11 ms·

One Year After Quitting My Job

407 points by nathanbarry 14y ago

nathanbarry 14y ago
As always, I'm happy to answer any questions. :)
- braveheart1723 14y ago
  how much tax you paying ?
  - nathanbarry 14y ago
    A lot. I don't know exactly how much, but it will be far more than any other year.
    - nwhitehead 14y ago
      These are the problems you want to have.
    - jrockway 14y ago
      Wouldn't it be good to figure this out before claiming to have doubled your salary? When you have a W-2 job, your employer pays a lot of taxes that are not included in your salary. When you switch to 1099 or self-employment, you now have to pay those taxes yourself.
      - stevenwei 14y ago
        The employer pays 6.2% of wages up to $110,100 for Social Security and 1.45% of wages (no limit) for Medicare. It's small but known quantity.
      - greenranger 14y ago
        Nitpick much? If he's grossing twice as much as he did last year, then he doubled his salary regardless of what taxes him or his past employer were required to pay in a given year.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
    - zulfishah 14y ago
      For next year, you probably want to talk to an accountant about paying estimated taxes. If you drop 20k in taxes to the IRS at the end of the year, they're not going to be happy. In fact, you can get fines for doing that.
- zallarak 14y ago
  If you were in the bay I'd definitely ask you to coffee / be intrigued to hear of your experiences. Congrats, that is so legit!
- 16s 14y ago
  When I see young men and women consulting, I'm always curious how it's working for them. Do your consultation customers care that you are so young? I'm genuinely curious about this. Most successful consultants (that I know) have decades of experience in a specific industry or specialty, thus they have a large amount of knowledge based on actual, real-world experience and that is why clients seek them out. They are very successful, but that success seems solely based on their years of experience and insight.
  - nathanbarry 14y ago
    Most of my consulting comes from people I've met locally. I have a pretty good reputation from speaking at user groups and code camps, so a lot of people know me. Age hasn't really been an issue (I'm 22). When I first did freelancing I was 15 and 16, so it was much more difficult then.
  - Swannie 14y ago
    I think the confusion comes from the term 'consulting'. In my opinion: Freelancing is not consulting. Technical problem solving (e.g. scaling db, infrastructure improvement, assisting in migrating to a more recent version of a framework, etc. borderline. Providing advice to a team of developers, and doing a little of that work is consulting. I see so many people claiming they consult, when infact they freelance. They get assigned work, as a temporary employee. Nathan sounds like he started freelancing and now he gets a bit of consulting in the mix too.
    - 16s 14y ago
      Very well put. I agree. Freelancing is a much better word. After gaining many years of experience, then one will have the insight and ability to actually consult.
      - nathanbarry 14y ago
        Based on that distinction (which I think is accurate) I probably do 50% consulting and 50% freelancing.
- tinco 14y ago
  With $4000 monthly expenses, you should have about 100k left in savings or some non-monthly expenses and probably a bunch of taxes, what do you do with your excess? Is it something mundane like saving for a bigger house, or your pension, or are you reinvesting?
  - nathanbarry 14y ago
    Currently I have about $85,000 in the bank. Most of that showed up in the last couple months. Another $15,000 has been earned, but not transfered over to my account yet. The trip to Europe took quite a bit of money, so I didn't have much around July or August of this year. I'm not sure what I'm saving for, but the more money I have, the more reluctant I am to purchase things. For example, I have wanted to buy a Lotus Elise for a long time. My theory was I would get a used one for about $30,000. I convinced my wife that I could buy one when we had $100k in the bank. Now that we are close to that number, I don't want to spend it on something so frivolous. We'll probably continue saving for a house. For now I am going to do some more traveling and continue to live as inexpensively as possible. For example, my current rent is $650 a month.
    - mgkimsal 14y ago
      Your goalposts are moving, and I've noticed that in myself. I have freelancers I work with who tell me: "I'll just be fine when I've got 2 months of expenses in the bank". I tell them they probably won't, then they laugh, then eventually some of them see what I mean. Sounds like you've got about 2 years of 'runway' in the bank - with no income and stable expenses, you could go for 2 years. I'm in a similar situation, and have found myself wanting less and less to spend any money. Some of that comes from simply remembering the effort it took to build up that amount, and then spending it literally in an instant on anything feels weird now. Yeah, I'd like a bigger TV (ours if 42" but 7 year old "ED" TV, not HD), but see little point in it as this one still works. Newer car? Yeah, would be nice - I can pay cash for a nice used car, but will probably hold on to this 8 year old one for another year or two. The only things I'd like to buy, I want to pay cash for, and I'm still a long ways away (things like a private airplane, much larger house, etc). We do travel some - my wife will be going to Australia and I'll be going to Russia - buying those sorts of experiences with our families is one of the few things that we agree on spending money on. Outside of that, just continuing to pile up cash until there's a compelling case for spending it (or a true emergency need) is probably all you can do.
- vclortho 14y ago
  What about taxes and health insurance?
  - nathanbarry 14y ago
    I will have to pay a lot in taxes this year. Still need to do them... For health insurance I have a high deductible plan that comes out to about $280 a month for my wife, son, and I. We also keep about $5k (and growing) in a medical savings account to meet the deductible.
    - stevenwei 14y ago
      It probably makes sense at this point to talk to an accountant (if you don't already have one). I don't know how your business structure is set up, but you may want to look into setting up an S-corp and/or a retirement plan like a solo-401k.
    - ja27 14y ago
      $280 a month? Is that maybe an employer plan that your wife is on? If not, I've got to get more agressive in my insurance shopping. We haven't gotten a quote below $1000 a month for a family of four.
      - nathanbarry 14y ago
        That is an individual plan for myself, my wife, and our 1 year old son. We are both young (22) and have no health issues. Also it has a $5k deductible and we live in an inexpensive state (Idaho).
- pgrote 14y ago
  How did you handle health insurance?
  - mgkimsal 14y ago
    I'm going out on a limb here and supposing that he buys it from an insurance company. Not trying to sound snarky, but it's just not that big a deal for most people - it's a service and you buy it. Yes, it gets expensive for some people with certain conditions or over a certain age, but it's just a cost of doing business for a huge number of people. Get a high-deductible policy ($3.5k - $10k) and your premiums for an average family could be between $300 and $600/month. (blue cross blue shield in north carolina, husband and wife in 40s and 2 teenage kids - sample quote).
- karolisd 14y ago
  What did you use to make the ebooks?
  - nathanbarry 14y ago
    iBooks Author, then exported it to a PDF. It's great software.
- sorenbs 14y ago
  Would be interesting to hear more about how the different book packages worked out. Was it worth it to make the instruction videos and interviews?
  - nathanbarry 14y ago
    Yes, very worth it. Checkout this post: http://nathanbarry.com/behind-the-scenes/ http://nathanbarry.com/behind-the-scenes/
    - sorenbs 14y ago
      Tank you.
charlieirish 14y ago
Nathan, firstly congratulations - it looks like you have definitely made a successful transition from company employment to self-employment. It's also great to see the variety of income streams that you have. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your book and also learn a great deal from your blog, especially as you are so transparent with your failures and successes. It would be great to hear a little more about how your time management differed in both roles. Are you working less, the same or more hours now? Also it would be good if you could divulge a little more on how the networking you've done has affected your success (if that's possible to describe or even measure!). Thanks!
