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Comment by jlawson | Hacker News Reader

Saving money, even from a salary job, gives you the breathing room you need to take economic opportunities. For example, if you save a year of expenses you can start a software business without external capital or connections.

Most of the paths from middle-class to wealth involve avoiding frivolous spending.

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Yes but if you borrow like a maniac from credit cards and default on everything and live in a van but still start a successful software business you still get wealthy.

My point being that actually owning that successful business is the mechanism for wealth. Avoiding frivolous spending can be very, very helpful to achieving that status, as you point out correctly, but it isn't actually the status itself.

This article and many others seem to be unable to make that key distinction.

If you default on everything assets such as that successful business will be reclaimed by the creditors/government, of course this depends a bit on where you live but for instance in Sweden if you default you're required to live on minimum living expenses for five years, any assets you amass over this minimum living value will be claimed by the government.

> you still get wealthy

Do you think the bad habits go away just because you succeeded? That’s not how life works, and the evidence is people who win the lottery.

> Yes but if you borrow like a maniac from credit cards and default on everything and live in a van but still start a successful software business you still get wealthy.

What happens if the software business doesn't succeeded to the extent that it dwarfs the level of debt? What if it doesn't succeed at all?

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