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Ask HN: How Did You Escape 9 to 5?

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Re: Ask HN: How Did You Escape 9 to 5?

#151

Post by adamcharnock »

williamle8300 wrote: post #133
adamcharnock wrote: post #62

Put simply: Being in control of my own time, day rate, and outgoings. I grew up in a very entrepreneurial environment, so after university I took a full-time job for 12 months (as a junior dev) then went freelance. I started cheap and upped my rate by £50 for every new project I took. During the 10 years I've been freelancing I also came up with my quality of life ratio, which is: How long does it take me to earn a m…

You don't happen to be related to Stephen Charnock the puritan minister of London are you (b.1628-d.1680)? He's one of my spiritual mentors I look up to. That communal warehouse community sounds cool! What's the name of that place? I sometimes think about finding a place like that to do work in, but we don't have anything like that in Southern California where I'm from.

Ha, quite possibly. We have an interesting family history, but it all went wrong sometime around the War of the Roses. I think we picked the loosing side.

I probably shouldn't mention the name of the warehouse on a public forum. Happy to talk about what makes it work though (tl;dr: A varied range emotionally mature people!).

Re: Ask HN: How Did You Escape 9 to 5?

#152

Post by jtrtoo »

Negative1 wrote: post #88
codegeek wrote: post #2

My story. I worked my ass off for 10+ years, saved a little bit of extra cash after paying off most loans and then bought an online business that I was interested in. I tried doing both for 2 months in parallel. One day I woke up and said "F*k this. I am done. Gotta quit". I then went to my boss and gave him the notice. I did calculate my risks as the business was just bringing in enough to keep me floating (with 2 k…

I've heard Health Insurance is pretty expensive if you are self-employed. How did you deal with that? Is your wife also employed in which case you are just able to share hers?

Not OP but self-employed going on a decade. Have high-deductible (intentionally) insurance covering myself and wife along with tax deferred Health Savings Accounts. In our mid-30s. Insurance runs $400/month and gets a tax deduction. Covered at 70% for just about any procedure/medicine. Not sure of what's typical. We have this done pre-Obamacare (grandfathered plan), but prior checks show within ballpark if not grandfathered (assuming HDP/HSA that is).

Re: Ask HN: How Did You Escape 9 to 5?

#155

Post by jtrtoo »

grahamburger wrote: post #117
jeffwilder wrote: post #9

I left my cushy job two months ago. For years I tried to build various products (SaaS) on the side to facilitate the move. I was never able to get enough traction mostly because I wasn't able to devote enough time. I realized that I'd be never really be free unless I took a leap. I'm launching my first official product in Sept. and have been consulting to pay the bills. The consulting has been good...perhaps a little…

Wow that sounds familiar. I'm consulting and trying to launch a product in October, while realizing I've kind of stumbled in to my own little software consultancy. I just had to hire a guy to keep up with the consulting load, and I've raised my rates a few times.

How's that (the hiring) going? Are you subcontracting?

Re: Ask HN: How Did You Escape 9 to 5?

#156

Post by Bakary »

FilterSweep wrote: post #110
hnjm0101 wrote: post #99

Curious why people here hate 9 - 5 so much. I can understand starting a business if you have an idea you're passionate about and you're confident you can make you more money than you can make working for someone else. But most software development jobs actually allow you to have a lot of autonomy (flexible hours, work remotely, etc), a place to socialize with people who are likely going to have a lot in common with y…

Well here's why...... The benefits you listed, "flexible hours, work remotely, etc" Are, indeed, nice, but they are actually far more rare than you'd expect. Many places still require 100% "facetime" despite being able to commit & deploy code and take calls remotely, and some that don't require "100%" still will hem and haw over days that you are not in the office. Not everyone is sitting in an (over)funded startup w…

I am not familiar with the industry at all, but my understanding was that there weren't enough programmers to fill the demand. So it turns out to be the exact opposite?

Re: Ask HN: How Did You Escape 9 to 5?

#157

Post by Bakary »

adamzerner wrote: post #114

I worked for about a year and a half after college and then quit to do my own thing (autodidacting -> startup). At each job I was frugal and saved over half the money I earned. I also accumulated money by working small jobs in high school and college, and some from my grandparents. It I'm frugal, the money I saved should last at least 5 years or so. While working my full time jobs I spent as much time as possible imp…

What is Sucker Culture?

Re: Ask HN: How Did You Escape 9 to 5?

#158

Post by Zelmor »

codegeek wrote: post #66
sliverstorm wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does wife like it now? Is she happier despite the income disparity, or has it been a permanent sacrifice she has made for your happiness?

It is mixed feelings. She is happy that we are now close to the income we wanted even though progress has been slower than expected. Every once in a while, she does question if I did the right thing. Mind you though. Our expenses were very high when I quit. We got accustomed to a certain lifestyle back then and never had to think too much about money. That has changed but it does not mean we are poor. She is practica…

I am preparing myself for a deflation of lifestyles as well. Once my loans are completely paid, my basic needs (food, shelter and related, public transport and internet access) will be covered by 40% of my income. The rest, currently, is spent on accelerating payment towards loans from friends and establishments. Will be done in 3 more months at most, which feels great. Though my closet could do a bit of a refreshment, I have put together an inventory which I will tick off and be done with it for the next couple years. My early next year, 45-50% of income should be able to go to savings.

What I have found most useful is to create a list of NEEDS and WANTS. Need is what is essential to your mental well-being. Clothes, good quality coffee (though this is a luxury for most, i count it as food and do not cheap out on it. I just don't like bad quality food nor coffee), shelter, a basic telecommunication device.

Wants are stuff like a certain kind of telephone beyond the basics, a certain kind of earphones, -sunglasses, -mechanical keyboards, etc. You see the sentiment.

Make an inventory of what you actually need, and what you desire. Then temper your desire. Sure, I do spend money on this or that once every little while, but that is a treat and a gift now, not the baseline.

Re: Ask HN: How Did You Escape 9 to 5?

#159

Post by [deleted] »

milesvp wrote: post #130
tommymachine wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually just quit a factory job to start software dev. The conditions and pay were terrible at my factory gig so I started learning to code in my spare time. Probably few people on this forum would be connected with people who recently have worked in factories. But those jobs do exist, and man do they SUCK! Especially when the people in software aren't developing products for you because they have never met you, i…

It's always interesting to hear another person talk about this. I've seen an article or two talking about how under served the working class is in regards to software. Makes me wonder how much of it is economic, and how much of it is social.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How Did You Escape 9 to 5?

#160

Post by martin_a »

jimmydddd wrote: post #146
codegeek wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did buy obamacare for a year or so but now my wife works and we use her health insurance. I will be in deep shit if I have to buy out of own pocket (family of 4). So yes, that helps a lot as well.

Yes. This is common (in the US) for solo business people with families. When I talk to self-employed people, few want to discuss health insurance. The topic seems to be taboo. Maybe some are going without insurance? Obamacare does not address the issues of a solo business owner. As far as friends who run solo businesses, those who would discuss the topic all said that they had their wives get random corporate jobs (e…

Germany calling in. ;-)

This is a big business stopper in Germany, too.

Health insurance is a must here and can easily add up to 500 Euro or sth. like that per month when you got a wife (not working full time) and children.

So getting ramen profitable is possibly much harder.

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