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Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

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Re: Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

#41

Post by deanmoriarty »

rory_isAdonk wrote: post #40
deanmoriarty wrote: post #24

35. $3.5M liquid and $4M illiquid pre IPO stock from a previous employer. Started from $0 and got it by working in tech/finance as a software engineer and investing in VTSAX.

how does anyone get that much pre IPO stock? were you ever working as a director or VP?

Joined as senior software engineer when the company was under 10 employees and got about 1% (took almost no salary). To be fair I did a massive amount of contributions, so the company got a really good deal in my opinion. I was paid $60k a year for a while, when my market rate could have been easily $300k. I shaped the product and execution in a much more significant way than the founders. These guys are now sitting on mid 9 figures, crazy.

Stayed with that employer for the entire grant and left after about 5 years. The company today is worth a few billion dollars, and that value is based on the latest preferred share price, so obviously it assumes everything goes well and it will sell high enough that the liquidation preferences won’t be exercised and everything will convert to common. It could easily still all go to $0, I don’t count on it much.

The liquid portfolio is instead through boring saving, investing and fairly frugal lifestyle.

Re: Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

#42

Post by culopatin »

Wow everyone that’s posted has some very unique situation going on. Only a few are the normal grind.

Late 20s, about 90k NW. 7 years ago I had about $70 of my own. About 50k of that is my 401k. 5 figure salary in IT but great benefits +pension. However I think I’d kill myself staying here so I might not get to enjoy that.

I plan to retire in South America or Eastern Europe since their food and culture match what I like the most. The US is definitely not the place to retire for me.

I rent, I have a dog, a girlfriend in grad school and I race cars. I build everything myself so the most I’ve spent in one shot is 2K in a turbo and 600 on a welder. Overall I’d say I spent 10k on the car, so not bad (trying to justify myself lol).

I think I’m pretty frugal but I end up spending money on a lot of little things for racing and such. But I don’t have an 80in tv or the latest MacBook. I run Mac on a $300 Thinkpad X1. We cook every night and we buy at Costco or Aldi. We lowered our beef consumption and we drink Kirkland Malbec for $7 (but to me it’s on par with a $20 wine).

Anyway, that’s how I’ve been doing it, low risk, low return, no gifts, no inheritance, no company stock.

Re: Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

#43

Post by retirementhway »

throw_this_one wrote: post #34
retirementhway wrote: post #25

24 years old, NW is ~300K. That's about 30k in cash, 200k invested into VTI and VT, and 70k in 401k. I achieved this by becoming a FAANG software engineer right out of college. By my projections, and assuming no major world events occur to knock my plans off course, I should be a millionaire by 28/29 and will be able to retire by my mid/late 30s. However, the more and more I work, the more I realize that I really enj…

What do you like about what you do? The problem/puzzle solving aspect? Most jobs at a faang are just building some internal tool or something right.

I was somewhat lucky to land on a user facing product team in an important area. But overall I just like computers, I like talking about them, and I like working towards goals with people. My upbringing was also the opposite of techy, so being in a tech-focused environment is honestly like a breath of fresh air. The financial benefit just makes it that much more addictive.

Of course, I am still entry level and my job will shift as I age, so take it all with a grain of salt.

Re: Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

#45

Post by xpWr7r1ZeX »

Early 40s - dual income household with 2 kids - $3.5M-$4M USD living in an urban suburb. includes investments, house (paid off) and retirement - Started as a software engineer and slowly moved up seniority - no crazy high salaries, no Faang, no startup equity, cash outs or anything like that. Significant Other does not work in tech and has slowly moved up the ladder job wise as well.

In our 30's we made sure to live a comfortable lifestyle and not work like crazy. In general, we have always spent less that others who make the same, and save / invest pragmatically IMO.

Presently, while we do have periods of hard work, we believe in enjoying life as you go vs. waiting to retire - we take time off often and make sure we spend quality time together and with family / siblings / parents.

Who knows how long we'll be around and who knows how long kids, siblings and parents will be around - and from experience and observation, you never know when personal tragedy may strike.

Re: Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

#46

Post by VirusNewbie »

throw_this_one wrote: post #33
admissionsguy wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does seem appealing to compress it into a few years, doesn't it. But I don't think it works for me at this point. First, the math. I believe 20k gross is ~10k after tax where I live. My absolute minimum acceptable lifestyle costs 30k/year. Which leaves the possibility of saving 90k/year. So I get three free years for every year worked. Brings to mind the Ciolkowski equation. Three years for every year worked, negl…

Yeah seriously, who wants to "travel the world" in your 60s lol.

Dude if you sacrifice two years in your twenties to bank ~300k you can have plenty of time to travel the world while you're young and single or dating someone and live it up.

There's a huge difference between 'sacrificing' a few years if you can milk a decent gig when you're young and throwing way decades of your life being miserable.

Re: Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

#47

Post by throw_this_one »

VirusNewbie wrote: post #46
throw_this_one wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah seriously, who wants to "travel the world" in your 60s lol.

Dude if you sacrifice two years in your twenties to bank ~300k you can have plenty of time to travel the world while you're young and single or dating someone and live it up. There's a huge difference between 'sacrificing' a few years if you can milk a decent gig when you're young and throwing way decades of your life being miserable.

But 2 years to save 300k means you gotta have a top tier faang job doe right?
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