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Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
11–20 of 84 posts
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#12I made > $1M more than once. For me it's always been building projects/startups and eventually exiting. I repeated the cycle and got lucky enough a few times.
Interestingly, I always managed to get some kind of liquidity event for each of my projects. This is important IMO. ALWAYS try to get paid. Don't just "shut it down".
Each liquidity event added at least a digit to the price. For example, I sold my first business when I was a teenager for 4 figures. Then sold a side project for 5 figures, then sold a business for 6, and then 7 figures.
I always became more ambitious with my goals and I find that the learnings of each venture helped me move up the ladder to the next one.
So don't get discouraged if you make just $500 or $5000 with your current project. Just use it as a stepping stone to the next one and try to figure out what you could have done differently for a 10x or 100x outcome.
For example, for my 6 figure exit business, one of my biggest mistakes was that I focused on a market that was way too small with little room for growth (product was entirely in French, and it wasn't as easy as translating it to grow the market size). I made sure to never make this mistake again. I made other ones instead :)
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#13The stock market, the only sure way of wealth creation in this century
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#14To protect myself I created a new account. The answer is cryptocurrencies, bitcoin early and then ethereum. Also high salaries from startups even though all of their stock became worthless. I only work because I like to. Once kids are born probably will go into academia.
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#15Here are some things that help:
* Frugality: deeply understanding the things that bring you satisfaction and skipping the rest
* Aggressively saving and investing money
* Building a mastery in personal finance
But becoming a millionaire isn't a math problem. Most people on here are capable of doing so many times over without any great career home run.
However, achieving such a milestone will require you to (on an ongoing basis) look deeply inwards, answer fundamental questions about yourself, and change your life.
At the risk of getting too preachy, most people haven't even figured out what they want and so they default to mainstream consumerism. Such people have little chance of becoming a millionaire (which requires sustained, long-term behavior changes) until they first sort themselves out.
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#16I suspect that for a lot of people here the answer to "are you a millionaire" would depend on how you're valuing the stock they own.
Also primary residence value.
(I think that's relevant since HNW definitions exclude the value of their primary residence. [1])
[1]High-net-worth individual (HNWI) is a term used by some segments of the financial services industry to designate persons whose investible assets (such as stocks and bonds) exceed a given amount. Typically, these individuals are defined as holding financial assets (excluding their primary residence) with a value greater than US$1 million.[1][2][3]) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-net-worth_individual
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#17I used to work on a yachts. I've worked for billionaires and people worth hundreds of millions. The pattern seems to be they hire people who know what they are doing. They provide those people with resources to accomplish what they were hired to do. And, they stay out of the way.
When I tell people I was a yacht chef, people often ask if the owners or guests tell me what they want to eat all day. In fact, people never tell me what they want to eat. If it is a charter I will speak with the guests to make sure I satisfy dietary concerns and know about certain preferences like whole milk vs. 2% milk. The people I work for make decisions concerning large amounts of money all day. The last thing in the world they want to think about is what is for dinner. That is why they hired me to make those decisions. Of course, I'm always right because guests and crew on my yacht eat the same thing so the owners and guests always eat what I want to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The pattern I see is that truly wealthy people, not New Yorkers spending more than they really have, don't micromanage.
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#18Mobile games, iOS in 2010, later on Android.
Spent it on expensive RE though, so no longer in chequeing account.
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#1930 years of maxing out my 401Ks, not living in SV, and building my own avocado toast.
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#20Yes, just barely but in actual assets. Meaning, if you take a complete accounting of my net worth, subtract out debts and ignore options etc and count retirement accounts and stocks and so on. I make out to just above that number by a little bit.
Not terribly impressive if you make over $100k/yr for 15-20 years, live below your means, pay off all your debts and own where you live. But I guess I've managed not to squander too much of it either. I'd have a bit more if I traveled for pleasure less I guess. But I look at that as an investment in myself while I'm young enough to enjoy it.
I pay off debts as fast as possible as well. I own my house and cars free and clear for example and have zero student debt. So nobody is getting money from me "for free". I paid them off as rapidly as I could so I could have lots of liquid cash to spend or invest as I wish. Some people would rather spend smaller to service their debts and invest the difference -- that's probably fine as well.
Housing is most people's biggest expense and it's really nice not to be burning most of my take home income in a furnace on rent or interest.
I've been a larger millionaire twice in paper options, but the companies didn't work out and the options became worthless. Oh well. I've learned the lesson to never accept lesser pay in exchange for options or RSUs no matter the promise of an upside.