RetroGaming

It was so phenomenally stupid that the guy got turned into a meme for a while on Twitter/X.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/if-youre-a-guy-in-your-early-20s-buy-a-rolex

Same as all the muppets in the city dressed up to the nines in their new beemer than you know is on monthly payments.

On the other hand; being debt free, now there's a status symbol..

Had a friend who graduated from Georgetown with a law degree and went to work at a NYC white shoe law firm. Shortly before his first meeting with a client, his boss dragged him into the office and opened a drawer in his desk. The man had half a dozen different watches, none of which were less than $10k/ea. He matched one with my friend's suit and sent him back out. Apparently, clients at that level simply won't take you seriously unless you've got that much on your wrist.

That said, this was at an office on the penthouse floor of a lower Manhattan sky-rise. Nobody making cold calls out of a boiler room in Cincinnati cares that you overpaid for a watch.

I mean when viewed from the perspective of his world it makes sense.

He lives in a world where substance is meaningless and all that matters is appearance and bravado. I can appreciate why to him that seems like good advice. Just kinda bums me out people live like that, but I bet he's happy having power and influence and money. Good for him.

I couldn't and wouldn't fuckin live that way and I will stick with my Casio a158, thanks.

Seriously, FUCK YOU if you peddle this hussle culture grindset bullshit. I feel so sorry for the poor souls that fall for this shit because no one ever taught them any better.

Just FYI for anyone who needs to read this: it doesn't matter how fucking wealthy you are, ranking yourself with a watch is cringe and idiotic. Don't be a fucking sheep if you are poor. Don't be a fucking sheep if you are rich.

This is not really applicable and only works if you look at investments pretty naively.

The most obvious rebuttal to this is home ownership a mortgage is debt and is also a 'single purchase' however for most people, a mortgage is their first step towards financial independence. The next concept of course is TVM (time value of money), having cash available now to invest in worth more than later, and so utilizing leverage to invest money is important.

Generally, investments that beat interest make it worth it to utilize debt to make them, this is the premise behind investing using margin, utilizing heloc loans, or taking out a loan for a business, education, or tooling that will allow you to earn more.

Debt isn't inherently bad and there are many ways to use debt to your advantage.

A good way to look at it is like this, if you have a line of credit available to you that satisfies your emergency fund, let's say a few thousand dollars, instead of sitting on the fund in a low interest savings account, you can move that to something marginally less liquid, like an REIT or an index fund, and use the line of credit to float cash until you can withdraw. Use the credit for the 4-6 days it takes to clear the transaction. You may pay some interest, but the emergency fund will have actually gained significantly more than any interest you would pay.

Not all investment is the same, buying out of the money long calls on mene stocks is not the same as moving medium or long term savings to high dividend managed funds.

A watch is never a good "investment" anyway. Re-sale value is a nice to have but it's not a buy and hold.

Anyone telling people to go into debt to buy a watch is at best a fucking moron and potentially actively malicious.

Most well-known "luxury" brands are. Real rich person's brands won't even bother selling to the poor. There's currently a meltdown among the middle class because Hermes is laughing them out of the store. It's quite funny.

bare wrist and linear time is a myth gangs

I also respect those thick ass medium end casios with barometric/altimeter sensors, at least you’re getting something for your money.

Reasonably-priced Citizen Eco-Drive gang! What's a dead battery?

I commented elsewhere in the thread that Casio is still a status symbol - just to to a different, more pragmatic, group of people. Then I saw this comment, lol.

I too love to rock a Casio, and recognize others who do as well.

Though lately I've been hooked on my PineTime Watch. It's not as iconic as a Casio, but it costs about the same and does ship with a Casio immitation watch face pre-programmed.

Yeah, for people who aren't aware...Rolex reps only make certain high demand models available to preferred customers, i.e. people who have a track record of purchases with them. That's why these models are so "exclusive". It's a long con.

Had a friend buy his second or third Rolex and we were all new grads. I was broke as hell at the time so it surprised me he was buying watches the price of a car right out of uni (and his parents just bought him an apartment so he lived in a different world).

He was telling me how this watch is gonna increase in value so it'd be stupid not to get it.

I never said it and only thought about it, but I was thinking that if you were buying it as an investment, why are you wearing it? Why not keep it at home？ It could get stolen or lost or broken. But I guess I have brokey mentality.

Or buy a replica, for a very small fraction of the price and see if anyone ever knows the difference.

I have a $350 Japanese made replica of a Patek Philippe Grand Complication, everything works on it. To me it is indistinguishable from the real thing and didn't cost me $300,000

Wife bought me a pixel watch 3 for Christmas. I wear it all the time...

... I work as a section bender in a factory. You can't see it under my overalls.