The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss - Latest Comments in Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Rick imby — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:35:03 -0000

Lucky or smart...
It seems no matter what your view if you hang onto it long enough you will be lucky or smart. Getting out when you should just isn't possible for most of us unless we are really lucky or smart.

Rick

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Justin Razmus — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:42:00 -0000

Mitesh,

You should be able to create a blog with a similar feel to it with wordpress. You will need a hosted version (not the free wordpress blog from wordpress.com) that you can put on a server, and either purchase, build, or download a free template for the blog.

My website was done from a wordpress template, (click on my name to see it) and turned out very well.

I agree this 4hww blog looks great, and is quite comfortable to navigate.

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Mitesh Khatri — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:19:50 -0000

Dear Tim,

My congratulations for this great success & fame that you are recieving thru your book 4HWW.

This is a really well designed blog and i wanted to know if you can give me some tips on making such a blog and which blog service are you using?

Thanks

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Brad the Wordpress SEO — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 01:40:11 -0000

So great. They say they didn't see the Sub-Prime problems coming... why is it that everyone else did then?

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Mike Farrow — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:05:32 -0000

Institutions always let you down and sell you out. The first season of "the Wire" taught us that! I am stuck in the institutional life and am currently working my way through the book. Believe it or not, Tim, I bought your book because somebody else was reading it on the Tube and it sounded like the book I've been looking for my whole life. Anyway, just to say, I'm enjoying the blog and the book and the guy, while having been part of the problem, is at least trying to get into the right frame of mind now.

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

timferriss — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:56:29 -0000

@Ryan and All,

"Lucky or Smart?" by Bo Peabody is great. Fast read and highly recommended. There is something to be said for timing, but I admire people who can admit the role that pure luck plays in a lot of huge successes. Chance and fortune (in the Seneca sense) are always a factor.

Good suggestion,

Tim

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Ryan Petersen — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:43:56 -0000

I liked the idea behind the message: make a ton of $ and then ride off into the sunset. The actual content is pretty petty, however, and strikes me as a classic example of a guy who got lucky, and not realizing that somebody had to get lucky, clings to the belief that he is somehow special. See Fooled by Randomness.

Why the need to attack people who went to elite schools? Why tell the whole world--presumably including your friends and co-workers who helped you on the way up--that you'll not be responding to them any longer.

And he doesn't want to do any deals? Ever again? Sounds boring.

For a better example of how to sail off into the sunset with grace, see Lucky or Smart by Bo Peabody. He made $500 million as the founder of Tripod, was smart enough to realize he was very lucky, sold out, and then wrote a book to help other people understand when they've gotten lucky and should cash-in.

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Justin Razmus — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 22:30:57 -0000

I understand how he (Andrew Lahde) feels making it without the "privilege" of everything being handed to you. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but the overall attitude of those I have dealt with is that they should get whatever they want, right now. In fact, they tend to throw fits like little kids when they don't get what they want. I have had unpleasant dealings recently with a young "business" person using his Father's credit score to obtain money. He fits right into that prototype, and I am still quite bitter at this point. On the bright side, it has helped me create new contracts and procedures to prevent many of the issues this person has caused. I have learned a lot, and look forward to working with many more good clients like those I have been priveleged to be able to work with in the past. It does feel good to build a strong business from the ground up, without looking for a hand out.

There is always a time after the years of stress that we think of reducing hours and living off what we have. Unless you enjoy it, why spend all of your time on it? I look forward to exciting new prospects, and I know there are many out there that share that feeling. Life is meant to be lived. We have to be careful not to get caught up in "working just to work". Again, as always, 4HWW spells it out just right.

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Carl — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:12:46 -0000

Been working on that alternative economy over at my web site. It's mainly a matter of reviving some forgotten ideas and getting rid of the hidden subsidies to the rich.

* Deficit spending is a subsidy to the rich.

* Keynesian economics is all about keeping us running on the rat race. The ideal economy should have unemployed resources -- another name for wealth!

*Pay as you go Social Security is a way of keeping the working class from owning the means of production.

* The Federal Reserve system assists the privately owned banks in their ongoing game of Chicken with the economy.

* The tax code encourages excessive leverage on the part of homeowners and corporations.

