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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

#81

Post by jshen »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #73
jshen wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is a libertarian fantasy and nothing more. Wages for most people have been stagnant or declining while energy prices are steadily rising. This is a huge problem

Please tell me which point I'm wrong on. Do most people not live in larger houses, enjoy greater automation of housework, enjoy larger and better entertainment technologies, and benefit from medical procedures which did not exist in 1967?

I'm disputing the prediction that the future, if we remain on our current course, will be more of the same. Here's what you said, "If the past 40 years are a guide to the future". I'm disputing the idea that income inequality doesn't mean anything because the "poor" will have a higher standard of living that the middle class does today. Again, incomes are on the decline for most americans, and energy prices are rising. There is no way that we will get more of the same if that remains true.

Also, most people I know live in smaller houses than their parents, but that's purely anecdotal and based on the obvious fact that there are more people living on the same amount of earth. I happen to live in a major city.

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

#82

Post by jacquesm »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #77
jacquesm wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anybody can buy a fast car, but few can actually afford to maintain it. A $10K fast car you buy might cost you a good bit of money per year to drive and keep in shape. Especially when it's thirty years old. That's mostly the reason it's only $10K to begin with (and the fact that the market for impractical cars is not too large).

When I lived in the Valley I bought a 1986 Toyota MR2 for about $6k. It had hilarious 80s-era retro styling with angles reminiscent of Tron , and it admittedly has been through an engine and transmission rebuild in the last 24 years, but it still runs great (for the friend I sold it to) and doesn't cost much more to maintain than any car of that age would cost. It is marginally less fuel efficient than many cars, des…

The WRX has been mentioned in this thread, that's one that I would definitely stay away from second hand.

People that drive those usually push them as far as they'll go (and further) whenever they get the chance.

MR2 is a great little car and about as reliable as sports cars come.

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

#83

Post by Kisil »

sambe wrote: post #48
kscaldef wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I seriously don't mean this in an insulting/trollish way but I think you are either lacking imagination or underestimating how quickly you can adapt to a richer lifestyle. Given you are even here and thinking about entrepreneurial rewards I'd guess the latter. On the other hand perhaps I underestimate how... modest you like to live? Whilst I also raised my eyebrows at "upper middle class", I know people in that range…

It seems obvious to you and many others here that everyone slides down the slippery spending slope. I have the same problem understanding this position that I have understanding "compulsive shoppers" who buy luxury goods on credit cards. Wouldn't one just... not do it? It seems that the type of person who overspends when rich will also overspend when poor, i.e. that it's more a function of willpower than income level. I don't overspend now; why would having more money make me any more likely to overspend?

I'm starting to think there's some major psychological division here; why is it so hard for you to imagine having willpower, or for me to imagine not having it? I'd like to say it's just that there aren't that many more things I want, but perhaps that feeling is a higher function of willpower, and I've just conditioned myself not to want things I can't afford. If this kind of cognitive shielding is involved, it might partially explain why the two sides have so much trouble relating.

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

#84

Post by portman »

muhfuhkuh wrote: post #11

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 (…

The US inflation rate over the last 40 years is readily available from the US Department of Labor based on the Consumer Price Index.

http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

$35,594 in 1970 got you the same as $200,000 today.

So why does it strain credulity to believe that $200,000 today will be equivalent to $500,000 in the year 2050? Inflation was much higher over the previous 40 years.

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

#85

Post by bialecki »

I don't really get the obsession with wanting to be retired at 30. What would you do for the next 60 years? Honestly, the math here is pretty encouraging. If you're the founder of a company that makes a smallish exit, you've just freed up about 20 years of your life when you've only been alive for 30 years.

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

#86

Post by jacquesm »

GFischer wrote: post #79
jacquesm wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is living in Uruguay, apart from the money angle? I've heard lots of good stuff about it but never from someone that actually lived there. Most curious!

It's not bad :) The grass is always greener on the other side, but I'll try to be less biased: - It's reasonably safe and orderly by South American standards (1) - Some things are much cheaper, like anything labor-related (like housemaids) (2), or meat (we're the biggest per capita meat consumers in the world, as there are 5 cows per inhabitant) - Healthcare is in a socialist style (actually Mutualism) (3), and while…

Mutual organizations sound like credit unions.

Thanks for writing that very detailed response, there is lots of concrete information in there.

I've visited Latin America several times, Bogota, Colombia and Coronado, Panama but never got around to visiting Uruguay. I hear lots of good stuff about Costa Rica as well.

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

#87

Post by tokenadult »

portman wrote: post #84
muhfuhkuh wrote: post #11

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 (…

The US inflation rate over the last 40 years is readily available from the US Department of Labor based on the Consumer Price Index. http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm $35,594 in 1970 got you the same as $200,000 today. So why does it strain credulity to believe that $200,000 today will be equivalent to $500,000 in the year 2050? Inflation was much higher over the previous 40 years.

More to the point, of course, is how much you will have to work to have that number of nominal dollars.

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

#88

Post by houseabsolute »

ora600 wrote: post #56
strlen wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Let's assume you want to live in a major metro area, send your kids to private school..." That's his problem. When we moved to this country, my dad had an H1B visa and was making far below what an entry level Google employee is making. Nonetheless we had quite a comfortable life: rented an apartment in a suburb with a good school. Later, my parents (both of them finally rising to market rate) were able to afford a…

Agree, except the single family home. Because the quality of life in US apartment buildings is appalling. I don't want to hear every step that my upstairs neighbors take. I don't need to know when they go to the restroom in the middle of the night. I don't need my downstairs neighbor ask me not to walk after 10pm. This is ridiculous. I'll live in a US apartment once the sound insulation issue is resolved (hint to US…

Maybe you just picked the wrong building? The only noise I hear from my neighbors is when the windows are open and the kids are screaming two doors down. But no insulation is going to fix that problem.

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

#89

Post by huherto »

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 believe you can. Some rough estimates:

- 3 room house on nice neighborhood $150,000 USD

- A 2010 Toyota corolla. $15,000 USD.

- A maid visiting twice a week. $1,700 USD a year. (This is really nice!)

- Private school for kids $3,000 USD a year for each kid.

- Dinner for two twice a week. $3,100 USD a year.

Edit:fixed number formatting

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

#90

Post by noodle »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #36
muhfuhkuh wrote: post #11

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 (…

How the hell are all of our parents going to fare when you need 500,000 to maintain an upper-middle class lifestyle? If the past 40 years are a guide to the future, then the lifestyle we currently define as "upper-middle class" will be redefined as "poverty" and will be available to virtually everyone, including people who can't even be bothered to find a job. People will continue to complain about the declining midd…

it seems to me that predicting the distant (20+ years) future based on the past never really works out.
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