5 ms·

Working for 2+ decades while making something like $150k+ a year on average over the long term , and retiring with substantial savings , without having worked 1

Working for 2+ decades while making something like $150k+ a year on average over the long term , and retiring with substantial savings , without having worked 100 hour weeks on the startup lottery , sounds pretty awesome to me. Don't know maybe I'm not elite founder material.

jacquesm 11y ago
Different strokes for different folks. Some people use airplanes for transportation, others go skydiving. The start-up lottery is a very fast way to learn a lot and probably not earn much, think of it as a school rather than a money making machine and it makes a lot more sense. If you then later apply all that you learned during those years in a non-start-up context you may still come out ahead.
- kamaal 11y ago
  >>If you then later apply all that you learned during those years in a non-start-up context you may still come out ahead. Unless the start up had something to do with politics, and you learned a lot about politics, you can't use any of your skills(related to actual work) to 'come out ahead' in a big company.
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    If all you learn in a start-up has to do with politics you're doing something very wrong.
yawgmoth 11y ago
Other companies pay great salaries. In Detroit, for example, you can make 100-130k with a much lower cost of living (even if you're living downtown or in one of the wealthy suburbs). I presume Chicago, Boston, ATL, etc., would be just as lucrative if not moreso. If the bar is based on salary and hours, you can make it in a lot of places.
- pc86 11y ago
  Arguably if your goal as a software developer is to make as much money as possible and retire as soon as possible, you should probably work on HFT in the lowest-COL area that supports that field (maybe Chicago with a long train commute or something?) I'm a team lead and make less than an entry level developer at any SF or NYC shop, but I'm willing to bet that I can save more and have more put away for retirement than most as well.
  - dceddia 11y ago
    This is along the lines of what Mr. Money Mustache [0] recommends, minus the long commute. For anyone interested in early retirement through working hard and saving money, his blog is absolutely worth a read. It could be a bit of a lifestyle change (or maybe you're already close and you don't know it!), but for people with software-developer-level salaries, early retirement is absolutely within reach. [0] http://www.mrmoneymustache.com http://www.mrmoneymustache.com
    - pc86 11y ago
      Yeah, I am assuming that long train ride + cheap mortgage is probably cheaper than very short commute + downtown Chicago rent, which may not be the case everywhere. And quality of life goes down pretty quickly with increases in commute.

jacquesm 11y ago

Different strokes for different folks. Some people use airplanes for transportation, others go skydiving. The start-up lottery is a very fast way to learn a lot and probably not earn much, think of it as a school rather than a money making machine and it makes a lot more sense. If you then later apply all that you learned during those years in a non-start-up context you may still come out ahead.

kamaal 11y ago
>>If you then later apply all that you learned during those years in a non-start-up context you may still come out ahead. Unless the start up had something to do with politics, and you learned a lot about politics, you can't use any of your skills(related to actual work) to 'come out ahead' in a big company.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  If all you learn in a start-up has to do with politics you're doing something very wrong.

yawgmoth 11y ago

Other companies pay great salaries. In Detroit, for example, you can make 100-130k with a much lower cost of living (even if you're living downtown or in one of the wealthy suburbs). I presume Chicago, Boston, ATL, etc., would be just as lucrative if not moreso. If the bar is based on salary and hours, you can make it in a lot of places.

pc86 11y ago
Arguably if your goal as a software developer is to make as much money as possible and retire as soon as possible, you should probably work on HFT in the lowest-COL area that supports that field (maybe Chicago with a long train commute or something?) I'm a team lead and make less than an entry level developer at any SF or NYC shop, but I'm willing to bet that I can save more and have more put away for retirement than most as well.
- dceddia 11y ago
  This is along the lines of what Mr. Money Mustache [0] recommends, minus the long commute. For anyone interested in early retirement through working hard and saving money, his blog is absolutely worth a read. It could be a bit of a lifestyle change (or maybe you're already close and you don't know it!), but for people with software-developer-level salaries, early retirement is absolutely within reach. [0] http://www.mrmoneymustache.com http://www.mrmoneymustache.com
  - pc86 11y ago
    Yeah, I am assuming that long train ride + cheap mortgage is probably cheaper than very short commute + downtown Chicago rent, which may not be the case everywhere. And quality of life goes down pretty quickly with increases in commute.