4 ms·

"After a couple years of work, I was bringing in 20k a month... It lasted for 7 years before it hit the bottom... At that point I was burnt out and was running

"After a couple years of work, I was bringing in 20k a month... It lasted for 7 years before it hit the bottom... At that point I was burnt out and was running low on savings." $20,000 * 12 * 7 = $1,680,000 I wonder what he was buying that made him run out of cash so quick!

soneca 13y ago
20k is likely the peak. "a couple years", I would say is equal 1 year with a income of hundreds and 1 year with a income of ~5k. Then, it goes for 2 years at the peak, and then 3 years of slow death, probably a whole last year with close to zero income. so, 12500 + 125,000 + 2420,000 + 1210,000 + 125,000 + 12500 = $760,000 in 7 years =~ $110,000/year. Not a millionaire.
bzbarsky 13y ago
1) Federal income tax on $240k income as an unmarried taxpayer would be about $63k today. A good bit higher back then because the tax bracket boundaries were higher. 2) CA income tax (note that he was in CA) on $240k income as an unmarried taxpayer is about $20k. I suspect it wasn't much lower back then, if lower at all. I'm assuming "unmarried" given the "girls" in the description of the lifestyle. So as a start the after-tax number is closer to $157k * 7 = $1,099,000. Then you have housing: a "beautiful apartment" in Santa Monica. http://www.trulia.com/for_rent/Santa_Monica,CA/1-2_beds/APARTMENT_type/ http://www.trulia.com/for_rent/Santa_Monica,CA/1-2_beds/APAR... suggests that will probabably run you $3k/month at the low end of the scale for a nice place, and as high as $16k/month if you go for luxury. Figure $252k if it was a cheap nice apartment. The "nice car" mentioned was presumably at least 2, over the course of 7 years, and presumably cost $50k or more each. Assuming he didn't do much cooking and just ate out all the time, and didn't worry too much about the cost but also didn't go looking for expensive, figure another $20k/year or so ($50 per day is a pretty typical per diem for a highish-cost-of-living area like that). So that's another $140k. That still leaves about $600k to spend on various other things, of course. But notice that I low-balled both the taxes (e.g he had another $100-120k of FICA over 7 years, given that he was self-employed) and the rent, and I suspect the cars, and that it's pretty easy to spend a lot of money on some of the other things on his list. Oh, and he might have bought health insurance too; that would run him somewhere between $20k and $100k over 7 years, depending on what he bought... Once you get serious about not watching how you spend money, it's pretty easy to spend a lot of it quickly. :(
ZiadHilal 13y ago
$4,300 apartment lease. $1,000 car lease ($700 lease + $300 car insurance). Huge sum spent on high end restaurants. Taxes Also ended up hiring a few contract workers to take care of misc work such as customer support. $20k was at the peak. $14k was average.
- bzbarsky 13y ago
  Ah, so I low-balled the apartment indeed, but was high on the car and probably somewhat low on the food. ;)

soneca 13y ago

20k is likely the peak. "a couple years", I would say is equal 1 year with a income of hundreds and 1 year with a income of ~5k. Then, it goes for 2 years at the peak, and then 3 years of slow death, probably a whole last year with close to zero income. so, 12500 + 125,000 + 2420,000 + 1210,000 + 125,000 + 12500 = $760,000 in 7 years =~ $110,000/year. Not a millionaire.

bzbarsky 13y ago

1) Federal income tax on $240k income as an unmarried taxpayer would be about $63k today. A good bit higher back then because the tax bracket boundaries were higher. 2) CA income tax (note that he was in CA) on $240k income as an unmarried taxpayer is about $20k. I suspect it wasn't much lower back then, if lower at all. I'm assuming "unmarried" given the "girls" in the description of the lifestyle. So as a start the after-tax number is closer to $157k * 7 = $1,099,000. Then you have housing: a "beautiful apartment" in Santa Monica. http://www.trulia.com/for_rent/Santa_Monica,CA/1-2_beds/APARTMENT_type/ http://www.trulia.com/for_rent/Santa_Monica,CA/1-2_beds/APAR... suggests that will probabably run you $3k/month at the low end of the scale for a nice place, and as high as $16k/month if you go for luxury. Figure $252k if it was a cheap nice apartment. The "nice car" mentioned was presumably at least 2, over the course of 7 years, and presumably cost $50k or more each. Assuming he didn't do much cooking and just ate out all the time, and didn't worry too much about the cost but also didn't go looking for expensive, figure another $20k/year or so ($50 per day is a pretty typical per diem for a highish-cost-of-living area like that). So that's another $140k. That still leaves about $600k to spend on various other things, of course. But notice that I low-balled both the taxes (e.g he had another $100-120k of FICA over 7 years, given that he was self-employed) and the rent, and I suspect the cars, and that it's pretty easy to spend a lot of money on some of the other things on his list. Oh, and he might have bought health insurance too; that would run him somewhere between $20k and $100k over 7 years, depending on what he bought... Once you get serious about not watching how you spend money, it's pretty easy to spend a lot of it quickly. :(

ZiadHilal 13y ago

$4,300 apartment lease. $1,000 car lease ($700 lease + $300 car insurance). Huge sum spent on high end restaurants. Taxes Also ended up hiring a few contract workers to take care of misc work such as customer support. $20k was at the peak. $14k was average.

bzbarsky 13y ago
Ah, so I low-balled the apartment indeed, but was high on the car and probably somewhat low on the food. ;)