My guiding question is “how do I want to have lived in the final years where humans could shape the universe?” It’s far from zero enjoying life but probably more 1:3 ratio.
Getting concrete on the practical level, my financial planning horizon is ten years. No 401k, and I’m happy with loans with much longer payback times, e.g. my solar panel loan is 25 years which is great, my home equity line of credit is interest-only payments for ten years. Mostly I know I can use money now. Still, I care about maintaining some capital because possibly human labor becomes worth nothing and capital is all that matters. I’m not happy about having a lot of wealth in my house because I really don’t know what happens to house prices in the next decade. In contrast, I expect stocks to rise in expectation so long as society is vaguely functional.
Please don’t throw your mind away is a relevant and good post. Not quite about decision-making entirely, but I recently wrote A Slow Guide to Confronting Doom and accompanying A collection of approaches to confronting doom, and my thoughts on them.
My guiding question is “how do I want to have lived in the final years where humans could shape the universe?” It’s far from zero enjoying life but probably more 1:3 ratio.
Getting concrete on the practical level, my financial planning horizon is ten years. No 401k, and I’m happy with loans with much longer payback times, e.g. my solar panel loan is 25 years which is great, my home equity line of credit is interest-only payments for ten years. Mostly I know I can use money now. Still, I care about maintaining some capital because possibly human labor becomes worth nothing and capital is all that matters. I’m not happy about having a lot of wealth in my house because I really don’t know what happens to house prices in the next decade. In contrast, I expect stocks to rise in expectation so long as society is vaguely functional.