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Ask HN: How do I get $2.2M dollars?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I get $2.2M dollars?

#52

Adding to what everyone else is saying, remember that $80k/year will be great for now, but if you're not letting the principal grow at all, you'll still only be getting $80k/year in 40 years, at which point it'll be a lot less useful

I don't think you fully understand what the 2.2 million represents at 80k/year. This is a 3.6% SWR, which is considered "safe" because over a long period of time, the stock market will typically do well enough to offset any downturns. The average market return from 1985 - present is about 7%, so i have no idea why you would assume principal remains the same after 40 years.

Re: Ask HN: How do I get $2.2M dollars?

#55
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I think marriage helps give life some sort of meaning, and from a pragmatic standpoint, two salaries and a permanent roommate for life. So it might actually make more sense to marry.

You can do everything that a marriage entails without the legal contract that gives someone else leverage over everything you own.

This is why am not married. Signing a legally binding contact to say I will be with someone forever is as ridiculous as it sounds. You can just live that way and do 99.9% of what a married couple does.

Re: Ask HN: How do I get $2.2M dollars?

#56
post #12

The way for me is the stock market - building trading robots, this is the way to get your FU money and believe me it is well worth it and it is the ultimate freedom in life... I would recommend starting with Interactive Brokers or similar API (it is free), small linux VPS, some data for back testing and off you go, for around $100 you can start + a lot of time of course... Start by testing any trading strategy you ca…

Are you really smarter than a bunch of Quants with PhD's in math/CS and unlimited resources (hedge funds etc)?

Get rich quick does not work in the stock market. Get rich quick = lose money quick in 99.999% of cases.

Re: Ask HN: How do I get $2.2M dollars?

#57
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When he says "data structures" he actually means "interview questions". Data structures and algorithms interview questions are the only thing that Google and FB care about.

I can imagine an UI designer coming in for an interview. ...yeah I want you to invert a binary tree.

You joke about that, but I had a friend who interviewed for a developer Evangelist role at Google, and literally the only stuff that they were asked was algorithms questions.

Yeah, it was a 50% technical role, but Google didn't care about the OTHER 50% of the job at all...

Re: Ask HN: How do I get $2.2M dollars?

#58

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this, but if you want to attain your goal, you're basically swearing off having a serious relationship. It's very rare for you to meet someone serious about saving money. Before you know it, they're complaining that you never do anything even though you have plenty of money (relatively). Are you sure you won't want a relationship? You're young enough that within a decade you'll be a…

>And then before you know it, your youth will be gone. Time is more valuable than money.

For precisely this reason one should find out exactly what they need to be content and quit the rat race as soon they can. No point slaving away your time at work for unnecessary comforts.

Re: Ask HN: How do I get $2.2M dollars?

#59

Honestly? Just master data structures, get competing offers at FB and Google, make 350-400k a year, invest heavily and aggressively, retire in 7 or 8 years

I keep hearing salaries mentioned like this and I'm sure some developers make this but I really don't think the average developer is making this at these companies, based on salary comparison websites, etc. A developer who makes this, I'm assuming, would be working in machine learning / quasi-AI type of stuff and that is probably not the type of job you're going to get right out of college unless you have a PHD. I can't imagine any reason Facebook would pay this to devs for run of the mill dev roles when it's clearly so far above market rate.

Re: Ask HN: How do I get $2.2M dollars?

#60
Others have mentioned similar things, but there are a few things to consider.

Remember, $80k/year now may seem fine, but you have no idea what the future holds. First, you may average $80k/yr, but remember that volatility can be rough. If you got your $2.2m in 2007, you'd see losses for several years, and a decade before it recovered -- can you afford not to draw down on principle for a decade?

And then if you're aiming to live off of $80k/year, that's today's dollars. It sounds like you're pretty young (college), so if you're expecting to live another 60-80 years, you have to account for inflation. For example, if you had $100 in 1937, you'd need $1,666 today to have the same purchasing power[1]. If you do the same math going forward, you'll need $1.3m/year in 80 years to have the same purchasing power.

On top of that, there are other things to consider: having kids, unexpected costs, health care, rising taxes, etc. As has been posted even here on HN recently, a wealth tax would almost certainly blow your plans up in a big way. And if you have kids, they're not going to qualify for financial aid, because you're a multi-millionaire! So you'll be in an interesting pickle there.

This isn't to say that you shouldn't aim for this goal, just wanted to mention some things to at least consider...

[1] http://www.in2013dollars.com/1937-dollars-in-2016

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