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I am. I usually pull about 150 - 175 a year contracting and now I am making 0 because I am working on my startup. Money starts to disappear fast when none is

I am. I usually pull about 150 - 175 a year contracting and now I am making 0 because I am working on my startup. Money starts to disappear fast when none is coming in.

mgkimsal 16y ago
Can I assume you meant 150k per year? Obviously money going out with no income depletes cash on hand. However, it would seem making 150k for a year or so should buy you a pretty big runway. I'm guessing you have a lot of outgoing if it feels like it's disappearing 'fast'.
- spotted_at 16y ago
  Yea, 150k. I thought I had enough savings to last about 2 years; I was wrong so I am seriously cutting back. If mainly feels like its going fast because I was accustomed spending what I want and not seeing my bank account drop. Now that I don't have anything coming in thats not the case. The impact of what I spend is much more visible now.
  - exit 16y ago
    what kind of consulting do you do? how much of 150k were you saving annually?
    - spotted_at 16y ago
      I mostly work for banks and sometimes do military contracts. My last contract was with northrop grumman in SD and before that BOFA in charlotte. I saved appox. 36k a year.
      - exit 16y ago
        cool. can you be most specific though? did you write software for banks/"defense" industry, or did you tell them what kind of software to write, or did you tell them how to wire their networks, etc.
        spotted_at 16y ago
        Most recently I was doing data mining and warehousing for a new reporting system @ bofa. Before that at NG I was part of a team developing firmware for gas detectors.
  - jasiek 16y ago
    Same thing here, except I found out I was burning too much about halfway through my savings. Since then I realized I have to pay more attention to how I spend money. I'm glad this happened - it is unbelievable how much gets thrown away on stuff I don't really need.
  - rdl 16y ago
    I just went from "full time deployed contractor wage" to "use up vacation time, regular wage", and in a couple months, will go to no income. I should have 2 years of savings and no debt (finally!), but it's still scary. Every single dollar spent is less runway. If I don't have income from my startup by next fall, I'll probably be doing consulting or getting a job, or at least seriously looking for one.
jasonkester 16y ago
Funny how pulling in $150k/yr can actually be a downside. Reading between the lines, it sounds like you managed to adjust your lifestyle to match the income. Most people can live comfortably in the US for under $2k/month all in. So in theory you should be able to save something like 4 years worth of runway with a single year's contracting. In practice, you just convince yourself that it takes $10k/month to survive and as a result burn yourself into the ground 5x faster than everybody else.

I am. I usually pull about 150 - 175 a year contracting and now I am making 0 because I am working on my startup. Money starts to disappear fast when none is coming in.

mgkimsal 16y ago

Can I assume you meant 150k per year? Obviously money going out with no income depletes cash on hand. However, it would seem making 150k for a year or so should buy you a pretty big runway. I'm guessing you have a lot of outgoing if it feels like it's disappearing 'fast'.

spotted_at 16y ago
Yea, 150k. I thought I had enough savings to last about 2 years; I was wrong so I am seriously cutting back. If mainly feels like its going fast because I was accustomed spending what I want and not seeing my bank account drop. Now that I don't have anything coming in thats not the case. The impact of what I spend is much more visible now.
- exit 16y ago
  what kind of consulting do you do? how much of 150k were you saving annually?
  - spotted_at 16y ago
    I mostly work for banks and sometimes do military contracts. My last contract was with northrop grumman in SD and before that BOFA in charlotte. I saved appox. 36k a year.
    - exit 16y ago
      cool. can you be most specific though? did you write software for banks/"defense" industry, or did you tell them what kind of software to write, or did you tell them how to wire their networks, etc.
      - spotted_at 16y ago
        Most recently I was doing data mining and warehousing for a new reporting system @ bofa. Before that at NG I was part of a team developing firmware for gas detectors.
- jasiek 16y ago
  Same thing here, except I found out I was burning too much about halfway through my savings. Since then I realized I have to pay more attention to how I spend money. I'm glad this happened - it is unbelievable how much gets thrown away on stuff I don't really need.
- rdl 16y ago
  I just went from "full time deployed contractor wage" to "use up vacation time, regular wage", and in a couple months, will go to no income. I should have 2 years of savings and no debt (finally!), but it's still scary. Every single dollar spent is less runway. If I don't have income from my startup by next fall, I'll probably be doing consulting or getting a job, or at least seriously looking for one.

jasonkester 16y ago

Funny how pulling in $150k/yr can actually be a downside. Reading between the lines, it sounds like you managed to adjust your lifestyle to match the income. Most people can live comfortably in the US for under $2k/month all in. So in theory you should be able to save something like 4 years worth of runway with a single year's contracting. In practice, you just convince yourself that it takes $10k/month to survive and as a result burn yourself into the ground 5x faster than everybody else.