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

tonywright.com

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

#21

Post by rchi »

1. If 4 mil at 30 is not enough, it would never be enough. 2. Someone with the drive, intelligence etc to accumulate 4mil by age 30 would be extremely bored retiring at 30. 3. There are different forms of wealth (relationships, experiences, reputation, health, intelligence, peace of mind etc), and money is merely one kind.

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

#22

Post by steveklabnik »

wallflower wrote: post #6

I think I could get by on $30,000 a year and working on my own ISV in a nice Latin American country. Is anyone doing that here?

    s/a nice Latin American country/Japan/;
    if($user == 'patio11') { 
      print "yes";
    }
    # http://www.bingocardcreator.com/expenses/profitability-pie-chart

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

#25

Post by kscaldef »

jdc wrote: post #2

...where retiring rich is defined as spending $300,000 annually. I'd personally move somewhere cheaper once my income no longer depended on my location.

Yeah, I'm not getting where that number comes from. (And I love the suggestion that it's merely "upper middle class".) Personally, I can live a pretty nice lifestyle on "only" a couple thousand in disposable income a month. I really can't imagine what I would do with $20-25,000 / month to spend.

With that in mind, I tried a few numbers in the spreadsheet. Just to be more "realistic" I dropped the payday back down to $4.5mil. I'm also assuming that the first thing I would do is to pay off my mortgage, so what remains is basically entirely discretionary spending.

On a restrained budget of $50K/yr ($4K/mo), my assets grow faster than I'm spending, and I die with $20M in the bank. On a more extravagant $100K/yr (over $8K/mo), things are a bit closer, but still earning more than I spend and leveling out at about $7M in the bank. The crossover point is about $125K, leaving you broke at 70.

So, I'm going to say that, yes, I really could retire and not work again with a $5-10M payout.

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

#26

Post by StavrosK »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #10
jdc wrote: post #2

...where retiring rich is defined as spending $300,000 annually. I'd personally move somewhere cheaper once my income no longer depended on my location.

Looks like it's time to recommend The Millionaire Next Door : http://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Thomas-Stanley/d... Don't bother to buy it: Get it out of the library and skim it. It's not a difficult read and it belabors its own point a bit. My own summary: The secret to retaining a high net worth is the same as the secret to accumulating it: Control spending. Don't waste money. Most of the people you know…

So you'll either be a poor-ish young playboy or a rich old guy? Why does the first option sound more attractive?

Of course, fast cars and country clubs are all superficial, but being a miser just so you can die with millions isn't that much better...

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

#28

Post by GFischer »

wallflower wrote: post #6

I think I could get by on $30,000 a year and working on my own ISV in a nice Latin American country. Is anyone doing that here?

I live on U$ 12,000 a year* in a Latin American country (Uruguay), but it isn't a good enough amount to retire on.

U$ 30,000 is doable, but not millionaire-ish. You could live quite comfortably and with housemaids and eating out often, but forget about a (good) car or high-end electronic toys (unless you bring them with you from abroad).

There are some nice places to retire, but I'm not sure if you wouldn't find it boring quite quickly.

Oh, and government loves to swamp you with taxes.

(*) that's after taxes, my pre-tax earnings are about U$ 24,000

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

#29

Post by GFischer »

philwelch wrote: post #18
wallflower wrote: post #6

I think I could get by on $30,000 a year and working on my own ISV in a nice Latin American country. Is anyone doing that here?

I have similar ideas. I've gathered that Buenos Aires is nice, incidentally.

I'm not a fan of Buenos Aires personally, but you can visit there for cheap :) .

(I live in Montevideo, Uruguay which is quite close to Buenos Aires)

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