How your income stacks up

[Cecil]

Cecil: I think article comments are retarded everywhere. I like our free education (but I could very well see it more restricted)

True but an alarming amount of people seem to think those soviet propaganda posters are some sort of gospel. And I concur on the second part.

[Pat]

I'm glad I helped spread joy in the world

[Pat]

Heh, I think people are stupid everywhere, but at least thanks to our free education, their stupidity is self-chosen.

(I might add I distrust Aftonbladet as any other thinking person)

[Pat]

  BTW, as for this: "Sounds to me like the State has you very well trained into thinking you actually have a good deal."

No doubt spoken by someone motivated by self-interest who can not imagine anyone else motivated by anything else. I'm quite aware the best deal I could get would probably be in a nights watch-man state, but that's not a state I'd like to live in anyway.

[Monoriu]

anybody with even a couple hundred thousand in the bank *could* eat, drink, and be sheltered from the elements the rest of their life without working another day.

No, you can't.  You need much more than US$1 million for that.  The one thing that will kill your plan is inflation.   

[crazy canuck]

BTW, as for this: "Sounds to me like the State has you very well trained into thinking you actually have a good deal."

No doubt spoken by someone motivated by self-interest who can not imagine anyone else motivated by anything else.

You should quit now.

[Pat]

OK, fine, whatever. I'll quit.

[Pat]

anybody with even a couple hundred thousand in the bank *could* eat, drink, and be sheltered from the elements the rest of their life without working another day.

No, you can't.  You need much more than US$1 million for that.  The one thing that will kill your plan is inflation.   

I have a fried who travelled through India for 5 months with a budget of a few hundred dollars/month, on the cheap but still comfortably. With a few hundred thousand dollars you can be among the idle rich in many countries.

(inflation could be guarded against in many ways, it wold be possible to put the money in gold or something)

[Admiral Yi]

OK, fine, whatever. I'll quit.

You were on to something with admissions for children of the rich.  A scandalous percentage of students at top universities are "legacies" i.e. children of alumni.  It's not too much of a leap to think that donations to the schools factor into that.

[Barrister]

OK been checking out the official statistics of the Central Bureau of Statistics (which Slargos would tell you can not be trusted, I might warn).

According to the report "Work force barometer of 2009", students of law is the group of students in highest demand by employers. (Link in Swedish: http://www.scb.se/statistik/_publikationer/UF0505_2009A01_BR_AM78BR0905.pdf (p. 9, "Störst har efterfrågan varit på jurister." / "Lawyers have been in highest demand")

A lawyer in Stockholm, aged 37 years, with 9 years experience, earns in average 42.224 kr/month (70 644.9744 U.S. dollars/year, at current exchange rate. This is before tax.)

70K, with 9 years of work experience? In private practice?

Ouch! 

Hey - I have 9 years of experience, and I don't make a heck of a lot more than that.

[Martim Silva]

It seems to me that the key to the article is "earners". It implies wage-earning.

Because otherwise, $410,000 is simply ridiculous.

In fact, given the numbers presented by the site, it would seem that most Americans actually fare quite badly under "The American Way". I sometimes wonder if people really understand all the opportunities of Life.

Key to making money is to make your money generate more money, not to work yourself silly to get more money.

Also, you rely WAY too much on the stock market. Diversify your portfolio.

Thing about people who earn a lot from working is that they have to keep working. I'm a high earner myself, in the top 5% if I was in the US (can't find the Canadian equivalent), but I sure don't feel "rich" because I spend so much of my time slaving away at the office. Yet I cannot save enough as of yet to simply stop and live off of it (I could tomorrow if I was willing to live off of $200,000).

Protip: usually, after your career's first 10 years you have enough to start buying things that can generate alternative sources of income. They can easily make you independent of your current job.

With that independence, you get a very big leverage in your firm, as your company will know you do not depend on them for your lifestyle, but instead that you are rather there because you like it.

What this translates to is basically that people will be a LOT nicer to you in the workplace and, most importantly, that you get to cut back on the overtime and can enjoy some relaxation.

Take my example: in Christmas and the New Year, I'm off all four days (Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday). In theory, I should work in some of them. But I'm no longer financially dependent on my workplace, so I get them off because I want to. And the company is aware of the situation, so it prefers to make others pick up that work than risk annoying me.

And that's VERY good for one's quality of life.

When I picture "rich" I picture a lifestyle more devoted to leasure.

When I picture "rich" I picture giant manors where I can't see the end of the bathroom from the doorway, dozens of private jets (some with your private bedrooms), sexy french maids cleaning your mouths after delicious food served in crystal dishes, free travel to whatever country at any time with precisely zero hassle from customs (except a salute from the guards), being able to talk in front of the police about doing illegal things with basically no worries and, above all, being able to bend the banks to comply to one's wishes.

And after having experienced THAT firsthand, I'll never see myself as being "rich". The Rich are truly Rich. Everyone else is middle class and lives in a world of illusion.

[Fate]

OK been checking out the official statistics of the Central Bureau of Statistics (which Slargos would tell you can not be trusted, I might warn).

According to the report "Work force barometer of 2009", students of law is the group of students in highest demand by employers. (Link in Swedish: http://www.scb.se/statistik/_publikationer/UF0505_2009A01_BR_AM78BR0905.pdf (p. 9, "Störst har efterfrågan varit på jurister." / "Lawyers have been in highest demand")

A lawyer in Stockholm, aged 37 years, with 9 years experience, earns in average 42.224 kr/month (70 644.9744 U.S. dollars/year, at current exchange rate. This is before tax.)

70K, with 9 years of work experience? In private practice?

Ouch! 

Hey - I have 9 years of experience, and I don't make a heck of a lot more than that.

You also live in a communist slave state.

[crazy canuck]

Hey - I have 9 years of experience, and I don't make a heck of a lot more than that.

exactly.

[DisturbedPervert]

anybody with even a couple hundred thousand in the bank *could* eat, drink, and be sheltered from the elements the rest of their life without working another day.

No, you can't.  You need much more than US$1 million for that.  The one thing that will kill your plan is inflation.   

$1 million is plenty if you don't want luxuries.  That's already more than many people make in their entire lifetime.

[Pat]

OK, fine, whatever. I'll quit.

You were on to something with admissions for children of the rich.  A scandalous percentage of students at top universities are "legacies" i.e. children of alumni.  It's not too much of a leap to think that donations to the schools factor into that.

I might add similar things do occur in Sweden. The Stockholm School of Economics, one of few private institutions of higher education in Sweden, funded largely by donations from enterprise and wealthy individuals, has a very peculiar system of admission. They admit 275 students each term, 80% based on grades, 10% from the Swedish SAT (lower than any other place of higher learning, to my knowledge) and 10% on "special merits". The definition of "special merits" on their website is vague enough to include almost anything.

So if anyone was worried about the Swedish rich, they can stop worrying. The richest have found a way to get their kids into top universities here too (SSE is well regarded internationally, and many of their staff are among the committee handing out Nobel prizes in economics).



(I might add I don't *know* this is what is going on at SSE, but I'm pretty sure that's what it is - I'll ask some people I know who study there about it)