I feel obliged to comment, although not with my normal HN username.
I’m 41. I retired two years ago at the age of 39. I spent 18 years working in Silicon Valley at four different companies of various sizes. At 29 I was promoted to a first-level manager.
Two of the companies I worked for were successful while I was there, although not spectacularly so. Mostly I minimized my costs. For the last five years of my career, my base salary was about $200K and I was making another $100K in equity (stock options and vesting of restricted stock). Of the $300K, I paid 40% in taxes, lived on 10%, and saved 50%. Clearly, I made good money but I didn’t get an Instagram-style money waterfall.
I retired with $3M. I’ve made another $1M off a well-timed investment of $30K in bitcoin, so my net worth is $4M now. By the “4% rule” I should be able to withdraw $160K a year. But I can’t shed my frugal habits that led me to this place, even though I feel like I’m living “high on the hog” here. I’m going through about $60K a year ($5K a month).
I think that some people I know think I hit the jackpot. But it’s really not like that. Mostly, I made a long slog of working unending sixty-hour weeks and also being effective while doing it.
I left and moved to Russia. (I speak Russian fluently as a second language.) I date a succession of girls in their twenties. 27 or 28 is about the cutoff for me. And they’re attractive girls: they’re not the twentysomething warpigs you see lumbering through the cubicle hallways of Silicon Valley. My girlfriend at the moment is 20, which is less than half my age. But I date other girls on the side.
I met a European guy with almost the same exact story: by some combination of success and saving money he is in the same position, although to a slightly lesser degree. He’s my best friend in life: I’ve never connected with another man so well since childhood. We throw dinner parties in my huge flat, and invite cure girls and stand-up guys. We get each other 100% and feed off each other’s energy. Our reputation is spreading and it seems like every week we throw a better party and with hotter girls. Today I ran into an acquaintance on the street that I hadn’t seen in a year, and he said he’d heard of our parties and would like to get invited.
We are on a first-name basis with the owners of the coolest clubs and bars in the city. When I met my current girlfriend, I invited her out on Saturday night to the coolest bar in the city. She said, “I don’t have a card.” I said, “I don’t need a card, I know everyone there.” We went there, and as usual, the bouncer smiled and shook my hand. Sometimes I invite a bunch of people to these bars and they get “face controlled,” but then I just come out and ask the bouncer to let them in and he always does. This is the closest to being a celebrity that I’m ever going to get.
I tinker around with software. I’m fascinated by Haskell. But I’ve lost my passion for it. I worked too long and too hard in Silicon Valley. Now I want to read books, drink wine, hang out with my friends, and consort with lots of girls. I don’t have the drive I had as a twentysomething.
I get a lot of invitations on LinkedIn to come and interview here and there. Even though I’ve been gone for awhile, it’s clear that Silicon Valley is booming. But I can never go back. After seeing this side of the wall, I can’t possibly go back to a cubicle. And I don’t know how I would explain my life. “I had this great 18-year career. I’m a great technologist and a great manager. But for the last X years I’ve been doing… um… well… just pure debauchery.”
Having been at companies in growth mode, I know that there are really few good candidates out there. I literally interviewed THOUSANDS of candidates during my career. I know how clueless my competition is. If I want to go back, I can. Surely, there are much better people than me. I’d say I’m at the 80th percentile in Silicon Valley. But as I write this I know I can never go back.
When I first left, I considered doing a SaaS and had an idea. I formed an LLC before I left. But I’ve done nothing and have lost interest. I no longer have the love for programming that I once had, and I don’t really need any money. I’m enjoying my life. So I just want to continue to enjoy my life.
I am happy in a way that I have never been. My biggest problem is shedding the mentality that brought me here. I got here by busting my ass, taking names, saving as much as I could and investing. It was a feat of disciple. I chewed my 20-year-old girlfriend out for not keeping the wine glasses of my guests topped off during dinner at her end of the table. She’s attracted to my status and confidence, but she doesn’t really understand my mentality, especially since it is essentially alien to her culture.
Ironically, I’ve taken a job two nights a week teaching English for $9 an hour. But I enjoy it. I connect with the students and the students love me. I think the people at the school are confused, because they know that I have this crazy life of high-end clubs and a fashionable flat in the dead center of the city, and they don’t know how I support it on my income.
TL;DR: I busted my ass and made enough money to escape. I’m enjoying my life.