Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: you're rich, now what?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 157 posts

Re: Ask HN: you're rich, now what?

#131

Post by time_management »

gaius wrote: post #115
time_management wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Athletes peak in their late 20s and early 30s. In intellectual endeavors (despite prominent counterexamples, half of whom were like Keats or Galois and died on ascent) most people peak in their late 40s or 50s. So there isn't the same call to quit after a few years of success.

Well, yes and no. Mathematicians for example are notorious for burning out young.

This is more of a popular myth than reality. It's more common in math than in other fields, and mathematicians peak earlier than, say, writers (35, as opposed to 55, would be my guesses) but it's not actually the norm for a mathematician to do his best work in his 20s. Those stories are cases of the exception proving the rule.

Re: Ask HN: you're rich, now what?

#132

Post by ivankirigin »

pg wrote: post #130
josefresco wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BTW that NYTimes article you cite is boom-town trash. Published in 2007, just before things started going in the shitter. The mentality of the past 5 years was "more, more more" and it's almost sickening to read this account of how greedy these millionaires are/were. They all chose to live in Silicon Valley and continued to aspire to be hundred-millionares instead of enjoying what they have. Some people don't deserve…

They all chose to live in Silicon Valley and continued to aspire to be hundred-millionares instead of enjoying what they have. Some people don't deserve their wealth. So you're saying it's bad if rich people continue to build things instead of switching to being mere consumers?

More importantly, I disagree that building great companies is not enjoying what they have.

Re: Ask HN: you're rich, now what?

#133

Post by ph0rque »

pstinnett wrote: post #129
ph0rque wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In your place, I'd make college funds for nephews (or anyone for that matter) obsolete, by making education really inexpensive if not free.

Depending on the amount of $ I have, I agree with this. If I was only filthy rich, family education would come first. If I was stupidly/insanely/infinitely rich, everyone would benefit from free education.

I spent ~1.5 years working on an app that would do just that. I've since put the project on hold: the problem is just so huge that it's very hard to whittle it down to "just" an app that can be made within a reasonable amount of time, and have it be useful.

Re: Ask HN: you're rich, now what?

#134

Post by fallentimes »

peregrine wrote: post #94
njoubert wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although it's a nice success story, you are marginalizing the majority of Americans and, in fact, the majority of people in the tech world, that has to spend a considerable amount of time and effort just to make ends meet. Paying your way through college and dealing with the current lack of jobs means that I can't necessarily just work on what I love and I have to make concessions. It has nothing to do with whether I…

I totally agree. Like I can spend all my time working on a startup when I work 20hours in a week as an intern and do a very high load class schedule. I keep telling myself someday...

Where you are right now, is nothing more than your _own_ decisions and responses to the environment around you.

Re: Ask HN: you're rich, now what?

#135

Post by ratsbane »

antiform wrote: post #109
ratsbane wrote: post #73

I'd go back to school and study bioinformatics. I've seen too many friends and family suffer slow deaths from cancer, Parkinson's, and soforth and I think the solutions to those problems are only a matter of time. To be even a small part of that solution would be the most satisfying thing I can imagine.

If it's so important to you personally, what is stopping you from going after it now?

Good question. That made me think a bit. Because I'm not unsatisfied with what I'm doing now and because I'm not confident that I would be effective in that field, at least not for a long time. I took the original question as more of if you weren't doing what you were doing now and you could do anything in the world, what would it be? Also, I agree with etal's comment about the legwork and planning. It takes a lot of effort and frictional costs to get out of one situation and into another. I don't know. It's something to think about.

Re: Ask HN: you're rich, now what?

#136

Post by weavejester »

gaius wrote: post #114
newsycaccount wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please link to a single "conservative" investment with an 8% yield.

Right now you can get 6% in the UK on a no-frills deposit account at Tesco (hmm, thought they were a supermarket) but that'll be taxed so it's more like 4% real. Which is barely keeping pace with (real, not official) inflation.

The base interest rate in the UK is at a 57 year low at the moment, so UK banks might not be the best place to store $5 million ;)

Re: Ask HN: you're rich, now what?

#138

Post by gaius »

weavejester wrote: post #136
gaius wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right now you can get 6% in the UK on a no-frills deposit account at Tesco (hmm, thought they were a supermarket) but that'll be taxed so it's more like 4% real. Which is barely keeping pace with (real, not official) inflation.

The base interest rate in the UK is at a 57 year low at the moment, so UK banks might not be the best place to store $5 million ;)

True, but banks lend to each other at LIBOR which has remained stubbornly high. Only a few weeks ago some were offering 8% 1-year deposit accounts to get any cash they could get their hands on.

Re: Ask HN: you're rich, now what?

#139

Post by stcredzero »

gcheong wrote: post #72
petesmithy wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Most of Europe is simply too crowded and expensive to be attractive to the average North American." Who is this Greenspun fella?!

It's true. On my last trip to Romania, Austria and France I didn't run into any average Americans.

Makes those places sound a lot more attractive!
Post reply on HN