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Ask HN: How do I turn 100K into 1 million?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I turn 100K into 1 million?

#31

Post by joelreymont »

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #27
joelreymont wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of that already exists, check out the App Store. I'm thinking an iPad would make a decent chart plotter, though :-). Now, if I could only find a weather-proof enclosure!

I have TideApp, but I haven't seen anything like weatherfax on the iphone :-) You're right that chart plotter on the ipad would be pretty tops. As waterproofing.. you'd have to use a material that lets the capacitance of your finger through.

Do you know of any material that lets capacitance through?

The other issue is connecting a GPS to the iPad if the internal GPS is not good enough. I don't know if it is yet, will take my iPad sailing this August.

Apple requires you to build external accessories specifically to work with iOS devices. I think that even requires a special chip. An external Bluetooth GPS would likely be power-hungry.

I think http://www.tacktick.com/ are an awesome example of low-power marine electronics. They designed and built their own low-power wireless network to connect their instruments and powered them with solar energy whenever possible.

Re: Ask HN: How do I turn 100K into 1 million?

#32

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

If you were in the US, I'd suggest real estate. At this point in the real estate cycle, you could probably buy two single homes, or a duplex/triplex and rent it out and have positive cashflow immediately. I used to be a landlord, but sold the house and I sometimes regret that decision since it was bringing in about $400/month with no work on my part. Rental property isn't a bad investment if you're willing to do the work and it's easy to sell if the property is making money.

I don't know what Spain's real estate market is like, but in a touristy location there are probably opportunities to get creative.

Re: Ask HN: How do I turn 100K into 1 million?

#33

Post by joelreymont »

Russelldb wrote: post #20
joelreymont wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bottleneck is that I sell a service and I can only offer so much of it. Also, my base rate is 100 EUR/hr, about $125, although I always quote a fixed price. I found a niche in writing Mac device drivers for a big company this year. I had to buy a hardware USB analyzer and IDA Pro to reverse-engineer a good chunk of LabVIEW so I was able to charge a good price for that project. I could raise my base rate and charg…

> there are only 24 hours in a day Per person. Trade on your name? You are an A+ player. You must be turning work away. Take on more work than you can handle and farm it out to A-/B+ players. Consultants don't scale but consultancies can benefit from scale to some small degree.

I just outsourced a project to my brother, a first in a few years. I also know a great local 3D modeler often in need of work. It is sounding like I'll need to transition into running a consultancy. Nothing new, I ran my own offshore development a few years back. Good 50% margins for a bit of marketing, sales and project management work.

I haven't had to turn work away only because I've been able to queue up projects and space them out. Oh, and because clients have been patient while I've done that.

Re: Ask HN: How do I turn 100K into 1 million?

#34

Post by vessenes »

joelreymont wrote: post #26
vessenes wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

p.s. Flipping real estate -- eventually, you're going to want income. Transaction costs for real estate are high, man. I guess my major advice is "Slow down. Value stability and income. Keep socking away the money, and invest it in areas unlinked to your primary earning potential (programming)."

Buying to rent should result in income uncorrelated to programing.

Exactly!

Re: Ask HN: How do I turn 100K into 1 million?

#35

Post by thalur »

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #27
joelreymont wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of that already exists, check out the App Store. I'm thinking an iPad would make a decent chart plotter, though :-). Now, if I could only find a weather-proof enclosure!

I have TideApp, but I haven't seen anything like weatherfax on the iphone :-) You're right that chart plotter on the ipad would be pretty tops. As waterproofing.. you'd have to use a material that lets the capacitance of your finger through.

I hope someone like aquapac who make them for iphone will make an ipad cover too.

Re: Ask HN: How do I turn 100K into 1 million?

#36

Post by joelreymont »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #32

If you were in the US, I'd suggest real estate. At this point in the real estate cycle, you could probably buy two single homes, or a duplex/triplex and rent it out and have positive cashflow immediately. I used to be a landlord, but sold the house and I sometimes regret that decision since it was bringing in about $400/month with no work on my part. Rental property isn't a bad investment if you're willing to do the…

Spanish real estate has been tanking. Over 1.5mm units unsold. I think it's a good time to buy, perhaps towards the end of the year.

My wife is a self-employed travel agent catering to the Russian market (I'm Russian/Cuban). I she would love to go into property management, specially if the property is ours.