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  Pretty similar hours (40-50 a week), I just get to pick what I work on now.
  - symmet 14y ago
    I think that this is the most impressive fact so far. Being successful on your own as well as maintaining a good work/life balance (especially with a family) is an incredible feat. Way to go.
refurb 14y ago
Congratulations Nathan, it seems like the past year has been even better than you could have imagined. I thought the write-up was great. There is something about your writing that comes across as humble and thankful for what you have, which is pretty refreshing seeing so many blog posts come across as a little too "know it all".
codemac 14y ago
Wow, that sounds great! Thank you for sharing such specific numbers on financials. What I'd also like to see is a breakdown on the time spent doing things you'd rather not be doing (i.e. doing work), and how that compares to your previous salaried position.
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  I still waste a lot of time when I should be working. Especially on sites like Hacker News. ;) Generally I work about 40-50 hours a week, spread out throughout the day, 7 days a week. Most of that time is spent designing or writing.
  - emehrkay 14y ago
    Great question and thanks for answering. I think that a lot of us have this dream where we work 20-30/hours a week and have the same results that you've achieved. Starting off, as with anything worthwhile, takes a lot of effort, hard work, and focus on what you want to accomplish. Thanks for the update, and please keep posting -- its keeps us motivated.
josscrowcroft 14y ago
Amazing, congratulations. And congrats on writing a post like this and coming off as a down-to-earth, regular guy. These posts (along with the people who write them) can often come across as "Look how great I am because I don't follow the status quo!" kind of stuff, but you sound completely humble about it all. Best of luck for the coming year!
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  Someone made a comment to me last year about a blog post I made "bragging about how much money I made." :( That's really not my intention at all. Just trying to be open and honest. So I'm glad this post didn't come across as bragging.
  - eswat 14y ago
    It’s easy for people to take blog posts, forum replies, etc. out of context. Don’t sweat it and keep writing retrospectives like these. They’re very insightful.
  - tome 14y ago
    Someone just started saying that on patio11's post too. I for one am very glad you two are posting about your experiences. I hope to learn important lessons from you. Thanks!
    - nathanbarry 14y ago
      I've learned a ton from patio11, so I love to read his posts!
  - helen842000 14y ago
    It bugs me when I hear this. Your post is interesting, inspiring & contains very applicable advice. It will be very valuable to a lot of people. When people say "stop bragging" it usually translates into "stop making me jealous". It's not your look-out to cater your writing to those that don't want to hear about the results of hard work. There will always be those that will explain others achievements away as talent or point to luck or resources. Please continue to be open & write for the majority who will appreciate the assistance and use it as motivation to step towards building their own successes.
photorized 14y ago
Congrats, it's always nice to see things work out well. Next goal is probably increasing the share of passive recurring income. :)
sunnybythesea 14y ago
Well done Nathan. Hope you continue to do well. And thanks for sharing.
braveheart1723 14y ago
Inspirational :)
neya 14y ago
First of all, congrats Nathan! Cheers bro :) At the same time, while all this sounds so promising, in my humble opinion, I would say this wouldn't apply to everyone. Whether you know it or not, Nathan seems to have a solid plan - 'This is what I should do. This is how I should do it. And this is how much what I do might generate.' I see a lot of people quitting their jobs just because it's become more of a cool factor now and most importantly because they think they could become like Nathan easily or rather quickly (like it's some get-rich-quick scheme). You should understand that Nathan has put in some significant, rock-solid hardwork (like developing his own apps, writing some quality books, etc.) into all this. If you just quit your job dreaming of cash flowing in the very next minute, that might not happen. FYI - I quit my day job too. I wrote some apps too, dreaming of becoming someone like Nathan someday. Here I am, commenting here on Nathan's success story instead. Life ain't that easy dudes :D
- tinco 14y ago
  It's still interesting though, what did you make? What was your plan, what failed? Did you after a few months decide to go back to work for someone again?
  - neya 14y ago
    >What did you make? Built a dozen Web Products for clients. I thought I could sustain developing Products for others. But unfortunately, payment was the biggest factor. If I charged someone $10,000 totally for a finished product, I would have been paid something like just $2-3k. Of course, I could revoke the license to my product or disable the product itself, but that didn't work out. Simply because my clients were confused. They would let the product stay alive for a couple of weeks, without marketing it, expect it to convert well and become rich overnight. And when that didn't happen, they would kill it. They would stop paying for the AWS boxes and Linodes. There went all my hardwork down the drain. And since it didn't work well, I would be paid just a fraction of the project's total cost. It was unfair, but it was a very valuable lesson. Right now, I charge 50% upfront and then proceed working on the project with well-defined milestones. >What was your Plan? My plan was only one thing. (Not joking). I wanted to buy a BMW 320d after building a dozen profitable web apps. The problem was, there were a lot of weak spots in my plan. (read below) >What failed? Working space - I live in an apartment. I assumed I could save couple of hundred dollars by working from my apartment instead of a posh office. I learnt that this is the last place where you should work. There is no motivation within an apartment. You eventually become lazy because everything is easily available to you - TV, BED, Dining, etc. So you lose focus much easily. When I was working in a company before, I was much productive. I would come home very late and still make some significant progress w.r.t to my Web apps (the ones I build for myself, not for clients). When I quit work, I thought I could use all this time for myself. I was wrong. My productivity went down. Drastically. Team - I am a very fair person. I never like to live my life abusing someone else's hardwork. Because that's why MNC's exist (most of them). I hired some interns, they were really talented, but in the end, I didn't want them to work with me because I didn't want them to develop a web app in return for a couple of hundred dollars. Because that would be unfair. I tried seeking co-founders too, but the problem was I didn't like the idea of getting close to someone with a pre-determined self-benefit in mind. Because that would be a 'fake' relationship. Of course I did have some valuable friends who could have become great co-founders. Unfortunately, I figured out that they wouldn't be able to add value to my company (because I can code and design myself; I'm primarily a designer) and I shouldn't add anyone into the company for fuck's sake. Burning the cash - I invested a LOT of money into buying domains. The problem with me is that I come up with some really really good ideas (and names) for startups. I would evaluate the idea's potential and quickly buy a domain name for it(simply because it would be available at that point). I invested over $1000-2000 in just domains. I didn't feel the pinch when I invested the first year. But the next year, especially when I was bootstrapping, it became a burden when these domains auto-renewed. If you are seeking for a great start-up name or a domain for it, please, please let me know! Investors - Initially, I wanted to seek funding. I even applied to YC (and got rejected) as a single founder. But later, I was able to conclude that some (many) ideas don't require funding and can be monetized from day one. Hence I avoided a lot of investor meet-ups, camps, etc. and sat home working on my product (which is what I'm doing currently too). Because of this attitude, I'm forced to bootstrap. Bootstrapping teaches a lot of valuable lessons, but, you will feel much restricted without some 'cushion' cash with you. For example, if you thought a particular stockphoto would make your web app beautiful, but it costs $100, you would have to wait till you get a new client (which means you need to work on his product first, which will take more time to complete yours). I wasted a lot of time arguing myself going with Play/Scala instead of ROR simply because it would scale well. Heck, I even learnt Scala simply for this reason and in the end, I realized it wasn't worth it, simply because ROR helps me (in my case) getting my idea up and running in no time (which is VERY important) rather than learning something complex and building my product with half-baked code. I realized I'd rather do it in ROR and have it re-written when I need to scale, because I would have the money to do it by then, obviously. I also invested a lot in software at a very early stage. For example, I bought the Adobe Creative Production Premium 5.5 suite just for photoshop and After effects. While it's a really good bargain, I found myself short of cash in the following months. Of course I feel proud to own a legit copy of these softwares, but the compromise was painful in the sense that I had to work a lot to take back the money I invested in these softwares. >Did you after a few months decide to go back to work for someone again? Once you taste this kind of freedom, I think it's difficult to go back. I got offers from very prominent people, investors, MNC's to work on their ideas/products. But I simply refused because of my current lifestyle. In life, one thing I realized is that you should be the negotiator for your own life and not someone else. You should decide what you should do and how you should do to achieve what you want, and not someone else. Despite these people giving me good offers (monetary-wise too) I decided not to work with them simply because they had their own rules. When I build something, I want to be a decision maker - I don't want to be following orders, simply because I'm getting paid. Currently, I'm working on my own product and also I am a freelance consultant for several start-ups helping them develop their MVP's and helping them choose what works best. I still have a couple of debts (=credit card), but I'm confident I'll clear them in no time. It's never about the money, it's always about the happiness. I would like to remind everyone here of a beautiful quote - 'If you don't build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.'
mikeleeorg 14y ago
Clients being unable to pay has been frustrating and made me want to do less consulting... That’s why I love selling products, I get paid up front and don’t have to worry about collecting payments. This is exactly why I left the consulting biz too. I had a web development agency with a bunch of friends & ex-colleagues that was about to make $1M in profits after 3 years. That number would be much higher, had it not been for clients (mostly startups and small businesses) that weren't able to pay (so they claimed) or went out of business. This is despite collecting a deposit of 50% of the estimated costs up-front. Before we broke $1M, I saw a great opportunity to develop a product, so I shifted my focus and have been doing that ever since. Consulting is good for getting (relative) immediate cash up-front, while products can take a long time to begin earning that same amount of cash. However, if done well, products can scale and earn much more revenue in the long run. Nathan is definitely taking the right approach for an individual entrepreneur. He's diversifying his income (consulting, apps, books) while presumably moving his focus away from consulting as his income from apps and books increases. Good luck man!
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  I may take Brennan Dunn's (http://planscope.io http://planscope.io) approach of getting paid 100% up front. I still have a lot to learn doing consulting. Like you said, a balance of consulting and products is a good way to go.
  - biscarch 14y ago
    Interesting link, I'm trying to diversify my income for the same reasons as above. What is your thought process for charging 100% up front if you don't mind me asking.
    - nathanbarry 14y ago
      So you don't have any accounts receivable. Then you never have to worry about a client not paying. That link isn't directly to where Brennan talks about it (maybe it was on a podcast?), but read his stuff and you will learn a lot. I know I have.
jongold 14y ago
Congrats Nathan - really appreciate the openness & honesty :)
juddlyon 14y ago
Congrats, succeeding on your own terms is what it's all about. Thank you for sharing your story, we need more of this and less of "hot new shiny mobile-social-blah raises 69 million, hires XYZ hotshot and fires ABC hotshot."
jjm 14y ago
I have to point out that most of his income came from the ebooks. His income from consulting and apps came in less than the job he left. Self help has always sold very well the last three decades. I 'believe' that many who come here and quit their day jobs are usually doing it for _startups_ and/or _app dreams_. Nathan is working hard, doing as many things possible. Not many people can do this (unless/until they reach some desperation factor which makes one realizes the need to _hustle_ and get stuff done). Bottom line, it's hard work and all sweat. Of course, knowing what industry sells and finding what niche your skills fit in work too.
- ericcholis 14y ago
  "doing as many things possible" That's my takeaway from this article, and your comment. Trying to go solo with only one source of revenue/income is foolish. Do as much as you can, as long as the return on investment is sound.
  - nathanbarry 14y ago
    I wouldn't try to do as many things as possible. Work on one till it is making money (or needs to be shut down because it is failing) then move on to the next thing. Be careful not to spread yourself to thin. That said, get another income source (besides consulting) before you quit your job.
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  Before the eBooks I was on track to barely beat my previous year's salary (I probably would have hit $75,000). But I focused a ton of time on the books rather than consulting or promoting my apps, so that decreased the revenue from each of those. So keep in mind that some of the book revenue is in place of consulting revenue.
- mzarate06 14y ago
  Well said. I'm nowhere near the success level of Nathan, but do see each year's hard work translating into incremental increases in quality of life every year (I'm a self employed consultant). I lend an ear to freelancers and consultants quite a bit and a lot of the focus is on how hard they're having to work, and how surprising that is to them. The first thing I say is that yes, it's an incredible amount of work. You can ease the pain a bit here and there, but in general there are absolutely no short cuts. To "make it" being self employed, or selling products, or both, takes an incredible amount of desire and persistence. So much that you really have to enjoy the process, otherwise most quit before they reach any reward simply b/c it's too much work combined with too much risk.
lukethomas 14y ago
Love this article - your transparency is commendable. Thanks for sharing the numbers, it's something I wish more people did.
pebb 14y ago
Why do you have $4000 a month in expense in Idaho??? That's like bay area expense level and a sr. anything makes like 150k...
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  We travel quite a bit.
xmattus 14y ago
Thanks for sharing this, Nathan. I co-own a web development agency and share your consternation about accounts receivable. Our strategy has actually been to vet clients much more carefully and (as the agency has grown) to begin limiting the clients we take to larger, stable organizations where the accounting department and the product owner we're working are not the same person (so that a discussion about payment does not become a discussion about project status and vice versa). Overall, congratulations on your success.
toobulkeh 14y ago
