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My son is a year and a half old. Five months ago, I began working full-time for a startup. Before joining the startup, I sat down with my wife and we decided o
by ekidd 16y ago
My son is a year and a half old. Five months ago, I began working full-time for a startup.
Before joining the startup, I sat down with my wife and we decided on milestones, a budget, and a schedule for spending time with my son. I know how long I can afford to wait for ramen profitability, and how much money I need to earn in the first two years. And if it doesn't work out, my cofounders know when I would have to walk.
I won't pretend it's always easy. But I see my son more than most lawyers, doctors or consultants see their children. Since I'm not currently commuting, I spend more time with him than typical parents who attend night school after working full time.
Don't forget: A monthly paycheck can evaporate with little warning, and unemployment rates for 50-year-old programmers have often been brutal. If you're a programmer, and you choose the safe course every month, you don't guarantee safety for your family in 10 or 20 years time.
So live below your means, save aggressively, and take the occasional risk. Start a business. Go to night school. Take a 3 month sabbatical and study something intensely.
- erikstarck 16y agoGood point about the evaporating safety. In 2007 I quit my job to do a startup. People told me I was crazy to leave a job for the uncertainty of a startup. 9 months later they shut down the office and fired everyone.
- lionhearted 16y ago> Since I'm not currently commuting, I spend more time with him than typical parents who attend night school after working full time. This. Commuting is soul killing, frustrating, expensive, emotionally taxing dead time. A few people enjoy driving quite a bit - for them, it's relaxation. But for the majority of people it's awful. I loved Los Angeles when I visited there for business 3-4 times, so I moved there. I didn't realize how driving as a novelty turns into terribleness. Just getting groceries took 20 minutes of round trip driving - that's 20 minutes that ain't coming back. And I'm paying gas, insurance, registration, and maintenance for the pleasure of having my time stolen from me. Never again. Walking cities or living immediately by my work in a mini-city-center for the rest of my life. I don't mind commuting on a train or ferry because I can read books, but commuter driving is a huge waste of time and life.
- cnunciato 16y agoAmen to that. I did the LA commute (~3hrs/day) myself for several years before quitting. Never again. Now I live in Seattle and ride a scooter to work -- 10 minutes from door to door.