Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?

im not super conservative with my money (i.e., i don't do t-bills, and other "super safe" investments).

i am just dollar cost averaging into index funds, like ive always done. I anticipate that I'll get anywhere from 5% to 15% per year, compounding.

i also have pre-tax income of roughly $500k. i still abide by my financial plan as if my windfall didn't exist. we save about $100k a year.

im around 31, so im hoping that the combination of these two will lead to enough accumulation in wealth by the time im 40 that i can retire early and live off investment income.

by my current calculations, assuming increases in compensation (and retirement contributions) that match inflation, and based on my current war-chest, I should have between $8.1m to $19m by the time I reach my 40s. If I average out investment gains to 8% compounding, we're looking at $10.5m.

By that point, 5% gains should give me around half a million to live off of every year. And anything higher is icing on the cake.

And I can definitely live very well on that budget. That's basically life now. And life is good.

i'm not going to tell u what to do, but just sharing my experience.

other people made a lot of money doing similar bets in crypto. they decided to launch crypto funds, buy altcoins, do more investing.

i just recognize that i got very, very lucky, and decided to take cash off the table. ill still do some risky betting with my money, but that's with a very, very small % of my investment capital.

For the first, you may want to go as boring and sane as possible, make sure there's never a way to lose all of it at once. Banking crashes? Have money elsewhere. Other country crashes? Have money at home. You crash (literally, in a car, and become disabled), have someone you trust have access to part of the money. Your family crashes (emotionally), have some money somewhere safe.

And, for the personal component — the tough one — you have two troublemakers: the urge to treat yourself and live a little, and the urge to make something entirely different of your life than you thought was previously possible.

While you say you have no vices, understand that they come and go as they please, and you might find yourself in an unexpected situation with a perfect vice to match.

It's like going up escalators. Floor 1 and 2, regular people, regular shops, you've got all you need there. Now you're on floor 6 or 7, everything looks ridiculous. Why would anyone need another house, why would anyone drive a fun car and a regular car, why vacation on a tiny island at the remotest place on earth? Why.... well... I will be dead in a few years anyway, so... I can do what I want. I should do what I want. Why do I live, if I don't live a little! Those things catch you out on the days when your emotional vinyl record skips a little, just for a split-second. Maybe you used to treat yourself to a chocolate pastry you'd usually skip at Starbucks on a bad day, which, now is capable of turning into a cancerous flaw around your self-reward-system. Something with the kids, something with the wife, something with a friend asking the wrong thing. Not everybody is like this, maybe a lot of people aren't, but most won't know before they come across a bit of money mixed in with a cocktail of new opportunities.

The calmest and most-stable rich friends I have, are those who live a life that really is almost entirely like anyone's life. They spend on things that matter, which is health, security and reasonable comfort, and are just like everyone else otherwise. They know when the grocery store raises their prices is what I am trying to say.

I think the best thing you could do, and bear in mind this is advice from a random stranger on the internet, is to pay yourself some kind of yearly allowance. Much like a salary. In a perfect world, that'd be mostly from interest and similar gains, but don't be too tempted to maximise that (and its risk). Do work, do something that excites you. Working with other people you like very often trumps trying to manically work something out for yourself, but everyone's different. Possibly work part time, two or three days a week, spend the rest of the time seeing your kids actively grow up. They'll appreciate it later, even if they won't show it now.