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

har_magedon — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:53:38 -0000

And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, for no man buyeth their merchandise any more; merchandise of gold and silver; oil and coal and steel; credits and deposits; stocks and obligations and pseudo-educations; contracts and options and other derivatives; biotechnology and nanotechnology and every engineering - and any other charms - as well as of chariots and slaves; and souls of men. (Rev 18:11-13)
Did merchants of these goods feel already the smell of smoke?
The smoke of her burning - a sweet savor unto Lord.

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Matt Shoemaker — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:13:01 -0000

The method that he used to make his money was productive because he understood that the Dow had shot up from 8,000 to 14,000 between 2001 and 2007 and home prices had risen 200-300% over the same period as people flipped houses all over the country, sometimes over and over again. Those huge upswings had to come down at some point as the market always does. Just look at the chart since the beginning of the century. Up and down, up and down. The stock market is just one representation of how cash is moving around a speculative market. The value of those stocks is speculative, just like the value of the homes. Just because someone would pay $405,000 for a 1-bedroom condo doesn't mean that those same buyers will be around in 2-3 years. Most people just want to live in their house. It's only the speculators that are pushing prices up that high.

Smart people converted their housing flips to cash and CD's and just took the 6% a year. They are riding pretty high right now. Those who flipped a property and then took their earnings and tried to flip 2 more properties are the ones who are foreclosing today. Just got a little bit too greedy, and a lot of them already had their "earnings" spent and could not imagine that those home prices would ever stop continuing to rise. They were simpy bad investors. However, they can just bail themselves out by foreclosing. It's rather easy to foreclose. You just stop paying. Then the bank owns the home and then it's a real problem for the bank because these homes they now own are worth a lot less than the 10 huge home loans that they just gave to 10 other people to purchase more "flip" properties. But most of the banks got bailed out too, and the resiliency of these banks is suprising on some level. It's the investment banks that got hurt the most as they bought security instruments that represented many, many of these foreclosed mortgages. Some of the investment banks got bailed out too as the Fed realized that some level of investment banking is vital, and hopefully the current Fed and their successors will remember the lesson of too-low interest rates and overspeculation by the large investment banks.

The real winners in all this were the ones who had actually lived in their homes for 20 years and sold it at the peak of the housing bubble. Most of them had no intention of flipping a house or even knew what that was. Instead they simply bought a nicer house with their massive earnings and hopefully put most of it in their down payment or kept it in savings accounts or CD's. If they put it in stock, I would tell them to hold onto it and ride it out if they can. The market will be up in another 3 years and roaring in another 5-7 years as the psychology shifts and the very real cash and industrial production that is still out there is transferred back to the stock market in a grueling, trickling fashion. True 5-7 years is a long time, but it's inevitable. When all the world markets are down 60-70%, there is bound to be a huge comeback on the horizon. Look around you. The X-box 360's and Nintendo Wii's and Playstation 3's aren't going away and mankind will continue to move forward and innovate. This lesson of history has been shown several times before and as long as people are working hard and being productive then it will happen again. So remember, mini-retirements are fine, but overall, in your life, we need everyone out there working their ass off to create and build the world around us. It's not good to say that Steve Ballmer and Larry Eliison are stupid because they are out there creating and marketing software and they work really hard. The power grid uses that software and so do many of the city services. My job uses that software and it's on the computer in my house. Most likely guys like Ballmer and Ellison love their jobs, and I'm glad they do. I don't think the goal should be to "drop out", but instead the goal should be to find a job that you like to do and try to add to society by doing it well.

The author was a hedge fund manager. I wonder if he has ever created anything?

As for hemp. Smoke it.

p.s. This guy is a real class act. What kind of arrogant bastard says "Fuck You" to the whole world?

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Dana Gundlach — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:12:57 -0000

Great discussion. Couple of things to add that I did not see mentioned.

No system is perfect.

Capitalism does have it's flaws, but it is dictated by the masses. If something falls out of favor within a capitalist society, it goes away. People pull their money out and put it somewhere else. It will have down turns and hardships, but all in all it is fairly flexible. If people are stealing money or taking advantage of others they will eventually get caught and prosecuted.

Governments are a whole other animal. They are dictated by the few. Yes we vote Reps into office, but then they have full control along with the special interests. Once they start to grow the govt they never stop. The govt will continue to consume and want more and more from the taxpayers. It is a never ending cycle that will eventually grow to the point of collapse, ie USSR. And when corruption happens, hardly anyone goes to jail.

