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A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

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Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#41

Post by ojbyrne »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #11

The math on this makes no sense at all. > - Live off of $15k a year. Don't buy a house. Don't buy a fancy car. Just save. - Do this for a year. - Land a job that makes you $100k a year. Save the rest. Max out your 401k contribution. - Celebrate by living off of $30k a year. - Do this for three years. - Land a job that makes you $140k a year. Save the rest. Max out your 401k contribution. Get a Roth, put $5k a year in…

The other thing is it doesn’t seem like he’s generated that much wealth. If you’re taking half a million out of savings, working for a year to maybe double it (at long odds, 10-1 or 1000-1 as the article suggests), isn’t a trip to Vegas a viable alternative?

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#42

Post by toomuchtodo »

cvaidya1986 wrote: post #37
toomuchtodo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let’s not derail the thread, but there are lots of people with college educations who can still only get a minimum wage job. Opportunities are not endless, nor always there. It’s entire possible you jump off the corporate ladder and never make it back on, your wages permanently stunted and your career prospects dimmed.

Ok let me update it. Opportunities are always there for enterprising, confident and contrarian thinkers who will take several chances with low downside and try to create new things rather than compete within existing paradigms. Disclaimer: Not financial advice but personal observations

This discounts the high failure low success rates of entrepreneurship, which is dangerous advice in a country with a broken healthcare system and no social safety net.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#44

Post by [deleted] »

jdblair wrote: post #34
mkagenius wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then according to stats it would take infinite attempts to succeed. That's not how life works ;) edit: a clarification, that's not how a single human's life works. It will work if you take all humans together into account. If you apply that logic to individuals individually then nobody succeeds ever. edit2: a single human life individually doesn't get enough attempts to be statistically significant enough.

Actually, this is how life works: some people never succeed at what they try to do. It does take an infinite number of attempts to assure 100% success. Relevant in the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/24/opinion/2017-wrong-number...

[deleted]

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#45

Post by GuiA »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #11

The math on this makes no sense at all. > - Live off of $15k a year. Don't buy a house. Don't buy a fancy car. Just save. - Do this for a year. - Land a job that makes you $100k a year. Save the rest. Max out your 401k contribution. - Celebrate by living off of $30k a year. - Do this for three years. - Land a job that makes you $140k a year. Save the rest. Max out your 401k contribution. Get a Roth, put $5k a year in…

4% withdrawal rate is a conservative figure often used to live “forever” from a portfolio (use 3% if you want to be more conservative, 5-6% for more risk friendly).

To get $30k a year, that’s a starting portfolio of $750k. [0]

If you’re making $140k a year and living frugally, you can amass $750k in less than 10 years, perhaps even 5-7 if you are really frugal + lucky with the market.

It’s within reach of most software engineers, to be honest - but of course many people prefer the regular ski trips, new Tesla every few years, and so on. But if your dream is to work on your own stuff free of bosses/corporate politics/etc, it might be worth doing.

$30k a year won’t be much of a living in the Bay Area or New York, but for a single dependent person it’s quite alright; and in many mid sized European cities with socialized healthcare/university/etc, it’ll even let you raise a kid or two without having to sacrifice much.

[0]: http://www.firecalc.com/ gives us an 80% chance of success for a $750k portfolio on $30k withdrawal a year over 50 years.

If you’re new to this and want to delve further, check out https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#46

Post by michaelt »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #11

The math on this makes no sense at all. > - Live off of $15k a year. Don't buy a house. Don't buy a fancy car. Just save. - Do this for a year. - Land a job that makes you $100k a year. Save the rest. Max out your 401k contribution. - Celebrate by living off of $30k a year. - Do this for three years. - Land a job that makes you $140k a year. Save the rest. Max out your 401k contribution. Get a Roth, put $5k a year in…

Could be that the $100k is pretax and the $30k spending is post-tax.

That'd roughly halve the amount going into savings, if tax is a third, he's spending a third, and he's saving a third.

Of course, he'd still have savings of $220k+

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#47

Post by murukesh_s »

rubicon33 wrote: post #17
mkagenius wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem is the paycheck. Do I want to risk it all, throw away my savings, all for a chance at success Reading this, it feels better in India. Here I can work for 2 years in a good company, save enough to quit job and do something of my own for 3 years before needing money. (Lots of other stuffs are shitty in India, but this aspect is good)

That's awesome. I love hearing about how this scenario is for people in other countries. Here in California, I don't think that's possible. Cost of living is too high to live for 3 years off of 2 years of savings. Maybe if you were very careful with spending and had a good rent situation, you might be able to do it.

You are actually luckier. If you live in California, please work there for 1 year, get your ass of that city/country and come live in a country where cost of living is lower :). That is provided you have the stomach for that and if you don't have family/kids. You can easily get Visa to almost any country and perhaps one month of California/SF salary is enough to live one year in a low cost place.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#48

Post by notl4wy3r »

fragsworth wrote: post #5

This is incredibly depressing. It hits home for me because I'm in a very similar situation. I and one other guy almost went broke making Clicker Heroes, but it turned out to be a great success. But so far since then every project has not been worth doing. > I didn't do ads, I didn't do micro-transactions, scummy energy bars, and all those other bullshit monetization tactics. We did this in Clicker Heroes, and I don't…

Even if nobody was using scummy tactics, it'd be hard to compete. There are so many people who want to make video games. Hell, I wanted to, before I got my "boring" BigCo job. Personally, I'm really glad I decided not to make games. I like the safety a regular income brings. Maybe once I hit my number I'll make some games, and we'll see if I'm any good at it.

In the meantime, I have nothing but admiration for those of you who actually do it before having independent financial security. I can't say I think it's wise, but I am a beneficiary of the massive numbers of talented people working in your field.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#49

Post by murukesh_s »

CryoLogic wrote: post #38
rubicon33 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's awesome. I love hearing about how this scenario is for people in other countries. Here in California, I don't think that's possible. Cost of living is too high to live for 3 years off of 2 years of savings. Maybe if you were very careful with spending and had a good rent situation, you might be able to do it.

If you are single and don't have children you can always leave CA for a few years, cut your expenses in half by living in a low COL area and come back if it doesn't work out.

I was making the same point. Why make money in a high cost area and insist on spending there :-).

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#50

Post by amirrajan »

castle-bravo wrote: post #32
ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #11

The math on this makes no sense at all. > - Live off of $15k a year. Don't buy a house. Don't buy a fancy car. Just save. - Do this for a year. - Land a job that makes you $100k a year. Save the rest. Max out your 401k contribution. - Celebrate by living off of $30k a year. - Do this for three years. - Land a job that makes you $140k a year. Save the rest. Max out your 401k contribution. Get a Roth, put $5k a year in…

Yeah it doesn't make any sense at all. He grossed over 800k on a video game, loves programming, but after another three years he has to go back to his day job? It sounds like he's burning over 100k/year and lying about his expenses in this report. In any case, there's a lot of information left out.

I give you my Armchair Expert of the Year Award. Congrats :-)

Must be nice to live in a world without having to give Apple 30%, insurance premiums, taxes, and royalties/partnership splits.

Take this comment in good spirit. We all make mistakes. Nothing but love for you. Go build awesome things. Hire a CPA for all the math related stuff.

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