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Ask HN: Getting depressed about money. How do I make a meaningful amount “fast”?

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Re: Ask HN: Getting depressed about money. How do I make a meaningful amount “fast”?

#51

Wishing to get rich quick is often a quick way to get poor. Also, it's near-impossible to give more helpful advice without more details (e.g. expertise, risk appetite, free time, moral compass). But: 1. Learn whatever it takes to work in the high-stakes financial world 2. Buy an existing blog, product, plugin, and grow it fast 3. Spend less

For #1, can you provide any concrete info? What skills, where to get them, how to start getting into that type of work, what does it pay and how, etc.

For #2, again, any specific advice? Are blogs still a profitable thing? What platform do you use to buy/sell blogs and/or plugins?

For #3, yeah already working on that one. Pandemic doesn't help with that.

Re: Ask HN: Getting depressed about money. How do I make a meaningful amount “fast”?

#52
post #11

Based off your description, I would say the most pragmatic way to secure a slice of that pie and retire early would be to take up the Leetcode grind. I was blessed to be in a position where I was able to spend nearly the entirety of my quarantine free time practicing Leetcode. Last week I signed an offer with an American FAANG level company and more than doubled my final TC. I realize this is a highly anecdotal, unus…

LeetCode looks like a bootcamp/school for software development. I don't feel like that's where my weakness lies. I am a productive software developer and am up to date on most of the latest tech. Teaching for something like that would probably be more my speed. Also, where I live there are no FAANG companies and relocation is not an option. I work from home and unless there is a local software company that is hiring,…

I think OP was referring to practicing for silly leetcode style interviews that FAANG companies are known for with the ultimate goal of getting a position at a FAANG (or in that ballpark) company and seeing your TC (I assume total compensation) double.

When Amazon was teasing numerous cities for their HQ2 I researched the stock options and if you can weather the rat race of working there for a few years, they would be a legit slice of the pie. Probably why OP was referring to total compensation, your take home pay might be about the same but the stock would surpass that when it vests, assuming it doesn't tank.

Re: Ask HN: Getting depressed about money. How do I make a meaningful amount “fast”?

#53

You can work to increase your income by working towards a promotion or finding a new job. The other option is to reduce your outgoings. Who are you supporting and why are you supporting them? Why are you stuck living in a VHCOL?

I am pretty much as high up in my company as I can be without being an owner. We don't use these terms, but effectively I am occupying the role of the CTO.

With the current pandemic I am doing very little going out. That doesn't mean my expenses are better off though. I am directly supporting two kids and my life partner who works but her career is very low paying. She takes care of most of her expenses but housing is on me. I indirectly support two other people because I care about them and their well being. I am stuck living where I am because I am divorced and my ex won't move. If I move I don't get to see my children, which isn't an option for me.

Re: Ask HN: Getting depressed about money. How do I make a meaningful amount “fast”?

#54

Understand that pursuit of this as a priority will likely have a negative impact to other area's in your life. If someone is 100% career focused, there will be personal and family implications. Working and thinking about work all the time is not healthy. Burnout is real, and the impacts to your dependants can be massive. Whatever direction you go, try to find balance. Good luck.

Balance is important. This is why I'm not willing to sacrifice my family, but I am willing to work differently or in a different field. I am old enough to know what balance feels like to me and am always looking to make sure it's maintained.

Re: Ask HN: Getting depressed about money. How do I make a meaningful amount “fast”?

#55

How old are you? Do you have a lazy stock portfolio? It's the first thing everyone should be starting at 18. Parents should be setting it up the day you are born. Investing gradually you would have enough money to not worry. Saving with compounding is the best way for the general public.

Mid 30s. I have a small but slowly growing stock portfolio. If I keep going the way I am, in 5 years I might be able to buy a Model 3 with its worth. My family growing up invested in my education, not in a stock portfolio, so what I have is skills, not cash.

Re: Ask HN: Getting depressed about money. How do I make a meaningful amount “fast”?

#56
If you want to become a millionaire some day, then you're already on that path as a software developer. You can get top dollar by working for FAANG and working your way up the levels.fyi. That's probably the peak you can get by working for someone else.

If you want to make it to become a billionaire, then the only way is to not work for someone else, to become the boss (owner). Which means, taking a huge risk in starting your own company and working until it becomes big. You can try to become huge quickly, as a startup unicorn (which then will take many tries till you succeed) or go for a more traditional business and continuously build it over a long period of time.

