know you shouldn't listen, you can't help but feel a little worse after reading it. At least that's the way it is for me. I don't even read this type of content anymore but I felt like I needed confirmation on why I avoid it. Boy did I get it.

Now that I've read it I need to articulate my thoughts and feelings to get it out of my system. It's not to be 'a hater' who wants the author to pay taxes. I wish him all the best and hope that his house of cards doesn't come crashing down again.

Maybe these types of content creators are in kind of a pinch. Even if some part of him feels like he might do a disservice to certain people, he can't really write it out. It would be 'off-brand' to not write in absolutes and it would take away from the persona who knows it all. (Because despite saying he doesn't think he knows it all he comes off very much as someone who thinks he knows it all. 'Cheat codes'...)

But I'm pretty sure this type of content is more damaging than helpful to most people. You can't really 'teach' life. If you know a lot about a person and his circumstances you can point them towards options they haven't considered. But that's about it.

Most self-help is a scam. They sell dopamine. You feel good while reading it (if you believe in it) and making plans, but as soon as your brain is back to homeostasis you see that nothing has changed. I've seen it a dozen times in dozens of people.

The only good literature in self-help is the one that actually identifies a real problem that holds you back and helps you solve it. (Trauma, ADHD, bad relationships, stress for example)

Cheat Codes for Life I Know at 36 That I Wish I Knew at 26

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