Your great success is very encouraging! I'm not sure if I could write a book, but the results from consulting and programming are very impressive for a first attempt. I'm in the middle of making the jump myself, and am currently paying that $4000/mo for our family of two. Did you simply save up enough to live on that for a few months to make more of it? How did that work? Thanks for the inspiration and congratulations again on your successful year!
jamesjguthrie 14y ago
Good job Nathan, following the right path to being a successful solopreneur. Do you use a publisher for your books and/or do marketing yourself to sell them? Also, you should have visited Glasgow instead of Edinburgh, we are a much friendlier place :-P
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  All self published and marketed on my own. Next time I'll visit Glasgow. :)
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
philfreo 14y ago
I would love to hear about how you wrote / published the eBooks and launched and marketed them.
keithpeter 14y ago
"In May I made a commitment to write 1,000 words a day. [...] That slow, consistent progress is what allowed me to write two books, almost two dozen guest posts, and over thirty posts on this blog in the last year." Very well done that man. I was just wondering how many hours each day it took to crank out the thousand words? I'm assuming that research time was minimal as these appear to be howto books - the research was in launching two successful applications.
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  Anywhere from 20 minutes to 3 hours depending on how inspired I am.
JDSD 14y ago
Nathan, Great inspiration you are. I've read your thinktraffic posts and always enjoy. You have many great things to say. Concentrate has helped me save thousands of hours. http://www.getconcentrating.com/ http://www.getconcentrating.com/ Keep up the hard work, and stay writing.
asc76 14y ago
Congrats, brotha!
oceanician 14y ago
Would be great to hear more less successful stories i.e. first freelance making less than the previous job. It's tricky - and my first year isn't over yet, but not living in a concentrated tech city has made it difficult. Have been considering moving to a bigger city. I prefer working in teams, which is also an issue as most freelancers seem to prefer to work solo.
pnathan 14y ago
What do you do for health insurance? I'd love to be self-employed, but I have to take care of health expenses for my family, and they require health insurance.
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  I have a high deductible plan for $280/month. I live in an inexpensive area (Boise, Idaho) and my wife and I are both young (22) so it is cheap. We also keep at least $5k in a medical savings account.
- patdennis 14y ago
  Here's an interesting article about how one family deals with the issue: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/11/01/our-new-237-per-month-health-insurance-plan/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/11/01/our-new-237-per-mo...
- tellarin 14y ago
  This is one of the reasons why I'm an advocate of good public universal health care. Too bad it's not available everywhere. But this is a discussion for another thread/post.
sproketboy 14y ago
Reality: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chicago_Hobo.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chicago_Hobo.jpg
bvi 14y ago
Nathan, congrats. You seem incredibly focused (even though you said that focus was an issue). What is your workflow process like? In other words, how do you seem to get so much done? :)
qeorge 14y ago
Checking email, Twitter, and Facebook on my phone has also been a constant interruption of time spent with family. I think this is the biggest issue I need to deal with in 2013. Man, do I ever sympathize. I was finding myself standing in groups of friends, outside on beautiful sunny days, and we'd all have our phones out looking at Facebook and commenting (out loud) on people's statuses (and the comment is always the same - "yeah, I saw that"). Its so lame! For me the answer was really easy - just uninstall the app from your phone. You don't have to do anything drastic like quit FB, just uninstall the app from your phone and stop letting it fill up every free moment you have. Do it now, before you do anything else. It will take 30 seconds and could change your life. Uninstall the FB app.
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  "Do it now, before you do anything else. It will take 30 seconds and could change your life. Uninstall the FB app." That's actually what I really needed right now. Both Twitter and Facebook are now gone from my phone. Thank you!
  - c141charlie 14y ago
    Facebook. Twitter. Uninstalled. What about a moratorium on Hacker News? Personally, I could have launched several apps with the time I've spent reading Hacker News. However, I get a lot out of HN ... Damn ...
    - mej10 14y ago
      I am a bit late to this thread, so you may not see my response. Regardless... I have wondered about this as well. I am considering two strategies: 1) Stop checking HN at all, and subscribe to Hacker Monthly (http://hackermonthly.com/ http://hackermonthly.com/), which is the best articles of the month in a nice format. 2) Schedule a time to check it once a week, and only look at the list of posts with over 200 points. http://news.ycombinator.com/over?points=200 http://news.ycombinator.com/over?points=200 We have to stop spending time on these sites, even when it seems valuable. Nothing is as valuable as actually building something and interacting with users.
mcdowall 14y ago
Congratulations, I've read your other posts and always impressed by your concise way of describing the processes you are undertaking. One thing troubles me though, why did you goto Swansea on your UK trip of all places!?
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  A friend grew up there. Also, have you been to the Gower Peninsula? It's beatiful!
  - mcdowall 14y ago
    I was born in Cardiff but strangely never been to Swansea, currently consigned to the grey skies of London though!
kelechi 14y ago
You have inspired me to start writing 1000 words per day. While I'm typically satisfied with my finished written product, the process of writing usually isn't enjoyable for me. Hopefully, I will find a love for the craft of writing with this challenge. Thanks for sharing!
- thirdtruck 14y ago
  Do you write and edit at the same time? I found that separating the two tasks made it much less painful.
  - kelechi 14y ago
    Not a bad suggestion! I'll give it a try.
    - thirdtruck 14y ago
      Thanks! Let us know how it goes.
  - chj 14y ago
    +1 I always have the same feeling.
ww520 14y ago
Great work landing on your feet and got it going great. It's very impressive to do it for the first year, even more so for doubling over your old salary in the first year. Keep it up.
31reasons 14y ago
At the age of 22 if he can manage to do all of this (including great looking family). I am in awe. This man is definitely gifted.
ashray 14y ago
Hi Nathan, Congrats on the amazing achievement. Being in a similar situation as you, I'm curious as to how you and your wife divide finances. What does she do? I am mobile and me and my fiancé want to travel long term but I'm wondering on how to handle the money issue because she can't have a job on the go, and I don't mind bearing the expenses but are there any pro tips that can help me avoid money issues? Like could we work on a plan for her to help with my apps, etc. ? How do you guys do it ? Great family btw :)
swastik 14y ago
Congratulations! Not only are those excellent numbers but the fact that you were able to do more of what you wanted to is wonderful. Quitting a job isn't for everyone — no matter what anyone says, it requires tremendous discipline and focus so props to you for pulling it off. The key thing you are doing here, something that will hold you in good stead in the future, too, is the diversification of income sources. Once again, congratulations!
chj 14y ago
Congratulations! Being solo myself, I find that your posts are all very inspiring, although my story has been much less successful.
kylegillen 14y ago
Congratulations Nathan. I've been a customer since 'The App Design Handbook' - and have never had an ounce of buyers remorse. I wish you all the best going forward. I do have one question regarding consultancy though - how did you crack this one? How did you make the transition from web designer to consulting for clients and what does 'consulting' entail? (thanks to Swannie for providing a nice outline initially) Thanks again for the transparency and inspiration Nathan.

