The answer is simple. Id quit tech and become a yoga instructor.
Id hike and travel in-between gigs.
Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
81–90 of 104 posts
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#82Not an easy question to answer. On one hand I really like my job and get treated well and like being part of something bigger than myself. On the other hand it would be attractive to spend more time working on some ideas I have.
Stub
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broodfonds
Note that they go a bit above the "middle" Dunbar number..
(Has to be revamped^W tweaked for various contexts obv (mortgage, inflation, kids, etc))
In your case tho it's bit of a "regret insurance", or "cache insurance" (using your terminology perhaps)
Tho as PG would discover, the premium isn't denoted in (the usual sorts of enviable) wealth..
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#83Probably not. I love what I do, I get to work in games and it's so much fun. But at the end of the day I still have a issue, in trading my time for money, and there's a lot of stuff I'd rather be doing. Spending more time outside, exercising, reading, cooking, being with my family. Work is... Just work.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#84To my current job? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Working on passion-projects? Until the day I die.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#85Funny cause I'm pondering this question right now. While I don't have $10M, I have around a quarter of that and by my calculations it should cover my expenses indefinitely, but who knows in this strange climate.
For me, fulfillment comes from two things: seeing people finding use in the things I build and the craft itself. A job can help with the former, but it definitely doesn't help with the latter.
At my current job politics and "process" often take priority over the software engineering part. The advent of AI isn't making things better, some people are cranking out buggy slop at speed and there's no room for pushback with ever more ambitious deadlines.
I'd rather just work on my own passion projects, maybe contribute back open source that have brought me a lot of utility over the years.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#86I would, but for a different job just for sustenance. I don’t love my job, but it isn’t a total grind either. I’m working because it pays. I live in a developing country and would use a good chunk of the $10 million (if I had it) to get out to, preferably, an English speaking developed country (it’s not as easy even then). Nevertheless, I think this could be a life changing amount (positive or negative) for most people around the world.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#87I would still do a job, but it would be something that is important to me. And $10M would require some up-front management and ongoing maintenance to develop an index-tracked revenue stream from it. I mean, aside from an initial disbursement meant to wipe out harmful debts and get a few small toys, the vast majority of that $10M would go towards being productive revenue-generating assets. No, not from the backs of ot…
I always find it hilarious that people on HN think that there is something morally wrong with being a landlord like everyone should be a homeowner no matter what the circumstances are. Should college students buy homes? Someone who may not want to live some place for a long time?
> there is something morally wrong with being a landlord
In the traditional manner, by upgrading through houses over a lifetime and holding onto the prior homes as “mortgage helpers”? No, not in the least.
In the modern context, by buying up 5, 10, 15, or even more homes in a neighbourhood just to rent them back out for their labour-free “investment income”? Oh YES, VERY MUCH SO.
In the modern context - which is practically every rental these days - landlords do not provide housing. They HOARD it and ransom it back to the community for more than it’s worth.
Landlords and other “investors” are why North America as a whole has a housing crisis, and by direct-causation proxy, a homeless crisis. When an individual or company can sweep into a neighbourhood and buy up most to all of the houses and then jack up rents to the maximum that the market will bear _just because,_ even when a third or more stand empty, that’s economic parasitism of the working class, plain and simple.
So where I stand, if anyone is renting out any sort of a habitable structure that they themselves didn’t live in for the better part of a decade before they turned it into a rental, THEY ARE THE PARASITE.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always find it hilarious that people on HN think that there is something morally wrong with being a landlord like everyone should be a homeowner no matter what the circumstances are. Should college students buy homes? Someone who may not want to live some place for a long time?
> there is something morally wrong with being a landlord In the traditional manner, by upgrading through houses over a lifetime and holding onto the prior homes as “mortgage helpers”? No, not in the least. In the modern context, by buying up 5, 10, 15, or even more homes in a neighbourhood just to rent them back out for their labour-free “investment income”? Oh YES, VERY MUCH SO. In the modern context - which is prac…
As a former landlord - who would rather get a daily anal probe with a cactus than ever do it again - there is nothing “passive” about being a landlord.
A quick Google search shows that only 1-3% of homes are owned by institutional investors and has almost nothing to do with the homes not being affordable. It’s a talking point that even the briefest Google search will contradict.
Are you also against apartments?
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#89Probably so. I'm in academia as a teacher and as a researcher. I like teaching and I like research. If I were "rich" I'd probably do both things with a much clearer state of mind.
Not filling grant proposal would be amazing.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
> there is something morally wrong with being a landlord In the traditional manner, by upgrading through houses over a lifetime and holding onto the prior homes as “mortgage helpers”? No, not in the least. In the modern context, by buying up 5, 10, 15, or even more homes in a neighbourhood just to rent them back out for their labour-free “investment income”? Oh YES, VERY MUCH SO. In the modern context - which is prac…
As a former landlord - who would rather get a daily anal probe with a cactus than ever do it again - there is nothing “passive” about being a landlord. A quick Google search shows that only 1-3% of homes are owned by institutional investors and has almost nothing to do with the homes not being affordable. It’s a talking point that even the briefest Google search will contradict. Are you also against apartments?
IMO anyone holding more than 5 rentals is doing so for the purpose of investing; of having a revenue stream well above what is needed for mortgage purposes.
Why? Because if you take the traditional route of living in a place, and do so for the average of 8 years that most jurisdictions see people doing before upgrading, and turning that prior home into a rental, it would take you into your 70s or 80s until you have 5 rental places.
And having 5 or more rental units accounts for almost ⅓ of all landlords. This means that ⅓ of all landlords are economic parasites, being landlords purely for the income stream.
I am not talking about “institutional investors” that hold 100+ homes by themselves (100+ being the industry definition of an institutional investor), they are just included in my concept of a parasitical population of housing “investors”.
> there is nothing “passive” about being a landlord.
You clearly are an old-school landlord.
These days there are “property management” companies that - for a small fee - do all the work for you, and the only effort left to you is to cash the cheque. And many people with multiple properties leverage this system.