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Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

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Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#91

Post by tortilla »

xiaoma wrote: post #80
tortilla wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll also chop up some broccoli and add it to the ramen. Along with some shredded pork (MSG-free) and chili, it's a pretty tasty dish: http://www.piermall.com/Chinese-Shredded-Pork-Sung-No-MSG-p/... http://chowtimes.com/2006/05/21/shredded-dried-pork-aka-meat...

I for one think MSG is a good thing but for someone so concerned with it, I'm surprised you're recommending broccoli. Other than cheese, soy and tomato, broccoli is about as high in glutamate as a food gets. http://www.swivel.com/data_columns/spreadsheet/2486462

I'm not too concerned with MSG, but certain types give me a bad reaction (MSG in chips, Pho soup, ramen flavorings, etc).

Broccoli, no reaction and I can eat tons.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#92

Post by fauigerzigerk »

catch23 wrote: post #85
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$80 is indeed great but the train is much more exciting ;-)

Why not try India instead? The national language is English so it should be of little problem, plus everything there is super cheap. Buy a bicycle for $10 brand new and there's your transportation.

How much does it cost to rent a small appartment with broadband in a secure neighbourhood in India?

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#93

Post by mattmaroon »

Eliezer wrote: post #76
mattmaroon wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

creditdefaultswap.com baby. Web 2.0 mortgage derivatives. Elevator pitch: It's like Flickr for collateralized debt obligations.

I think you should have just kept that idea quietly to yourself. Forever.

Don't worry, when I get rich off of it, I'll tell everyone you inspired the idea.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#94

Post by taw »

asnyder wrote: post #18
vaksel wrote: post #10

cut your living expenses...have a car? sell it for a beater. Have high rent? Move to Bronx or Brooklyn or Queens or Jersey City(if your work is close to penn station). Or if your parents live locally, move in with them(I did this). Switch to a ramen diet....stop going out, stop buying shit. Stretch every penny. You won't believe how little you can live on, if you cut out all the bullshit. Start working on your contac…

It's likely he doesn't have a car, most New Yorkers don't. I'd also recommend switching to a fruits and vegetables diet, instead of ramen. There are enough dedicated fruit stores in New York that make fruits and vegetables cheaper and healthier than ramen. In New York, an example of this kind of store would be "Three Guys From Brooklyn", or "Circus Fruits". With these sorts of stores you can easily bring your food ex…

Eating fruit and veggies will increase your costs. You need certain number of calories a day, and price per calorie of most fruits and veggies is easily 10x higher than of bread, rice, chicken meat, ramen, fast foods etc.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#95

Post by fbbwsa »

mattmaroon wrote: post #32
Eliezer wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize this is a cheap shot... but... 95% probability of a startup being funded? You didn't work on the software that rated mortgage default probabilities, did you?

creditdefaultswap.com baby. Web 2.0 mortgage derivatives. Elevator pitch: It's like Flickr for collateralized debt obligations.

haha, actually made me laugh. funniest HN comment I've read in a while.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#96

Post by trickjarrett »

Flemlord wrote: post #71
vaksel wrote: post #10

cut your living expenses...have a car? sell it for a beater. Have high rent? Move to Bronx or Brooklyn or Queens or Jersey City(if your work is close to penn station). Or if your parents live locally, move in with them(I did this). Switch to a ramen diet....stop going out, stop buying shit. Stretch every penny. You won't believe how little you can live on, if you cut out all the bullshit. Start working on your contac…

> You won't believe how little you can live on, if you cut out all the bullshit. No kidding. With my first startup I was living on hot dogs and hadn't left the house for months. I had literally reduced my expenses to mortgage, utilities, food. I stretched 3 months of living expenses into a year, although I ended up not needing it as we got funded after 6 months. My one splurge was a good suit the first time we went o…

Not something I'd consider a splurge. It's a sizable business expense.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#97

Post by racyrick »

Damn. You must have been making a ton of dough to save that much money. Kudos to you. I think I've got about a 1 month buffer, maybe 2.

You can survive on Lentils and rice, toss in a little Quinoa and a lime and you could go a few years on pennies. Of course, what you are outlining is that you have a life to attend to.

Well, then get a job that pays or demand pay from your current job.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#98

Post by racyrick »

sgrove wrote: post #58
sown wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please, tell me some of your secrets. I'm interested in cheap living/eating. :)

Sounds like an excellent topic for a blog post - very hacker related, I would think.

Stick to Superfoods!

Quinoa, Lentils, fresh veggies.

Jason Rohrer (of fame with game programmers) eats lentils for lunch every day.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#99

Post by racyrick »

terpua wrote: post #90
oakmac wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is neither good nor accurate advice.

I was merely pointing out that if you have limited funds and running a startup, ramen and exercise is not a bad trade-off considering the costs of fruits/veggies are usually higher.

Standard Ramen pretty much has no nutritional value. Add some veggies (first boil finely chopped carrots & celery, add frozen corn, broccoli, peas) then put in the ramen mix.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#100

Post by racyrick »

hk wrote: post #75
iamelgringo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A serial entrepreneur friend who's looking for funding on his 5th startup right now: """You pretty much have to have a working product, thrilled customers and a revenue stream right now for VC's to look at you.""" Getting funding has gotten pretty tough here in the Valley. I can only imagine that the funding scene is going to be a lot worse in New York.

Huh? If you have a product that works, is growing, and revenue coming in, you don't need a VC, you need a normal business loan from a bank. If you actually have money coming in and a business plan that's demonstrably working, but just need money to expand (that's the word regular businesses use to mean "scale"), then you need to 1. get an accountant to write it up in the correct manner and 2. make an appointment with…

Wow, incredible words of wisdom. I am myself at a startup (http://racy.com) and we had a little funding, but are bootstrapping and trying to make sales to cover our costs. We are only 1 year through and are very very close to breaking even.
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