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Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

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Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#141

Post by mattferderer »

krn wrote: post #129
Ididntdothis wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Now consider if you invest that money over 30 years in some low to medium risk areas and average 10 - 15% per year” How do you do that?

> How do you do that? For the last decade, 10-15% average annual return would have required keeping 70-90% of the funds invested in Nasdaq-100[1]. Also, Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFIAX) currently has a 10-year average of 13.52%[2]. The general advice is not to keep more than (110 - your_age)% of your retirement portfolio in these high risk / high rewards funds. Therefore, it's entirely possible to receive 10-15% annua…

Small caveat - Looking at 10 yr average right now is not a good measurement for future returns. 10 years ago stocks were just coming out of a recession. Right now they are at all time highs.

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#142

Post by jborichevskiy »

superbrane wrote: post #14

Here's another angle - not saying it's correct, just different. Why would you want to perfect working from your bedroom? It's ok to WFH for a while, but i would not recommend perfecting it long term. As a human being you should be looking to interact and socialize with other humans, in person, as well - this makes us better humans, more empathetic, more understanding to the needs and pains of others.

> As a human being you should be looking to interact and socialize with other humans, in person, as well - this makes us better humans, more empathetic, more understanding to the needs and pains of others.

Half a year plus of a remote work now - I'd argue I have a healthier social life now compared to before when working at an office. I actually have energy after work to go out for dinners and meetups and develop/maintain the personal connections I couldn't before.

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#143

Post by prostheticvamp »

bschwindHN wrote: post #19
petargyurov wrote: post #5

> Buy a whiteboard and write the goals for the day on it, for instance As a solo dev the biggest productivity booster for me, from a physical and mental aspect, was purchasing a whiteboard. It honestly feels like some sort of hack. Prior to having one I would use pen and paper but that didn't quite scratch my itch - if I made a mistake I would have to scribble it out and that space was now wasted. I can't quite expla…

The Frixion pens they sell in Japan are incredible for this. They're truly erasable, not like the shitty ones I remember from my childhood. The multi-color pens are especially useful. All the fun of brainstorming and erasability, without the bad smells and imprecise lines of whiteboard markers. http://www.frixion.jp/lineup/work.html?pid=product_ball-3-sl...

They sell them everywhere, under the PILOT brand.

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#144

Post by krn »

mattferderer wrote: post #141
krn wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do you do that? For the last decade, 10-15% average annual return would have required keeping 70-90% of the funds invested in Nasdaq-100[1]. Also, Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFIAX) currently has a 10-year average of 13.52%[2]. The general advice is not to keep more than (110 - your_age)% of your retirement portfolio in these high risk / high rewards funds. Therefore, it's entirely possible to receive 10-15% annua…

Small caveat - Looking at 10 yr average right now is not a good measurement for future returns. 10 years ago stocks were just coming out of a recession. Right now they are at all time highs.

That's a good point, but Nasdaq-100 had an average annual return of 13% even when counting from December 31, 2007 – which is before the beginning of the last recession.

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#145

Post by Ididntdothis »

mattferderer wrote: post #141
krn wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do you do that? For the last decade, 10-15% average annual return would have required keeping 70-90% of the funds invested in Nasdaq-100[1]. Also, Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFIAX) currently has a 10-year average of 13.52%[2]. The general advice is not to keep more than (110 - your_age)% of your retirement portfolio in these high risk / high rewards funds. Therefore, it's entirely possible to receive 10-15% annua…

Small caveat - Looking at 10 yr average right now is not a good measurement for future returns. 10 years ago stocks were just coming out of a recession. Right now they are at all time highs.

Agreed. You can’t assume that the current upswing will go on forever. People learned this in 2000 and 2008.

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#146

Post by Ididntdothis »

krn wrote: post #144
mattferderer wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small caveat - Looking at 10 yr average right now is not a good measurement for future returns. 10 years ago stocks were just coming out of a recession. Right now they are at all time highs.

That's a good point, but Nasdaq-100 had an average annual return of 13% even when counting from December 31, 2007 – which is before the beginning of the last recession.

You can’t take the absolute low point as your starting point and call it low risk.

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#147

Post by lamchob »

cpach wrote: post #16
enriquto wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

try a fountain pen with erasable blue ink

I had no idea that erasable ink (for fountain pens) is a thing. That’s awesome!

Whats even more awesome: The ink is not erased, but literally made invisible by manipulating the molecues in the ink "responsible for the color". By reverting this chemical process, the ink can be made visible again!

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#148

Post by inetsee »

bkanber wrote: post #137
mlrtime wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

which funds require this?

He's talking about the "Admiral" class of funds which have lower fees but higher minimums. (And most are $50k min, not 500k). Most of these funds can be bought at lower minimums too, they just have higher fees.

I'm invested in Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares, and the minimum investment is $3000, with fees of 0.04%. Those are pretty low minimums, and seem to me to be exceptionally low fees, and the average annual return is 13.94% over the last 10 years (before taxes).

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#149

Post by Ididntdothis »

robohoe wrote: post #132
jbb123 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most ETFs have returned about 7-8 % average long term (before allowing for inflation). Not a bad return, but very different over 20 years from 10-15%

7-8% is still nothing to scoff at. Better than a measly 1% in a savings account :D

There is a slight difference in outcome between 7 and 15 percent return though :).

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#150

Post by krn »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #146
krn wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good point, but Nasdaq-100 had an average annual return of 13% even when counting from December 31, 2007 – which is before the beginning of the last recession.

You can’t take the absolute low point as your starting point and call it low risk.

The absolute low point was in 2008, when Nasdaq-100 went down by -40.54%.

The last 15 years:

2019 35.23% 2018 -3.88% 2017 28.24% 2016 7.50% 2015 5.73% 2014 13.40% 2013 38.32% 2012 15.91% 2011 -1.80% 2010 16.91% 2009 43.89% 2008 -40.54% 2007 9.81% 2006 9.52% 2005 1.37% 2004 8.59%

At no point I called it low risk. It's high risk / high return. The risk of high financial exposure to such funds can only be taken until 40, because one needs to be able to not sell during the entire economic downturn.

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