I'm reading about LBOs in "Barbarians at the gate" and I think it's a bit like that. You need to figure out the potential rental income of a property and convince the bankers that it's enough to service the mortgage debt. All the while putting as little of your own money in as possible.

Re: Ask HN: How do I turn 100K into 1 million?

#37

Post by aaronblohowiak »

joelreymont wrote: post #31
aaronblohowiak wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have TideApp, but I haven't seen anything like weatherfax on the iphone :-) You're right that chart plotter on the ipad would be pretty tops. As waterproofing.. you'd have to use a material that lets the capacitance of your finger through.

Do you know of any material that lets capacitance through? The other issue is connecting a GPS to the iPad if the internal GPS is not good enough. I don't know if it is yet, will take my iPad sailing this August. Apple requires you to build external accessories specifically to work with iOS devices. I think that even requires a special chip. An external Bluetooth GPS would likely be power-hungry. I think http://www.t…

sure, there are lots of "screen protectors" that are thin plastic films: http://www.amazon.com/9-7-Screen-Protector-Apple-iPad/dp/B00...

Tacktick looks pretty awesome, i will check them out!

Re: Ask HN: How do I turn 100K into 1 million?

#38

Post by vessenes »

joelreymont wrote: post #24
vessenes wrote: post #18

Timescales: How long do you have to turn your 100k into 1mm? (I'm assuming here we're not considering inflation. ) If you need it in 10 years, you're going to need an annualized 25% or so rate of return. That's unlikely. If you need it in 25 years, you can get by with 10%. That's definitely possible, if you follow good principles. On the other hand, if you can put in an extra 50k a year, You should have close to $1mm…

Thanks! I don't hate people, I just get tired of lots of people around me and need the solitude of my office. My timeline is 10 years or less and I could, likely, add 50K a year. I don't have a penchant for gambling, I traded twice in ... ugh... 15 years or so. I stopped because I figured I didn't know enough and wasn't capitalized well. Real estate is great long-term. There are some awesome deals to be had in Teneri…

No problem, I understand completely, and sorry to call you out on gambling, incorrectly.. : )

You might like this book: http://www.amazon.com/Retire-Early-Live-Million-Dollars/dp/1... He gives some advice about real estate investing for income, and suggests that a 'safe' amount of margin is 50% if you may want income from them to live off. So, you could possibly buy two of those apartments now. If the market drops 30% next year, and you have another 50k, buy another one. The first two are still going to cashflow, and you're making a long-term bet here.

In my experience, it's hard to time the market, really any market. I remember being desperate to buy a place in Cambridge, MA while the housing boom was going on in the late '90s. 800 square foot condos were selling for $500k+, in two to three days. Now, 10+ years later, you might have made a little money, net.

Meanwhile, in 2008, real estate looked 'risky'. Thinking about asset value first, market pricing second can fundamentally change one's decision matrix; this is one of the big points that Value Investors make, repeatedly.

Re: Ask HN: How do I turn 100K into 1 million?

#39

Post by joelreymont »

pdx wrote: post #29

Why do you want a million euro? Are you going to spend one million euro on something? I bet the answer is that you aren't going to spend $1M on anything. You intend to put the $1M in some very safe investment and live off the interest, correct? So you don't really need $1M, what you need is $100K per year passive income. It's the same thing. If you look at your problem that way, things seem more doable. Instead of sp…

You are right. I don't need the million euro since I don't know what to spend it on. What I'm looking for is freedom to learn and do new things that interest me.

I used to do this by working 6 months out of a year at most but I still don't own a house and don't have a nest egg. Nothing to ensure my family has a comfortable life if, God forbid, anything happens to me.

I like your perspective of growing passive income from 1k to 10k to 100k!

Re: Ask HN: How do I turn 100K into 1 million?

#40

Post by lowkey »

joelreymont wrote: post #15
aaronblohowiak wrote: post #12

Ahoy! Sailing is great, I've got a personal goal to do the SHTP in 2014. You have a terrible investment track record and a good programming track record. Go with your strength. Since you have a short attention span, you should focus on short projects that you can ship quickly. Bring maritime weather / charts to the iphone, I'd buy that :-)

Some of that already exists, check out the App Store. I'm thinking an iPad would make a decent chart plotter, though :-). Now, if I could only find a weather-proof enclosure!

Here is one option for a water-proof iPad enclosure, though I'm sure it can be improved upon: http://gadgetsin.com/waterwear-waterproof-ipad-case.htm
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