Wall street programmer :)
Super high burn rate. 200k is a slave wage in Manhattan, or in SFO bay for that matter.
Politics, not technical work causes high burn rate in WS.
Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
131–140 of 184 posts
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Living extremely cheaply isn't always that great.. you can be frugal, but at a certain point, people take it too far. I.e., if you spend hours (or days!) comparing prices when purchasing lower value items, you value your time at exactly zero, and it might actually be easier to make (!) money vs spending less. Maybe your girlfriend actually prefers living a little? I'm not saying to throw your money away on useless st…
I agree. My advice is focus on growth. Willpower is a finite resource, you can use it to save 2 bucks on a bottle of water or spend a few minutes learning a new skill. One saves money once, one pays dividends forever. If you have unlimited willpower go ahead and do both, I know I don't.
I like this one: negotiate hard on every big purchase you make in life, whether it's a new car / house / new couch worth $2k / bank fees / financing / etc. Make it a habit of negotiating on everything that is negotiable (which is doable on a lot more things than you thought). It's a valuable skill.
The gains you make from that will save you a ton of money during a lifetime. Don't ignore large potential savings by penny-pinching on the small stuff. Heck, if you do this, you can ignore the small stuff.
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#133In the USA the surest and safest way to do this is to follow the American Dream... ie: buy a house. Specifically, buy a multi-family in a constantly in-demand area / big city. The devil is in the details on the economics of all this... how much you put down vs how much you borrow, etc.. etc... But within 30 years (assuming you get a 30-year mortgage) you will certainly be financially independent. The key is to manage…
You deduct business interest and expenses from a business too. The difference is banks will loan you 5:1 on a multifamily but will not for a non-real estate small business. A multifamily is just a small business.
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just buy index funds. They have low fees, and beat most (if not all) managed funds long term anyway. Find a fond tracking S&P 500, one global and maybe some other markets, and you should be set.
Keep in mind that index funds will probably decline by about 3-4x over the next 10 years on the demographic cycle.
How can something "decline 3x?" Lol.
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#135In the USA the surest and safest way to do this is to follow the American Dream... ie: buy a house. Specifically, buy a multi-family in a constantly in-demand area / big city. The devil is in the details on the economics of all this... how much you put down vs how much you borrow, etc.. etc... But within 30 years (assuming you get a 30-year mortgage) you will certainly be financially independent. The key is to manage…
Any areas specifically come to mind?
Austin, Portland. anywhere near a large university. university enrollment is counter-cyclical to the economy.
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ethereum seems to have great potential to multiply its value in the next 12-24 months. I think the probability of ETH going from 1B$ -> 2-5B$ market cap is far greater than BTC going from 10B$ to 20-50B$ due to several factors. My line of thinking has been that in order for the 4% to be meaningful, you need to start with at least a million. Saving a portion from the salary and getting 4% annualized growth just wouldn…
You do realise you're gambling, right? There's nothing wrong with that, but be honest with yourself about the risks of having nearly all your money in one instrument (ETH) which could easily wildly fluctuate up or down. If you honestly think it's a bet worth making, go look up the kelly criterion.
The annoying thing about survival bias is that the survivors who took the largest risks often get the greatest rewards, and then carry the most influence.
So someone who sank her entire life savings into LTC a couple years ago, would sound more worthy than this person.
And, depending on how credulous the reader is, someone who went into debt to buy a few lottery tickets, and was lucky enough to win, could trump both of them.
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Muni bonds are the best way to go for that. You can still nail 4% plus after inflation and taxes there. You're not going to get risk-free anywhere, there's no such thing.
Can you provide some example names? I'm seeing returns of only 1.65% on the Barclays Muni Index[0] [0]: https://index.barcap.com/Benchmark_Indices/Aggregate/Bond_In...
You're looking at the yield; not the returns. You also cannot directly invest in the index but there are ETFs that track it.
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would like to hear more about living on less than $10k a year. I'm still a student and my parents pay a lot, so I don't actually know how much I'd spend if I paid for everything myself currently. I just always assumed that $40k is about the minimum for a normal living. Doing the math though, counting food, rent and "service costs" (water, electricity, internet), I end up with a lower bound of about 6000 a year. Thi…
You can easily get furniture and many appliances for free, at least around Germany. People will put old but functional things on the street for the truck, and if you're fast you can get some good stuff. Also, there are internet sources where people post what they want to get rid of. And how much do you really need anyway? At this point, if I needed something specific, I'd just put up a poster, a neighbour probably ha…
Am I right in presuming you are living in Berlin?
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The hard part is financial independence without lifestyle compromises. My point exactly. But I also think you don't need to live in one of the most expensive cities of this planet. A few lifestyle changes should be acceptable, though. I would say if you spend more than $50k/year it should be possible to have quite a good life with some modifications.
Until remote working becomes more common, living in a big city has a lot of benefits for a tech worker. Even with the higher living cost, I make a lot more than back home in Texas. Sadly just not enough to become independent :-)
Agreed. But there are many many cities that are big and a lot cheaper than SF, NYC etc.
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#140I'm only responding because nobody else has replied to your thread. Feel free to ignore me if you think it is irrelevant. My favourite Dr. Who quote: "Work for? I don't work for anyone. I'm just having fun." Describes me, even though I receive money every month. My expenditures are considerably less than the money I receive every month by having fun. If I didn't receive money, then I would be in trouble, so I don't r…
The married part is the one I am more interested in. I too live extremely cheaply, but my girlfriend has way more expense than me (still reasonable, but too high in my book). We are not married, but we spend a lot of time together and I am a little afraid that this difference in how we spend money will be a problem. How did you manage it? My very first step was to have her create a save account where she deposit each…
Friendly advice from a married guy: be careful about overdoing it with the financial discipline stuff.
Trying too hard to change someone's behavior is an easy recipe for resentment, especially in the turf war that naturally ensues when you start living together. Just as you see her as undisciplined, she could also be afraid that you'll be overly rigid and not allow her to enjoy life in the way she's used to. Once you've made your point about something like this, I think it's usually better to back off and leave making the change up to the person themselves, unless they specifically ask for your help. Being too pushy can also cause the other person to dig in, a counterproductive result.