No, You can't retire rich at 30 if you sell your startup

Can we conclude that this is the wistful daydream equivalent of the "Maserati Problem"[1]? I can definitely say that if 30 years we're looking at half a million dollars as a "cost of living adjustment", that world will for the people who don't make that kind of money be Thunderdome. I mean wages have barely kept up with inflation. In the last 40 years (between 1967 and 2007), median wages have only gone up US$10000 (from 40k to 50k). How the hell are all of our parents going to fare when you need 500,000 to maintain an upper-middle class lifestyle?

I see the numbers adding up (and it is a nicey-nice spreadsheet), it just doesn't make any kind of a sense. I guess that's why I'm only middle-class. I don't see this heinous future coming for all of us.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1444003

most people can live quite richly on around $50k/year, depending on where they live and what they're doing. especially if you're willing to pony up some cash up front to buy your house/car if you want to own one.

but, if your idea of richly is tainted by popular culture, and you want to buy some yachts and collect expensive cars, then yeah, you're going to go broke.

I think it was Jadakiss who said "Entrepreneurs don't retire, they just get chubby and become angel investors."

I don't know of many people in this business who actually plan on being utterly retired while they blow hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Most just want to not be obligated to work on things that don't interest them.

He's right that you won't get rich as an early stage employee unless you worked somewhere like Google. I learned that the hard way.

He's wrong about not being in it for the money. I've known about 10 serial entrepreneurs in Boston and Silicon Valley who were in it for the money, and they were all focused and successful at it. The key is to have a clear idea and a clear exit plan, and adjust to the market as quickly as possible. These guys were all like minor versions of Mike Cassidy. 3+ successful exits, each more money than the previous. All doing stuff you've probably used as a part of another product, but you've never heard of the original company or the founders.

A lot of guys know can't decide whether they are in it for the money, or the love, or to be famous on Hacker News, so they fail. Lack of focus and not knowing why they were in it is why they failed. Guys who know they are in it for the money and can execute often win. If you're really in it for the money and lose, you might just suck. That's just the way it works. YMMV.

The other thing he's wrong about is living to 90. Working at a desk 16 hours a day, living on soda and junk food, no exercise, estranged from families and friends... most hackers are going to need a lot of luck or serious medical breakthroughs if they want to make it to 70.

I quit my day job last year and began my ISV/web startup after I calculated I could live very comfortably in Costa Rica on $20,000 per year. I haven't made a full time move there quite yet though, I go there for the winter to surf and code.