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Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?

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51–60 of 531 posts

Re: Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?

#51
1. Buy few flats/houses and rent them out. This way your investment will always go up comparing to saving money in the bank and you'll get consistent income like a salary. 2. Focus on your health, do some sport like jogging or running. Start small and keep increasing it. I'm suggesting this because you didn't mention you're exercising. 3. As everyone else said, spend more time with the family.

Re: Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?

#52
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

interesting comment. since the bear market started, wouldn’t this be a good time to buy at bargain prices?

Bargain prices are at the crash. Beginning of the bear market is by definition the time when prices will continue to decline. (I'm leaving it up to you to decide if it's a short-term correction, beginning of bear streak or anything else)

when everybody including Goldman is expecting a crash , is it really a crash ?

Re: Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?

#53
Don't do anything. The number one difference between needing and having is that when you need, the status quo is your enemy; when you have, it's your friend. If you need to pay rent, you gotta make money. If you need a new job or new clients, you gotta hustle. If you need to keep your bosses or investors happy, you gotta watch those metrics and keep on grindin'.

You pushed because you needed. Now that you have, stop pushing and learn to wait. If life was fine two weeks ago, it'll still be fine two weeks from now – as long as nothing changes. What $6M buys you is as much "nothing changes" as you want. The status quo isn't everyone's friend, but it's yours now and it takes some getting used to. So take your time.

Re: Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?

#54
I went through something similar a few years ago. Briefly, the things that stand out for me now are: depending on your circumstances and where you live, and your goals for the future, this windfall may not be as big a deal as you think at first. Create a spreadsheet and calculate how much you want to set aside for your kids, do you want to at least give them the option of studying at a top US University on full fees? Do you want to get them a foot on the property ladder? Do you want to fund a trust for them and your wife that matures at some point in the future and provides meaningful means for them to live on? What investments do you want to make in order to feel secure? For some people, this only comes through ownership of physical assets like land and buildings in juristictions that are stable and have well developed legal systems. Once you've got a handle on the long term goals, then make a habit of keeping a budget for your spending, there are lots of tools for this. It keeps you grounded and reminds you that every decision to spend money on something impulsively means you are taking money out of some other category. This doesn't change just because you have "lots" of money. I've seen many people (working in finance in London) who regularly got annual bonuses in the millions, who are now having to live very modestly because they allowed their lifestyles to expand unfettered and forgot the basics of long term planning and daily budgeting. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you are "rich", you have the means to have funded some of your long term goals but only if you are disciplined in future and continue to be diligent about money.

Best benefit of all is if this helps you spend more time with your family, and doesn't add stress to your life. Having lots of investments can be a lot more stressful than just having an adequate income and living within your means. Be careful of bankers selling your "wealth management" services.

Re: Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?

#55
Speaking as someone who made a decent pile in cryptocurrency:

1. Don't ride on the stocks forever. You'll feel it as a windfall now, but it's an investment. You invested in the company, and it paid off, so you should probably part ways and start a new chapter, since the company's fortunes can change quickly. Every investment comes with risk and the more you have in one investment, the more you will feel that risk - so get some diversity in the portfolio as you are able to. Assume that you will have to give up a hefty percentage of the $8mm in taxes and fees in the process of doing so. Advisors can help mitigate that, but you want to keep watching the finances while you rearrange your life.

2. Even as a multi-millionaire, you can't afford "big things" like premium real estate or private jets. The numbers do not pencil out. It's healthy to still want a simple lifestyle and use the cash to indulge more modest luxuries. I like being able to order anything I want from Starbucks!

3. It doesn't matter if you succeeded financially, you'll still have plenty of things to struggle with in life - the Stoics say as much. The only difference is that you have room to choose which things you struggle with. You don't have to plan to take on the world, but you can now devote yourself to any altruistic pursuit you wish, any academic study or athletic achievement, or travel wherever you like, for as long as you like. These are things that you mostly can't do if your existence is premised on paying the bills. But you do want to stay hungry in some way, even if a paycheck can't do it.

Re: Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?

#56
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having $8M isn't rich to you? That's a lot of money, you probably should give at least some of it away to charity.

It's "rich" in the sense that if you're smart and a bit frugal about it you'll never have to work again. It's not "rich" in the sense of never having to worry about money again. Really rich people will spend $8M adding a new garage to their summer house.

>It's "rich" in the sense that if you're smart and a bit frugal about it you'll never have to work again

If does nothing but spend money he can spend $150k every year until he dies. Not exactly frugal.

Re: Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?

#57
Pump as much as you can into your retirement savings, where i live this has the highest return and makes sure whatever happens later, you are covered. I would also aim for low-risk/low-return saving fonds for your kids. Needless to say, retire and find something fulfilling to do with your remaining days. Like many other say, enjoy times with your kids.

Re: Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?

#58
a) Find a financial advisor who takes a fee rather than a portion of your investment. (And/or talk to multiple of the "free" advisors at Schwab/Vanguard, etc.) Get the money working for you. Just be aware that there's (probably) a recession coming soon, so you want to make sure you're very strongly diversified - probably go heavy on bonds, cash. (Get their take on it. IANAFA.)

b) Are you worried about going (stir/)crazy if you retire? Put it this way - you're not going to be reincarnated, and you're not going to spend eternity playing harps. You've got 20 to 40 years left on the planet (i.e. between 7.3k and 14.6k days,) depending on how well you've been taking care of yourself, and you're only going to be truly fit for about half of that, barring misfortune. Your forties and early fifties are your remaining chance to do anything reasonably energetic outside the norm. Spending them in an office working on meaningless products for somebody else would be a waste.

Don't freak out it if you don't yet have any ideas about what you would do. Keep working for at least 6 months. In the meantime both you and your wife should come up with "dream lists" / "bucket lists" - 100 items each -- things you want to do (anything from places to travel, skills or subjects to learn, books to read, things to create, experiences to try, etc) before you kick it. It'll take a while if you haven't done this before. Don't compare lists until you both have them. After you both have lists, read through them together. If you're not convinced about any, strike them and replace them. Prioritize them. Start doing them. Quit work once you get into it sufficiently. Enjoy life & freedom.

Re: Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?

#59

Put in in a range of safe investments and live a quiet life. You’re not rich, your very well off, it’ll last till your death in great comfort if you are careful. Don’t start giving it away or spending it.

>You’re not rich, your very well off,

His 4% safe withdrawal rate is 10x my gross salary... to many of us he is in fact now quite rich.

I need 650-700k to retire,OP never ever ever ever ever ever has to work again.

Re: Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?

#60
1. Save the money. Don't spend it out of excitement.

2. Save the money. Don't spend it out of excitement.

3. Consult a finance professional.

4. Learn investment strategies and learn to invest slowly. You have enough money to experiment wisely.

5. Be happy and peaceful with your family.

6. If I had money, I would donate some to D Language Foundation[1]. It is a very modern language but it is developed only with community support. Donations will help fasten the development as a whole and stabilize the language and eco system. Why donate to D? Cus the world has donors for cancer, heart, etc and get good marketing that sometimes things like D get entirely overlooked.

[1] https://dlang.org/foundation/donate.html

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