If you want to go somewhere in the middle and make tens of millions, maybe hundreds, then you can switch from the software developer track to the CEO track (note that i didn't say middle-manager track). In that case, you essentially prove that you can basically be a mini-CEO, but within the confines of a very large company, by heading up a department. Then you keep on doing this with larger and larger departments, until at the end you're the CEO of the company. And then from there you leap frog from company to company, being CEO of larger and larger companies. Of course, it's often very difficult to get to those chances within a company, so succeeding as the CEO of a startup and then getting acquired (and becoming the mini-CEO of your newly formed department) is kind a way to jump onto that track from the outside.

Or, you could try switching tracks and going into finance. There, starting as an employee, there's a more clear path to make your way up the chain to partner. And since your salary is more along the lines of a percentage of revenue, as opposed to a flat salary, there's an order of magnitude more potential than as an engineer employee.

Re: Ask HN: Getting depressed about money. How do I make a meaningful amount “fast”?

#57
post #38
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but not focusing on money is how you end up building a business that sells dollar bills for $0.90. A few "for fun" startups have blown up in the past (Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube), but the reason majority fail is lack of business plan for how to actually monetize what they are working on. I don't consider focus on sustainability for a business to be a bad thing, though if a VC handed me $10m to spend trying to…

I think you should read The Black Swan. FAANG type companies are rare events. Nobody can plan a Unicorn company. They just happens. Look at the list of dead products that Google/Facebook creates every year. Even managers at FAANG don't know what is going to work. You can focus on creating sustainable small software business. I don't know if you have read "Start small, Stay small" by Rob Wallings. It talks about creat…

I haven't seen that particular book and will give it a read, but I have attempted about a dozen lifestyle SaaS businesses. All went best like I was selling peanuts at an allergy sufferers' convention. I am always looking for more opportunities for something like this, but nothing so far has had the right overlap of profitable/my area of expertise/not requiring a stupidly high upfront investment.

Re: Ask HN: Getting depressed about money. How do I make a meaningful amount “fast”?

#58
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LeetCode looks like a bootcamp/school for software development. I don't feel like that's where my weakness lies. I am a productive software developer and am up to date on most of the latest tech. Teaching for something like that would probably be more my speed. Also, where I live there are no FAANG companies and relocation is not an option. I work from home and unless there is a local software company that is hiring,…

Don't get discouraged. I found a good 100% remote role through HN by posting and reading monthly "who's hiring" and "who wants to get hired" threads. Unfortunately we don't have open heads right now.

Yup, I've had good luck with those in the past. Main problem: I am not making way below my market salary. I might be maybe $20k lower than average due to some job perks, but just switching from small software company A to small software company B won't make me a ton more money. Equity in a hot startup might, so I guess I'll be on the lookout.

Re: Ask HN: Getting depressed about money. How do I make a meaningful amount “fast”?

#59

A thread like this is not likely to help much. Think of it this way, how many of the people getting "stupid rich" do you think would credit their success to starting a thread asking other people how to get rich? Some valuable pieces of advice I've heard: 1) Owning your work is important. 2) Because few people succeed the very first time, waiting for The Good Idea (TM) to come to you before getting started is foolish.…

It's possible I also just needed to rant about how tired I am of the rat race. You are right of course (though I might not 100% agree on your point #3; valuable connections often come out of spreading the word about your project and my motivation usually increases afterwards).

Re: Ask HN: Getting depressed about money. How do I make a meaningful amount “fast”?

#60

If you want to become a millionaire some day, then you're already on that path as a software developer. You can get top dollar by working for FAANG and working your way up the levels.fyi. That's probably the peak you can get by working for someone else. If you want to make it to become a billionaire, then the only way is to not work for someone else, to become the boss (owner). Which means, taking a huge risk in star…

Wow, this is one of the most helpful comments here. If I can ask for some details:

The CEO track sounds nice. I've done the middle management stuff before and was quite successful at it. In my last job I was heading up the software team for a software/hardware startup, as well as taking on partial management of the support team and the data entry team. I have been C-level at two companies but both were early stage when they went belly up so this is more a bullet point on a resume than something I can point to and say "look there it is". Currently I work for a small enough company that there isn't any more upwards mobility here. I am basically working as an individual contributor directly with clients. The projects are boring but the pay is good and the people I work with are excellent. How would you suggest making a leap from here to something bigger? I live in an area with lots of banks and insurance companies, but not much in the tech world.

On the finance side, again, how do you go about this? What kind of companies do you suggest and what jobs in them? Are hedge funds a good idea? Or do I need to commute to something like NYC and apply for something with a large investor? What qualifications should I focus on before jumping into this? Is mostly reliant on knowing the right people? Is it about technical knowledge of the subject? Or is it about impressing the right interviewer?

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