407 points by nathanbarry 14y ago

nathanbarry 14y ago

As always, I'm happy to answer any questions. :)

braveheart1723 14y ago
how much tax you paying ?
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  A lot. I don't know exactly how much, but it will be far more than any other year.
  - nwhitehead 14y ago
    These are the problems you want to have.
  - jrockway 14y ago
    Wouldn't it be good to figure this out before claiming to have doubled your salary? When you have a W-2 job, your employer pays a lot of taxes that are not included in your salary. When you switch to 1099 or self-employment, you now have to pay those taxes yourself.
    - stevenwei 14y ago
      The employer pays 6.2% of wages up to $110,100 for Social Security and 1.45% of wages (no limit) for Medicare. It's small but known quantity.
    - greenranger 14y ago
      Nitpick much? If he's grossing twice as much as he did last year, then he doubled his salary regardless of what taxes him or his past employer were required to pay in a given year.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - zulfishah 14y ago
    For next year, you probably want to talk to an accountant about paying estimated taxes. If you drop 20k in taxes to the IRS at the end of the year, they're not going to be happy. In fact, you can get fines for doing that.
zallarak 14y ago
If you were in the bay I'd definitely ask you to coffee / be intrigued to hear of your experiences. Congrats, that is so legit!
16s 14y ago
When I see young men and women consulting, I'm always curious how it's working for them. Do your consultation customers care that you are so young? I'm genuinely curious about this. Most successful consultants (that I know) have decades of experience in a specific industry or specialty, thus they have a large amount of knowledge based on actual, real-world experience and that is why clients seek them out. They are very successful, but that success seems solely based on their years of experience and insight.
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  Most of my consulting comes from people I've met locally. I have a pretty good reputation from speaking at user groups and code camps, so a lot of people know me. Age hasn't really been an issue (I'm 22). When I first did freelancing I was 15 and 16, so it was much more difficult then.
- Swannie 14y ago
  I think the confusion comes from the term 'consulting'. In my opinion: Freelancing is not consulting. Technical problem solving (e.g. scaling db, infrastructure improvement, assisting in migrating to a more recent version of a framework, etc. borderline. Providing advice to a team of developers, and doing a little of that work is consulting. I see so many people claiming they consult, when infact they freelance. They get assigned work, as a temporary employee. Nathan sounds like he started freelancing and now he gets a bit of consulting in the mix too.
  - 16s 14y ago
    Very well put. I agree. Freelancing is a much better word. After gaining many years of experience, then one will have the insight and ability to actually consult.
    - nathanbarry 14y ago
      Based on that distinction (which I think is accurate) I probably do 50% consulting and 50% freelancing.
tinco 14y ago
With $4000 monthly expenses, you should have about 100k left in savings or some non-monthly expenses and probably a bunch of taxes, what do you do with your excess? Is it something mundane like saving for a bigger house, or your pension, or are you reinvesting?
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  Currently I have about $85,000 in the bank. Most of that showed up in the last couple months. Another $15,000 has been earned, but not transfered over to my account yet. The trip to Europe took quite a bit of money, so I didn't have much around July or August of this year. I'm not sure what I'm saving for, but the more money I have, the more reluctant I am to purchase things. For example, I have wanted to buy a Lotus Elise for a long time. My theory was I would get a used one for about $30,000. I convinced my wife that I could buy one when we had $100k in the bank. Now that we are close to that number, I don't want to spend it on something so frivolous. We'll probably continue saving for a house. For now I am going to do some more traveling and continue to live as inexpensively as possible. For example, my current rent is $650 a month.
  - mgkimsal 14y ago
    Your goalposts are moving, and I've noticed that in myself. I have freelancers I work with who tell me: "I'll just be fine when I've got 2 months of expenses in the bank". I tell them they probably won't, then they laugh, then eventually some of them see what I mean. Sounds like you've got about 2 years of 'runway' in the bank - with no income and stable expenses, you could go for 2 years. I'm in a similar situation, and have found myself wanting less and less to spend any money. Some of that comes from simply remembering the effort it took to build up that amount, and then spending it literally in an instant on anything feels weird now. Yeah, I'd like a bigger TV (ours if 42" but 7 year old "ED" TV, not HD), but see little point in it as this one still works. Newer car? Yeah, would be nice - I can pay cash for a nice used car, but will probably hold on to this 8 year old one for another year or two. The only things I'd like to buy, I want to pay cash for, and I'm still a long ways away (things like a private airplane, much larger house, etc). We do travel some - my wife will be going to Australia and I'll be going to Russia - buying those sorts of experiences with our families is one of the few things that we agree on spending money on. Outside of that, just continuing to pile up cash until there's a compelling case for spending it (or a true emergency need) is probably all you can do.
vclortho 14y ago
What about taxes and health insurance?
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  I will have to pay a lot in taxes this year. Still need to do them... For health insurance I have a high deductible plan that comes out to about $280 a month for my wife, son, and I. We also keep about $5k (and growing) in a medical savings account to meet the deductible.
  - stevenwei 14y ago
    It probably makes sense at this point to talk to an accountant (if you don't already have one). I don't know how your business structure is set up, but you may want to look into setting up an S-corp and/or a retirement plan like a solo-401k.
  - ja27 14y ago
    $280 a month? Is that maybe an employer plan that your wife is on? If not, I've got to get more agressive in my insurance shopping. We haven't gotten a quote below $1000 a month for a family of four.
    - nathanbarry 14y ago
      That is an individual plan for myself, my wife, and our 1 year old son. We are both young (22) and have no health issues. Also it has a $5k deductible and we live in an inexpensive state (Idaho).
pgrote 14y ago
How did you handle health insurance?
- mgkimsal 14y ago
  I'm going out on a limb here and supposing that he buys it from an insurance company. Not trying to sound snarky, but it's just not that big a deal for most people - it's a service and you buy it. Yes, it gets expensive for some people with certain conditions or over a certain age, but it's just a cost of doing business for a huge number of people. Get a high-deductible policy ($3.5k - $10k) and your premiums for an average family could be between $300 and $600/month. (blue cross blue shield in north carolina, husband and wife in 40s and 2 teenage kids - sample quote).
karolisd 14y ago
What did you use to make the ebooks?
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  iBooks Author, then exported it to a PDF. It's great software.
sorenbs 14y ago
Would be interesting to hear more about how the different book packages worked out. Was it worth it to make the instruction videos and interviews?
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  Yes, very worth it. Checkout this post: http://nathanbarry.com/behind-the-scenes/ http://nathanbarry.com/behind-the-scenes/
  - sorenbs 14y ago
    Tank you.

