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Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

zephony.com

251–260 of 308 posts

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

#251

To those who have invested time in making a "task breakdown table": Have the benefits of contextualizing your short-term goals outweighed the cost in time it takes to make the table for small tasks?

Yeah I wonder.

Seems optimistic to be able to breakdown a project into 15 minute intervals.

Personally I do keep Todo lists, but it's more like scratch that I append many notes to.

I don't see the advantage in guessing how long each task will take down to the minute and then writing that into a table.

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

#252
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> low to medium risk areas and average 10 - 15% per year. Where can I get this return reliably at "low risk"?

It doesn't seem difficult to avg +1% per month doing relatively basic trading in my experience. The challenge I have is remembering to actually care about it and do the trades, life gets too busy and before I realize it a month has gone by. But whenever I'm on top of it, 1% gains have been very easy over the past decade, I'm rarely in the market for more than a few hours. But I risk having a pile of cash to trade wit…

1. The S&P 500 has returned about 14% per year over the past decade, so a return of 12% isn't particularly notable.

2. Market returns vary greatly from decade to decade, so we shouldn't necessarily expect this 14% rate of return to continue. (Most obviously, there were no recessions in the past decade, which is unusual.)

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

#253

As someone who developed their career from the comfort of their bedroom, I always find it very interesting to see people all over the world from different cultures experiencing the same basic issues with this kind of work set up. I absolutely loved working from my bedroom for years. It was great (despite the common down falls like the ones listed here). My family used to make fun of me at parties and seasonal celebra…

> I eventually ended up investing in building my own "detached" office in the back yard I want to know more about this!

Same. Would love some pics or some advice about what you've done to make this a place that is conducive to getting work done.

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

#254
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I picked one up almost 3 years ago for my home office. Also happened to document the process of building one here: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/build-your-own-8x4-foot-white... I don't mind spending money but it's hard to pass up $15 worth of materials at home depot and 20 minutes of work instead of buying a pre-made whiteboard for $200. If anyone is curious, even ~3 years later with a decent amount of usage it wor…

The only problem with hardware store melamine is the performance degrades quickly and they ghost badly with almost any brand of marker that remains on the board for a week or so. I’ve tried a bunch of hacks including wiping the board with WD40 and have since moved on to glass write boards when and where I can. I’ve had times in my career where I didn’t have $200 to spend, and the hardware store option is great, but $…

For what it's worth, not all melamine boards appear to be the same in this regard. I covered a wall of my office in 4x8 sheets from Home Depot. It held up great. So a few months later I covered another wall, but bought the melamine from Lowes this time. The stuff from Lowes was borderline useless after a few weeks.

Dunno how useful this is as I have no idea how to identify the actual brand/manufacturer of the "good" ones...

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

#255
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firstly, it was "low to medium" risk, not "low" risk. Secondly, pretty much any reputable ETF (or combination of ETF's) can quite easily achieve this over 30 years.

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%

Average rate of return is 7% accounting for inflation, actually. That assumes you're doing dividend reinvestment and such.

Vanguard's predictions of 3-4% over the next decade mean that if you do a straight dollar calculation you'd be closer to ~7%, because that 3-4% number includes inflation, once again.

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

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and you know lots of real estate deals that are low risk, pay 10-15% and available for participation @ $100 / week? >> an average appreciation of 13% last year, which is not sustainable for this area but still indicative of the overall trend. not sustainable but indicative of the overall trend? What does that even mean?

It means we aren't going to see 13% every year in my localized market, but we will see a continued upward march - where the data from the past 30 years bears that out. Other markets like Seattle, given the geography and current restrictions it isn't much of a jump to think you could average a 10% appreciation for the next decade. I don't recall anyone saying anything about participation @ $100 / week, so don't be fli…

Ah real estate: the rent keeps going up and there’s no easy way for individuals to benefit from it.

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

#258
post #140
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no reputable ETF that will give you 15% return. Even 10% real return is incredibly unlikely.

I don't think 'unreputable' is fair - they're just a different (not 'low - medium'!) risk profile.

No, they're just non-existent. Anyone with a brokerage account had a ~20%+ return last year... it's over 30 years that matters.

I'm sure there's SOME ETF that managed to do 15% returns over a 30 yr period, but that's just selection bias after the fact. It doesn't mean that ETF would do well this year, or next.

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

#259
post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a six figure job from the comfort of your own home/office is fucking magic Everyone should get the chance to experience it. Most people don't get to experience a six figure job, period; the median income at peak earning agree is around $80k.

Where do you live? US median income is closer to US$63k and something like US$40k in the UK.

Median income vs median peak income. I don't know whether the figure is accurate, but it's discussing a different thing.

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

#260
post #112

As someone who developed their career from the comfort of their bedroom, I always find it very interesting to see people all over the world from different cultures experiencing the same basic issues with this kind of work set up. I absolutely loved working from my bedroom for years. It was great (despite the common down falls like the ones listed here). My family used to make fun of me at parties and seasonal celebra…

> low to medium risk areas and average 10 - 15% per year. Where can I get this return reliably at "low risk"?

I suggest buying low-fee domestic index-tracking ETFs like "Vanguard S&P 500 ETF" (VOO), using a low-fee brokerage app like M1 Finance.

... or not. Your situation may call for something else. Any specific suggestions people give you will likely sound unnecessarily specific and perhaps arbitrary, unless you have spent a lot of time learning about the modern investing landscape -- you really need to do that for yourself.

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