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What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

mtlynch.io

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Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#31

Post by pkaye »

icedchai wrote: post #22
pkaye wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I guess that works as long as a sudden bout of cancer or some other chronic illness doesn't turn your world around. Suddenly all the "plan to retire in X years" come into question. Will I be still living in X years? Will I be able to continue working and investing till then? Or will I have burn through all my savings? True financial independence doesn't come till you can weather such a storm and most people are n…

Those things are obviously unfortunate, but relatively rare. It is also rare to win the lottery, or actually make a profit on startup stock options. I am not talking about these cases. The average person in this industry makes good money, and should have the ability to save and invest some of their income.

Its not as rare as you think. Maybe 10% of cancer by your 40s. Much more likely than winning a lottery or making a ton in stock options.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#32

Post by throwawayok »

imbusy111 wrote: post #16
mywittyname wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I bet he has at least $1MM in liquid assets banked on top of what income he earns through his projects.

I assume you are being sarcastic. How do you put off $1M in assets with a $200k median salary in four years? $200k x 4 x 65% is just $520k without even any expenses paid such as the ~$72k you would have paid for a room in a shared apartment.

Well, in addition to salary, he would have also gotten a bonus and stock. The bonus might be $50K/year, and then maybe another $100K/year in stock. The number of shares in the stock grant would have been computed at the date he started -- 5 years ago, GOOG was around $440/share, so at today's price, the shares would be worth $245K/year, assuming he held onto them as they vested.

So, that adds up to around $495K/year, or maybe $300K after tax. With $50K/year in expenses, you're left with $250K/year, or $1M over 4 years.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#33

Post by tejtm »

icedchai wrote: post #22
pkaye wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I guess that works as long as a sudden bout of cancer or some other chronic illness doesn't turn your world around. Suddenly all the "plan to retire in X years" come into question. Will I be still living in X years? Will I be able to continue working and investing till then? Or will I have burn through all my savings? True financial independence doesn't come till you can weather such a storm and most people are n…

Those things are obviously unfortunate, but relatively rare. It is also rare to win the lottery, or actually make a profit on startup stock options. I am not talking about these cases. The average person in this industry makes good money, and should have the ability to save and invest some of their income.

I would urge us all to not associate the odds of becoming genetically broken with the odds of winning the lottery. Being a mammal more or less assures that if we live long enough (4x to 5x reproductive age) we will accumulate enough damage to have adverse events. This is multiple orders of magnitude more like than a life altering lottery win in the same time span.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#34

Post by txcwpalpha »

pkaye wrote: post #19
icedchai wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing you don't have any savings or investments? You might want to plan ahead more than your next pay check. Investigate financial independence / retire early (FIRE.)

Yes I guess that works as long as a sudden bout of cancer or some other chronic illness doesn't turn your world around. Suddenly all the "plan to retire in X years" come into question. Will I be still living in X years? Will I be able to continue working and investing till then? Or will I have burn through all my savings? True financial independence doesn't come till you can weather such a storm and most people are n…

>Yes I guess that works as long as a sudden bout of cancer or some other chronic illness doesn't turn your world around.

What does this have to do with it? Insurance would cover it just the same as if you hadn't quit your job.

I also took a hiatus from working and meeting expenses has never even been a concern for me, despite dealing with some quite serious medical issues. During my hiatus, I am constantly dumbfounded by people's lack of understanding of how I'm not totally broke without a job. If you have even the most basic budgeting skills and have decent enough job that you aren't living paycheck-to-paycheck, saving up enough money to live off of for 6-12 months is pretty easy. I only had a moderate salary, live in a medium-to-high CoL area, and wasn't particularly thrifty (I still engaged in normal spending like taking international trips places, buying new things, had a decent apartment, etc), and over the course of a 3 years I easily was able to save up enough to be jobless for multiple years living off of those savings alone. And that includes maintaining my savings for retirement, too.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#35

Post by anoncoward111 »

m1n1 wrote: post #4

how does he pay the bills? and how about health insurance?

disclaimer: i'm a health insurance broker

if you have non-poverty-level income, you can buy a policy for about $300-500 a month through most state exchanges

if you have poverty-level income (no stock dividends, no capital gains, havent worked w2 job in years), then you can qualify for Medicaid

another option is to open a 1-2 employee LLC or LLP and buy small group health insurance. typically these plans are about $5-7k a year and have somewhat reasonable deductibles and somewhat reasonable out of pocket maxes. at the very least, a $100,000 appendix surgery will only cost you $7,000 max, and then you are covered for all other medical expenses for the rest of the year

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#37

Post by ceejayoz »

icedchai wrote: post #27
clumsysmurf wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Those things are obviously unfortunate, but relatively rare Not rare at all, 1 in 5 Americans is being pursued by collection agencies for being unable to pay medical bills.

That's good news. Since they're not paying their bills, they actually have more money to invest instead. ;) You know what they say about lies and statistics... In all seriousness, even if this dubious statistic is true, most of those are not due to terminal or debilitating illnesses. "Unable to pay medical bills" can be for a variety of reasons, ranging from the obvious (not having the money), to confusion, to billin…

In the US, it needn't be terminal nor debilitating to bankrupt you.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#38

Post by mtlynch »

m1n1 wrote: post #4

how does he pay the bills? and how about health insurance?

I'm living off savings from Google and jobs prior to Google.

Google had really high comp and I don't spend very much money outside of the fact that I live in Manhattan, so I have about 2-3 years of runway from that stockpile of savings.

My health insurance is $470 for a basic high deductible plan.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#40

Post by [deleted] »

icedchai wrote: post #9
RikNieu wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right? My blog post on the same subject would be more on the lines of "freak out about how to have a roof over my head next month and not have my family's health insurance cancelled..."

I'm guessing you don't have any savings or investments? You might want to plan ahead more than your next pay check. Investigate financial independence / retire early (FIRE.)

[deleted]
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