charlieirish 14y ago

Nathan, firstly congratulations - it looks like you have definitely made a successful transition from company employment to self-employment. It's also great to see the variety of income streams that you have. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your book and also learn a great deal from your blog, especially as you are so transparent with your failures and successes. It would be great to hear a little more about how your time management differed in both roles. Are you working less, the same or more hours now? Also it would be good if you could divulge a little more on how the networking you've done has affected your success (if that's possible to describe or even measure!). Thanks!

nathanbarry 14y ago
Pretty similar hours (40-50 a week), I just get to pick what I work on now.
- symmet 14y ago
  I think that this is the most impressive fact so far. Being successful on your own as well as maintaining a good work/life balance (especially with a family) is an incredible feat. Way to go.

refurb 14y ago

Congratulations Nathan, it seems like the past year has been even better than you could have imagined. I thought the write-up was great. There is something about your writing that comes across as humble and thankful for what you have, which is pretty refreshing seeing so many blog posts come across as a little too "know it all".

codemac 14y ago

Wow, that sounds great! Thank you for sharing such specific numbers on financials. What I'd also like to see is a breakdown on the time spent doing things you'd rather not be doing (i.e. doing work), and how that compares to your previous salaried position.

nathanbarry 14y ago
I still waste a lot of time when I should be working. Especially on sites like Hacker News. ;) Generally I work about 40-50 hours a week, spread out throughout the day, 7 days a week. Most of that time is spent designing or writing.
- emehrkay 14y ago
  Great question and thanks for answering. I think that a lot of us have this dream where we work 20-30/hours a week and have the same results that you've achieved. Starting off, as with anything worthwhile, takes a lot of effort, hard work, and focus on what you want to accomplish. Thanks for the update, and please keep posting -- its keeps us motivated.

josscrowcroft 14y ago

Amazing, congratulations. And congrats on writing a post like this and coming off as a down-to-earth, regular guy. These posts (along with the people who write them) can often come across as "Look how great I am because I don't follow the status quo!" kind of stuff, but you sound completely humble about it all. Best of luck for the coming year!

nathanbarry 14y ago
Someone made a comment to me last year about a blog post I made "bragging about how much money I made." :( That's really not my intention at all. Just trying to be open and honest. So I'm glad this post didn't come across as bragging.
- eswat 14y ago
  It’s easy for people to take blog posts, forum replies, etc. out of context. Don’t sweat it and keep writing retrospectives like these. They’re very insightful.
- tome 14y ago
  Someone just started saying that on patio11's post too. I for one am very glad you two are posting about your experiences. I hope to learn important lessons from you. Thanks!
  - nathanbarry 14y ago
    I've learned a ton from patio11, so I love to read his posts!
- helen842000 14y ago
  It bugs me when I hear this. Your post is interesting, inspiring & contains very applicable advice. It will be very valuable to a lot of people. When people say "stop bragging" it usually translates into "stop making me jealous". It's not your look-out to cater your writing to those that don't want to hear about the results of hard work. There will always be those that will explain others achievements away as talent or point to luck or resources. Please continue to be open & write for the majority who will appreciate the assistance and use it as motivation to step towards building their own successes.

photorized 14y ago

Congrats, it's always nice to see things work out well. Next goal is probably increasing the share of passive recurring income. :)

sunnybythesea 14y ago

Well done Nathan. Hope you continue to do well. And thanks for sharing.

braveheart1723 14y ago

Inspirational :)

neya 14y ago

First of all, congrats Nathan! Cheers bro :) At the same time, while all this sounds so promising, in my humble opinion, I would say this wouldn't apply to everyone. Whether you know it or not, Nathan seems to have a solid plan - 'This is what I should do. This is how I should do it. And this is how much what I do might generate.' I see a lot of people quitting their jobs just because it's become more of a cool factor now and most importantly because they think they could become like Nathan easily or rather quickly (like it's some get-rich-quick scheme). You should understand that Nathan has put in some significant, rock-solid hardwork (like developing his own apps, writing some quality books, etc.) into all this. If you just quit your job dreaming of cash flowing in the very next minute, that might not happen. FYI - I quit my day job too. I wrote some apps too, dreaming of becoming someone like Nathan someday. Here I am, commenting here on Nathan's success story instead. Life ain't that easy dudes :D

tinco 14y ago
It's still interesting though, what did you make? What was your plan, what failed? Did you after a few months decide to go back to work for someone again?
- neya 14y ago
  >What did you make? Built a dozen Web Products for clients. I thought I could sustain developing Products for others. But unfortunately, payment was the biggest factor. If I charged someone $10,000 totally for a finished product, I would have been paid something like just $2-3k. Of course, I could revoke the license to my product or disable the product itself, but that didn't work out. Simply because my clients were confused. They would let the product stay alive for a couple of weeks, without marketing it, expect it to convert well and become rich overnight. And when that didn't happen, they would kill it. They would stop paying for the AWS boxes and Linodes. There went all my hardwork down the drain. And since it didn't work well, I would be paid just a fraction of the project's total cost. It was unfair, but it was a very valuable lesson. Right now, I charge 50% upfront and then proceed working on the project with well-defined milestones. >What was your Plan? My plan was only one thing. (Not joking). I wanted to buy a BMW 320d after building a dozen profitable web apps. The problem was, there were a lot of weak spots in my plan. (read below) >What failed? Working space - I live in an apartment. I assumed I could save couple of hundred dollars by working from my apartment instead of a posh office. I learnt that this is the last place where you should work. There is no motivation within an apartment. You eventually become lazy because everything is easily available to you - TV, BED, Dining, etc. So you lose focus much easily. When I was working in a company before, I was much productive. I would come home very late and still make some significant progress w.r.t to my Web apps (the ones I build for myself, not for clients). When I quit work, I thought I could use all this time for myself. I was wrong. My productivity went down. Drastically. Team - I am a very fair person. I never like to live my life abusing someone else's hardwork. Because that's why MNC's exist (most of them). I hired some interns, they were really talented, but in the end, I didn't want them to work with me because I didn't want them to develop a web app in return for a couple of hundred dollars. Because that would be unfair. I tried seeking co-founders too, but the problem was I didn't like the idea of getting close to someone with a pre-determined self-benefit in mind. Because that would be a 'fake' relationship. Of course I did have some valuable friends who could have become great co-founders. Unfortunately, I figured out that they wouldn't be able to add value to my company (because I can code and design myself; I'm primarily a designer) and I shouldn't add anyone into the company for fuck's sake. Burning the cash - I invested a LOT of money into buying domains. The problem with me is that I come up with some really really good ideas (and names) for startups. I would evaluate the idea's potential and quickly buy a domain name for it(simply because it would be available at that point). I invested over $1000-2000 in just domains. I didn't feel the pinch when I invested the first year. But the next year, especially when I was bootstrapping, it became a burden when these domains auto-renewed. If you are seeking for a great start-up name or a domain for it, please, please let me know! Investors - Initially, I wanted to seek funding. I even applied to YC (and got rejected) as a single founder. But later, I was able to conclude that some (many) ideas don't require funding and can be monetized from day one. Hence I avoided a lot of investor meet-ups, camps, etc. and sat home working on my product (which is what I'm doing currently too). Because of this attitude, I'm forced to bootstrap. Bootstrapping teaches a lot of valuable lessons, but, you will feel much restricted without some 'cushion' cash with you. For example, if you thought a particular stockphoto would make your web app beautiful, but it costs $100, you would have to wait till you get a new client (which means you need to work on his product first, which will take more time to complete yours). I wasted a lot of time arguing myself going with Play/Scala instead of ROR simply because it would scale well. Heck, I even learnt Scala simply for this reason and in the end, I realized it wasn't worth it, simply because ROR helps me (in my case) getting my idea up and running in no time (which is VERY important) rather than learning something complex and building my product with half-baked code. I realized I'd rather do it in ROR and have it re-written when I need to scale, because I would have the money to do it by then, obviously. I also invested a lot in software at a very early stage. For example, I bought the Adobe Creative Production Premium 5.5 suite just for photoshop and After effects. While it's a really good bargain, I found myself short of cash in the following months. Of course I feel proud to own a legit copy of these softwares, but the compromise was painful in the sense that I had to work a lot to take back the money I invested in these softwares. >Did you after a few months decide to go back to work for someone again? Once you taste this kind of freedom, I think it's difficult to go back. I got offers from very prominent people, investors, MNC's to work on their ideas/products. But I simply refused because of my current lifestyle. In life, one thing I realized is that you should be the negotiator for your own life and not someone else. You should decide what you should do and how you should do to achieve what you want, and not someone else. Despite these people giving me good offers (monetary-wise too) I decided not to work with them simply because they had their own rules. When I build something, I want to be a decision maker - I don't want to be following orders, simply because I'm getting paid. Currently, I'm working on my own product and also I am a freelance consultant for several start-ups helping them develop their MVP's and helping them choose what works best. I still have a couple of debts (=credit card), but I'm confident I'll clear them in no time. It's never about the money, it's always about the happiness. I would like to remind everyone here of a beautiful quote - 'If you don't build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.'

