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Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

danielvassallo.com

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Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#121

Post by shados »

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #29
Dayshine wrote: post #6

> When I first hit $100K income, I would take a peek at my W2 for a few days admiring the six digits, but then it wore off. When I hit $200K, $300K, $400K, and $500K, it was the same thing. I would be delusional to think that earning $1M, or $10M would suddenly make it different. >What is out there that I could do that would make me excited waking up every day for the next 45 years that could also earn me enough mone…

Lots of people used to taking home 275k aren't going to transition well to 40k which depending on where you live could feel like you are only slightly above poverty level.

yeah, going up is obviously fine, but it quickly becomes your new normal. Going back down is...painful.

Even for simple things. I grew up without A/C in an apartment with leaky windows that would get way too cold at night. Never bothered me. I was used to sweating a lot in summer and using a lot of blankets or standing by the oven while we were making dinner in winter.

Today? The moment the temperature is a little off I WANT TO DIE. I can't get any work (or anything really) done, and I'm likely to get sick. Im a wuss now. Central air/heat (or heated floors if we're gonna get fancy) or I'm sad. My young self from 30 years ago would laugh his ass off at how useless my current self is. Wealth can spoil you really quickly.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#122

Post by [deleted] »

hinkley wrote: post #83
TheShrug wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you're looking for attention or validation, but I have a feeling you'll probably get more negative attention than positive when you seem to be equating having $1M in liquid assets to "starting with no income, no product, no business".

$20k a year in interest after taxes if he’s not a complete moron. I could survive on around $45k a year (including health insurance) so I could putter for a long time before I had to deliver something. But domain knowledge and contacts will probably be the biggest assets OP turns out to possess. Don’t undersell those.

[deleted]

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#123

Post by hinkley »

DVassallo wrote: post #89
Someone1234 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you'd have $275k net. If you remove generous expenses, you have $200k a year in savings. In Seattle Washington? You'd have an extremely hard time making ends meet on $75K, it certainly isn't "generous." For example median home value in Seattle is $725K.

My expenses are about $150K a year. Fixed costs per month: * $5K mortgage * $1.2K health insurance * $300 life and disability insurance * $800 utilities * $2K home services: nanny, sitter, cleaner * $800 school / preschool and kids activities * $2K groceries, essentials, etc I have a family, two small kids (4 and 2), and live a comfortable life in Seattle. I could obviously adjust my standard of living, move somewher…

I live a comfortable life in Seattle and my mortgage is $3k a month including taxes, in a house that’s too big for us to keep clean. I think “comfortable” might be understating things.

If I moved into my neighborhood now it might be closer to $5k (without a bigger down payment) but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#125

Post by DVassallo »

cm2012 wrote: post #34
Dayshine wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need income with $1M. If you chuck that into an index tracker you can safely withdraw $40k a year...

Someone used to spending ~500k a year is not going to want the quality of life change of moving to 40k a year income. Their family would also not appreciate it.

True. It's hard to regress on the standard of living, especially with a family. I wasn't spending $500K/year though :) I still made sure I abundantly lived within my means.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#126

Post by hinkley »

cpursley wrote: post #111
pureagave wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the bay area and almost everywhere on the west coast you are looking at over $1k/month in property taxes for that house with a "paid-off mortgage." In most states you never really "own" your home. You only own it while you pay tax every six months until you are dead.

There's more to the US (and the world) than the West Coast.

Yes there’s also New York, Chicago, London, Paris... ;)

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#127

Post by icedchai »

DSingularity wrote: post #33
DVassallo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I saved a lot. About $1M in liquid assets. But I meant that I'll start with no income, no product, no business. I'll write another post about how I set up my safety net.

You probably don’t want to post this stuff so directly on net..

This is true. But how do you know he's not using a fake name / pseudonym?

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#128

Post by [deleted] »

cm2012 wrote: post #34
Dayshine wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need income with $1M. If you chuck that into an index tracker you can safely withdraw $40k a year...

Someone used to spending ~500k a year is not going to want the quality of life change of moving to 40k a year income. Their family would also not appreciate it.

[deleted]

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#129

Post by beefalo »

cpursley wrote: post #30
Dayshine wrote: post #6

> When I first hit $100K income, I would take a peek at my W2 for a few days admiring the six digits, but then it wore off. When I hit $200K, $300K, $400K, and $500K, it was the same thing. I would be delusional to think that earning $1M, or $10M would suddenly make it different. >What is out there that I could do that would make me excited waking up every day for the next 45 years that could also earn me enough mone…

I get that everyone's priorities are different, but I'm always amazed that ultra high income earners don't do this (this being live well below means, invest the rest in index funds then go work on passion projects, hobbies, focus on family). Lifestyle inflation and projecting status is a pricey hedonistic treadmill that is ultimately unrewarding.

Most people that make a lot of money probably like their jobs. It is probably quite difficult to get really good at something you don't actually like doing.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#130

Post by jmkd »

mprev wrote: post #4

The tl;dr is that when someone is paying you $500k a year then the work itself might not be all that motivating. However, within time, the money isn't enough to motivate you either. You gotta wonder, though, what the rest of the world would think if they stumbled across this kind of blog post.

In addition, the problems he now chooses to work on may not prove to be so important, as the very same motivation he lost at Amazon will remain missing until near the end of his runway.

Thus I can foresee an abstract quality to problem-selection, rather than a "damn this needs to be fixed as it's bringing me down on a daily basis" drive to build great things.

I hope to be wrong of course, good for him.

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