I will always side with capitalism because it give more individuals the freedom to do what they want. Stop relying on govt to fix your lives, they will fail every time.

Good Luck,

Dana

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Patrick — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:04:55 -0000

"and Canada is definitely not laughing as the U.S. (unless they are kidding themselves) with the horrendous taxes they pay and waits for this awesome “free” (paid for through more taxes) health care."

LOL, yes we are. :-)

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Gaëtan Voyer-Perrault — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:48:20 -0000

@Nate: ...Canada is definitely not laughing as the U.S. (unless they are kidding themselves) with the horrendous taxes they pay and waits for this awesome “free” (paid for through more taxes) health care.

As a Canadian now living in the US, I can tell you that the "horrendous" taxes pretty much even out after even moderate health care costs. Sure if you're living on your own and young you may be better off in the US. But for working, middle-class families, the cost of taxes + health care insurance + medicare ends up very close to the cost of taxes in Canada.

Of course, in Canada, everyone is covered (not just 50%) and bankruptcies due to medical conditions are dramatically lower.

Lets also talk about "wait times" as a metric. Waiting sure is annoying, but aren't we really worried about the amount people who receive timely care and the amount of people who survive medical emergencies?

And yes, the author is right, Canadians do a lot of laughing at the silly things that happen in the US.

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Uno — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:45:23 -0000

You all miss the point of the letter. He is pointing out that corporate American has become a pyramid scheme because of hedge funds (my definiion is ungreluated financial firms). The games is : 1) Top Tier MBA gets you 1/2 way up the pyramid. 2) If you can get to the top you pump the stock of your company, cash in and move on to the next company. 3) Either repeat or retire.

The related point is that it is no longer capitalism. Capitlism is about people creating value with capital. Not about enriching yourself through stock trading, which is just a transfer of wealth (tax) from the middle class (401Ks) to those ontop the pyramid.

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

brandon — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:59:07 -0000

How about combating all of the crooks w/ some shared advice then!?

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Jose Castro-Frenzel — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:21:59 -0000

What happened to the post before?

Cheers

Jose

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:06:12 -0000

Fantastic mail. Let's indeed hope the guy can overcome his bitterness and use the rest of his time to do something useful for the world, rather than waiting for George Soros.

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Allen — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:37:11 -0000

Great stuff Tim. At some point you have to just ignore the insanity that goes on in politics, the office, etc. We can't change the game we can only play it better.

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Mickey Roberts — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:36:54 -0000

What are great post! Perhaps Jefferson was right: We need a revolution in this country every ten years; I have a thought: Let's vote out ANY incumbent this year, whether you think your representative is the best or not!

As to the constant struggle to obtain and keep material wealth, I to, at age 51, have decided that the constant hamster-like lifestyle was killing me, and have decided to jump off! Since we know that death is ceratin, and time of death is uncertain, and we cannot take anything material with us when we die, WHY do we spend so much time pursuing such illusory objects?

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

_Jon — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:36:47 -0000

I'm a strong believer in Capitalism and I intend to restore its freedom in America.
I'm glad this guy (and his hate) are out of the business. I think we need more people like him to retire so we can restore some healthy competition to the economy.
The problem isn't Capitalism or greed - it is the Government. The Government needs to be restricted - not the people.

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Time Tracker — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 05:12:27 -0000

Saw this article elsewhere yesterday, and a quick pass through the comments is yielding the exact same results...widely varying opinions. Either way you look at it, this 'mission statement' (or was it a memo) is raising some seriously good points, opening eyeballs, causing quite a discussion, and giving Canada a bunch of free press. :)

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

matt — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:57:39 -0000

Great article! Lots to think about. Yes we need a major change in our system!!

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Martijn Sjoorda — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:23:13 -0000

You'll love this. By the guys at Sequoia Capital, on the crisis and what to do. And not. Read Buffett's op-ed in the NYT?

In Boston and NY next week. Fancy a bottle of wine, when around, Tim?

Best,

Re: Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

tj — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:03:43 -0000

Great job Andrew. Nice post. Now that Andrew milked the system I hope he takes an active roll in fixing it instead of bailing out or riding the fence. We all are Americans and believe it or not this is our damn country, not corporate america.