mikeleeorg 14y ago

Clients being unable to pay has been frustrating and made me want to do less consulting... That’s why I love selling products, I get paid up front and don’t have to worry about collecting payments. This is exactly why I left the consulting biz too. I had a web development agency with a bunch of friends & ex-colleagues that was about to make $1M in profits after 3 years. That number would be much higher, had it not been for clients (mostly startups and small businesses) that weren't able to pay (so they claimed) or went out of business. This is despite collecting a deposit of 50% of the estimated costs up-front. Before we broke $1M, I saw a great opportunity to develop a product, so I shifted my focus and have been doing that ever since. Consulting is good for getting (relative) immediate cash up-front, while products can take a long time to begin earning that same amount of cash. However, if done well, products can scale and earn much more revenue in the long run. Nathan is definitely taking the right approach for an individual entrepreneur. He's diversifying his income (consulting, apps, books) while presumably moving his focus away from consulting as his income from apps and books increases. Good luck man!

nathanbarry 14y ago
I may take Brennan Dunn's (http://planscope.io http://planscope.io) approach of getting paid 100% up front. I still have a lot to learn doing consulting. Like you said, a balance of consulting and products is a good way to go.
- biscarch 14y ago
  Interesting link, I'm trying to diversify my income for the same reasons as above. What is your thought process for charging 100% up front if you don't mind me asking.
  - nathanbarry 14y ago
    So you don't have any accounts receivable. Then you never have to worry about a client not paying. That link isn't directly to where Brennan talks about it (maybe it was on a podcast?), but read his stuff and you will learn a lot. I know I have.

jongold 14y ago

Congrats Nathan - really appreciate the openness & honesty :)

juddlyon 14y ago

Congrats, succeeding on your own terms is what it's all about. Thank you for sharing your story, we need more of this and less of "hot new shiny mobile-social-blah raises 69 million, hires XYZ hotshot and fires ABC hotshot."

jjm 14y ago

I have to point out that most of his income came from the ebooks. His income from consulting and apps came in less than the job he left. Self help has always sold very well the last three decades. I 'believe' that many who come here and quit their day jobs are usually doing it for _startups_ and/or _app dreams_. Nathan is working hard, doing as many things possible. Not many people can do this (unless/until they reach some desperation factor which makes one realizes the need to _hustle_ and get stuff done). Bottom line, it's hard work and all sweat. Of course, knowing what industry sells and finding what niche your skills fit in work too.

ericcholis 14y ago
"doing as many things possible" That's my takeaway from this article, and your comment. Trying to go solo with only one source of revenue/income is foolish. Do as much as you can, as long as the return on investment is sound.
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  I wouldn't try to do as many things as possible. Work on one till it is making money (or needs to be shut down because it is failing) then move on to the next thing. Be careful not to spread yourself to thin. That said, get another income source (besides consulting) before you quit your job.
nathanbarry 14y ago
Before the eBooks I was on track to barely beat my previous year's salary (I probably would have hit $75,000). But I focused a ton of time on the books rather than consulting or promoting my apps, so that decreased the revenue from each of those. So keep in mind that some of the book revenue is in place of consulting revenue.
mzarate06 14y ago
Well said. I'm nowhere near the success level of Nathan, but do see each year's hard work translating into incremental increases in quality of life every year (I'm a self employed consultant). I lend an ear to freelancers and consultants quite a bit and a lot of the focus is on how hard they're having to work, and how surprising that is to them. The first thing I say is that yes, it's an incredible amount of work. You can ease the pain a bit here and there, but in general there are absolutely no short cuts. To "make it" being self employed, or selling products, or both, takes an incredible amount of desire and persistence. So much that you really have to enjoy the process, otherwise most quit before they reach any reward simply b/c it's too much work combined with too much risk.

lukethomas 14y ago

Love this article - your transparency is commendable. Thanks for sharing the numbers, it's something I wish more people did.

pebb 14y ago

Why do you have $4000 a month in expense in Idaho??? That's like bay area expense level and a sr. anything makes like 150k...

nathanbarry 14y ago
We travel quite a bit.

xmattus 14y ago

Thanks for sharing this, Nathan. I co-own a web development agency and share your consternation about accounts receivable. Our strategy has actually been to vet clients much more carefully and (as the agency has grown) to begin limiting the clients we take to larger, stable organizations where the accounting department and the product owner we're working are not the same person (so that a discussion about payment does not become a discussion about project status and vice versa). Overall, congratulations on your success.

toobulkeh 14y ago

Your great success is very encouraging! I'm not sure if I could write a book, but the results from consulting and programming are very impressive for a first attempt. I'm in the middle of making the jump myself, and am currently paying that $4000/mo for our family of two. Did you simply save up enough to live on that for a few months to make more of it? How did that work? Thanks for the inspiration and congratulations again on your successful year!

jamesjguthrie 14y ago

Good job Nathan, following the right path to being a successful solopreneur. Do you use a publisher for your books and/or do marketing yourself to sell them? Also, you should have visited Glasgow instead of Edinburgh, we are a much friendlier place :-P

nathanbarry 14y ago
All self published and marketed on my own. Next time I'll visit Glasgow. :)

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

philfreo 14y ago

I would love to hear about how you wrote / published the eBooks and launched and marketed them.

keithpeter 14y ago

"In May I made a commitment to write 1,000 words a day. [...] That slow, consistent progress is what allowed me to write two books, almost two dozen guest posts, and over thirty posts on this blog in the last year." Very well done that man. I was just wondering how many hours each day it took to crank out the thousand words? I'm assuming that research time was minimal as these appear to be howto books - the research was in launching two successful applications.

nathanbarry 14y ago
Anywhere from 20 minutes to 3 hours depending on how inspired I am.

