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Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?

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Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?

#71

Post by hkmurakami »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #42
hkmurakami wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

books, research reports, personal experience. The last is vital, as an investor's emotional composure is at times even more important than the rational side of investing.

Why spend the time learning about investing beyond the basics if you could be researching a niche in your field to double or add a zero to your income? It doesn't seem worth it to me if you don't have connections within the industry. You're still a retail investor at the end of the day compared to professionals at banks (which honestly, will have better information), so why not just use Vanguard stuff unless you want…

Because you need the mental fortitude to not liquidate your ETFs in the next crash.

edit: that being said, what you said is what I almost always tell friends who have the temptation to augment their income through side projects.

Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?

#73

Post by nzealand »

vipsanius wrote: post #34

Achieved twice, by two separate means. Raised by single mom, no family member ever attended college. Public exam result delivered full private school scholarship. Graduated Oxford and Harvard. At 35, (1) married wealthy family’s only daughter and (2) founded VC-backed startup that paid out some years later. After growing up poor, have no interest in big spending or additional risk. Live simply in a warm state, happil…

Valuing your wife and kids above all else? That is a most fortunate life.

Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?

#75

Post by quickthrower2 »

noonespecial wrote: post #28
zappo2938 wrote: post #17

I 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 neve…

I very much hope to one day be wealthy enough to not have to tell people what I want to eat all the time. "What do you want for dinner tonight?" Not to have to decide.

Alternatively get a wife

Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?

#76

Post by quickthrower2 »

CyberFonic wrote: post #38
SirLJ wrote: post #13

The stock market, the only sure way of wealth creation in this century

That is truly paper "wealth". Unless you cash out, a stock market crash will greatly reduce the value of your shares.

All wealth is paper wealth. Even cash can crash. Infact the system ensures cash will slowly lose its value.

Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?

#77

Post by dolguldur »

rj1942 wrote: post #57

Yes, a number of times over. As for how I got there, a lot of it (and this is a largely unpopular view in some parts) was rather pre-determined. Born into an upper-class family, went to a private high school that sent nearly 50% to Ivy League schools, and graduated from a top school in '04. I studied computer science, but had little intention to pursue it and went to Wall Street. Stayed on Wall Street until '09 and w…

Thanks for sharing that. For me, who just quit a job again, reading this was reassuring that I'm on the right path.

Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?

#80

Post by notacoward »

It basically all comes down to front-loading income and back-loading expenses. On the first point, a bit of early job-hopping was hugely beneficial.

(1) Better raises that I would have gotten by staying in one place.

(2) Developed lots of skills; exposed myself to lots of industries / bodies of knowledge / ways of thinking and doing.

(3) Allowed me to discover which computing specialty best suited me (amazing how many work in an area they neither enjoy nor are good at just because they don't know any better).

Once things had stabilized a bit, when continuing to job-hop would have become a negative, I got deeper into one particular area and scratched my way up to expert-hood. Turns out to have been a good strategy, though I can't take much credit for having realized it at the time. To a certain extent I just fell into a good pattern by accident.

The "back-loading expenses" part was more deliberate. My wife and I have always been a bit frugal, driving older/cheaper cars and not traveling or eating out constantly. Didn't live in the most expensive part of the country. Didn't buy a house until I was 31. Didn't have a kid until I was 39. By that time, interest was working for me on investments instead of against me on credit. That's the one point you should take away from this: make interest work for you, not against you. Deliberately took a mortgage with no penalty for paying it off early, then did so about half way through the original term, have been 100% debt free ever since. Now the paychecks just roll in and a good chunk goes immediately into earning interest.

Even as a highly productive worker, this combination probably means I've made more money as a (fairly passive) investor than as a worker. Sadly, becoming a rentier or attaching yourself to them is the only way to get ahead in this economy.

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