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Wow, $4m is what you'd need to keep your standard of living? My father and I always said $2m is the magic number. We also assume you can pull 5% APR, which se
by bkrausz 17y ago
Wow, $4m is what you'd need to keep your standard of living? My father and I always said $2m is the magic number. We also assume you can pull 5% APR, which seams realistic but I honestly don't know for sure.
- jhancock 17y ago5% may not be that realistic these days when you have to hedge for inflation as well.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- nostrademons 17y agoSo did we, in the U.S, but we also had interest rates that are about as close to zero as you can get. Interest rates now are going up, but so are inflation expectations. And I'd bet that inflation will go up faster than interest rates, which sucks for debtholders.
- vaksel 17y agoThe whole point of doing the startup is to achieve something you wouldn't have had by working for someone else. $2 million at 5% = $100,000/yr. You can achieve that by simply working as a programmer for someone else. Without making any of the sacrifices it takes do a startup. If I'm going to sacrifice my youth(20s-30s) doing the startup, it better be for a big enough payoff to make it worth my while.
- ajross 17y agoI think you're missing an important point. In order to make that $100k by working, you have to, y'know, work. While the $2M doesn't buy you any more "stuff" than your job, it gives you the freedom to do what you want. I'd consider that a cruicialy important "quality of life" metric, no?
- nostrademons 17y agoDoesn't everybody sacrifice their youth though? I'm trying to think of what my friends are doing that's more interesting than a startup, and I can't really think of anything. Grad school. Law school. A second bachelor's, because the first was in something unemployable. Unemployment. Living at home with parents and working at a coffee shop, or as a dog-walker. Spending 5 full days/week working for a big corporation, with the commute not allowing any extra time during the day - well, at least they get weekends. I can really only think of a couple people doing interesting stuff. One spent 6 months on a boat in an Alaska working as a salmon fisher. Another is on a boat in the South Pacific as part of a grad program in geology in Chile. A third is in the Peace Corps. All of those have downsides (eg. salmon fishing is incredibly physically demanding and stinks, literally, and the girl in the Peace Corps gets sexually harassed wherever she goes). And in all cases, it's at the cost of not being able to build up any savings at all.
- dpcan 17y agoHow do you figure that spending a 9 to 5 day working for someone else through your 20's and 30's NOT a total waste of your youth? I jumped the 9 to 5 ship at 23 and never looked back. Your world-view is absolutely baffling to me.
- foldr 17y agoDepends what you do outside of your job. There is more to your life than your work. Some people may have important aspects of their life (e.g. families, friends) which don't fit together well with a start-up.
- bjelkeman-again 17y agoSacrifice your youth? Heck, starting companies is the best, most interesting thing I have ever done. If it is a sacrifice I think you are in the wrong company/business. I have not had any major payoff from the companies which I have started, but neither have I suffered. They key thing I have achieved is that I can essentially work on anything I want now, not because I am independently wealthy, but because I am recognised for what I do and can pick what I want to do. You can find freedom in more than large piles of money.