JDSD 14y ago

Nathan, Great inspiration you are. I've read your thinktraffic posts and always enjoy. You have many great things to say. Concentrate has helped me save thousands of hours. http://www.getconcentrating.com/ http://www.getconcentrating.com/ Keep up the hard work, and stay writing.

asc76 14y ago

Congrats, brotha!

oceanician 14y ago

Would be great to hear more less successful stories i.e. first freelance making less than the previous job. It's tricky - and my first year isn't over yet, but not living in a concentrated tech city has made it difficult. Have been considering moving to a bigger city. I prefer working in teams, which is also an issue as most freelancers seem to prefer to work solo.

pnathan 14y ago

What do you do for health insurance? I'd love to be self-employed, but I have to take care of health expenses for my family, and they require health insurance.

nathanbarry 14y ago
I have a high deductible plan for $280/month. I live in an inexpensive area (Boise, Idaho) and my wife and I are both young (22) so it is cheap. We also keep at least $5k in a medical savings account.
patdennis 14y ago
Here's an interesting article about how one family deals with the issue: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/11/01/our-new-237-per-month-health-insurance-plan/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/11/01/our-new-237-per-mo...
tellarin 14y ago
This is one of the reasons why I'm an advocate of good public universal health care. Too bad it's not available everywhere. But this is a discussion for another thread/post.

sproketboy 14y ago

Reality: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chicago_Hobo.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chicago_Hobo.jpg

bvi 14y ago

Nathan, congrats. You seem incredibly focused (even though you said that focus was an issue). What is your workflow process like? In other words, how do you seem to get so much done? :)

qeorge 14y ago

Checking email, Twitter, and Facebook on my phone has also been a constant interruption of time spent with family. I think this is the biggest issue I need to deal with in 2013. Man, do I ever sympathize. I was finding myself standing in groups of friends, outside on beautiful sunny days, and we'd all have our phones out looking at Facebook and commenting (out loud) on people's statuses (and the comment is always the same - "yeah, I saw that"). Its so lame! For me the answer was really easy - just uninstall the app from your phone. You don't have to do anything drastic like quit FB, just uninstall the app from your phone and stop letting it fill up every free moment you have. Do it now, before you do anything else. It will take 30 seconds and could change your life. Uninstall the FB app.

nathanbarry 14y ago
"Do it now, before you do anything else. It will take 30 seconds and could change your life. Uninstall the FB app." That's actually what I really needed right now. Both Twitter and Facebook are now gone from my phone. Thank you!
- c141charlie 14y ago
  Facebook. Twitter. Uninstalled. What about a moratorium on Hacker News? Personally, I could have launched several apps with the time I've spent reading Hacker News. However, I get a lot out of HN ... Damn ...
  - mej10 14y ago
    I am a bit late to this thread, so you may not see my response. Regardless... I have wondered about this as well. I am considering two strategies: 1) Stop checking HN at all, and subscribe to Hacker Monthly (http://hackermonthly.com/ http://hackermonthly.com/), which is the best articles of the month in a nice format. 2) Schedule a time to check it once a week, and only look at the list of posts with over 200 points. http://news.ycombinator.com/over?points=200 http://news.ycombinator.com/over?points=200 We have to stop spending time on these sites, even when it seems valuable. Nothing is as valuable as actually building something and interacting with users.

mcdowall 14y ago

Congratulations, I've read your other posts and always impressed by your concise way of describing the processes you are undertaking. One thing troubles me though, why did you goto Swansea on your UK trip of all places!?

nathanbarry 14y ago
A friend grew up there. Also, have you been to the Gower Peninsula? It's beatiful!
- mcdowall 14y ago
  I was born in Cardiff but strangely never been to Swansea, currently consigned to the grey skies of London though!

kelechi 14y ago

You have inspired me to start writing 1000 words per day. While I'm typically satisfied with my finished written product, the process of writing usually isn't enjoyable for me. Hopefully, I will find a love for the craft of writing with this challenge. Thanks for sharing!

thirdtruck 14y ago
Do you write and edit at the same time? I found that separating the two tasks made it much less painful.
- kelechi 14y ago
  Not a bad suggestion! I'll give it a try.
  - thirdtruck 14y ago
    Thanks! Let us know how it goes.
- chj 14y ago
  +1 I always have the same feeling.

ww520 14y ago

Great work landing on your feet and got it going great. It's very impressive to do it for the first year, even more so for doubling over your old salary in the first year. Keep it up.

31reasons 14y ago

At the age of 22 if he can manage to do all of this (including great looking family). I am in awe. This man is definitely gifted.

ashray 14y ago

Hi Nathan, Congrats on the amazing achievement. Being in a similar situation as you, I'm curious as to how you and your wife divide finances. What does she do? I am mobile and me and my fiancé want to travel long term but I'm wondering on how to handle the money issue because she can't have a job on the go, and I don't mind bearing the expenses but are there any pro tips that can help me avoid money issues? Like could we work on a plan for her to help with my apps, etc. ? How do you guys do it ? Great family btw :)

swastik 14y ago

Congratulations! Not only are those excellent numbers but the fact that you were able to do more of what you wanted to is wonderful. Quitting a job isn't for everyone — no matter what anyone says, it requires tremendous discipline and focus so props to you for pulling it off. The key thing you are doing here, something that will hold you in good stead in the future, too, is the diversification of income sources. Once again, congratulations!

chj 14y ago

Congratulations! Being solo myself, I find that your posts are all very inspiring, although my story has been much less successful.

kylegillen 14y ago

Congratulations Nathan. I've been a customer since 'The App Design Handbook' - and have never had an ounce of buyers remorse. I wish you all the best going forward. I do have one question regarding consultancy though - how did you crack this one? How did you make the transition from web designer to consulting for clients and what does 'consulting' entail? (thanks to Swannie for providing a nice outline initially) Thanks again for the transparency and inspiration Nathan.