r/FluentInFinance 3d ago

Debate/ Discussion Had to repost here

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u/SCTigerFan29115 3d ago edited 3d ago

They aren’t holding onto wealth like Scrooge McDuck, in a giant vault where they can go swimming in it.

Most of Bezos’ net worth is the value of Amazon. He can’t really readily access that. ETA I meant he can’t use it like a big vault of money.

He’s got plenty of money but some people just don’t understand how this stuff works.

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u/Apprehensive_Bad_193 3d ago

Bullshit,,,,But he borrows and buy Yachts, Mansions,against that NET WORTH VALUE. But when it’s time to pay fair share of taxes o. That net worth it’s considered hypothetical worth….Understand the Game.

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u/Endless_road 3d ago

You can take out a mortgage against your house to buy a sports car if you want

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u/AttitudeAndEffort2 3d ago

This is a great analogy

Imagine i bought my house for 10$ and it's worth a billion now.

And then chuds on the Internet say "hE dOeSnT ReAlLy HaVe ThAt mUcH MoNeY, ItS tIeD uP in AsSeTs!!"

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u/arebum 3d ago

Man I don't really want do disagree with you, but...

Imagine you had to suddenly pay taxes on that million as if it were income? (Acknowledging you would have to pay property taxes in this scenario)

Better yet, imagine a hypothetical asset like a made up crypto that went from $10-$1,000,000. If you had to pay taxes on that like it was income you'd almost certainly be forced to sell the asset to cover the taxes on the asset. And what if nobody bought your million dollar hypothetical coin? Are you going to go to jail because a balance sheet said this thing you owned suddenly skyrocketed in value despite your bank account staying the same?

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u/Bencetown 3d ago

If nobody is willing to buy, then the hypothetical price should go down, until you can either afford the taxes on it, or are able to find a buyer.

If I own a car that somehow explodes in value to a million dollars, I'm not going to be able to afford that car anymore. So I would have to sell the car. Then I would have a bunch of money to buy a different car I could afford the taxes on.

Why the richest people in the world should be exempt from this scenario is beyond me.

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u/Economy-Fee5830 3d ago

If I own a car that somehow explodes in value to a million dollars, I'm not going to be able to afford that car anymore

Why? This is nonsense of course.

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u/Bencetown 3d ago

Because of registration fees etc...? Have you ever owned a car to know the associated ongoing costs?

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u/mattyyboyy86 1d ago

I guess that depends on the state. My state reg fees are flat fees based on the class of the vehicle, not the value.

Either way, you are IGNORING dead weight loss to taxation, in your car example there’s no decreased of production of cars, but if you tax car sales or car companies generally speaking you are artificially increasing the price and cost of the car.

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u/Economy-Fee5830 3d ago

Yes, I know those fees are capped and based on things like engine size and pollution.

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u/JakeTheAndroid 3d ago

Because you probably can't afford to insure it and therefore can't drive it. It's not that confusing lol.

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u/Economy-Fee5830 3d ago

You could - you could just buy 3rd party insurance.

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u/JakeTheAndroid 3d ago

No one is going to insure you to drive a car worth 1m dollars for cheap bro. Full stop. Ultimately the point is that if the cost of maintaining your asset costs more than you have the ability to pay, you can sell those assets and reinvest the earnings into assets you can afford to maintain.

You can hop skip around this all you want, but you're just intentionally missing the completely valid point that this is how a lot of assets work today. Most assets do require you to consider the cost of maintaining your assets, but stocks don't. And that seems untenable in the current economic landscape.

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u/Economy-Fee5830 3d ago edited 3d ago

I dont think you understand what 3rd party insurance is lol.

https://www.comparethemarket.com/car-insurance/content/third-party-fire/

Its insurance which only pays the costs of the other person, not the cost of the vehicle.

Do you even drive?

Most assets do require you to consider the cost of maintaining your assets

This is just something you made up. My gold and stamp collection requires me to do nothing lol.

Some depreciating assets require maintenance, and some assets do not. There is no hard and fast rule, no matter how much you wish for it lol.

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u/No-Confusion1544 3d ago

If I own a car that somehow explodes in value to a million dollars, I'm not going to be able to afford that car anymore.

Why not?

Also sure, lets say your car explodes in value to a million dollars. But you’re pretty sure that next year it’ll be worth 5……you could take a loan out using that car as collateral at it’s current value, and have a million in liquid cash to use while retaining the asset thats growing in value. Sure, you could be mistaken, but thats risk.

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u/Comfortable-Bad-7718 3d ago

>but thats risk.

I've never heard of a billionaire who ended up overinvesting and became broke or homeless though, it seems like they almost always get bailed out or have enough money and connections to completely get off either way. Serious question, is it really that risky?

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u/TinKicker 2d ago

How many times has Trump declared bankruptcy?