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

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

#381

Post by maxerickson »

benburleson wrote: post #140
owaty wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My advice is do nothing with it, and start reading books about finance, investing, and money management. I see where you are coming from, but if you step back for a second, this just sounds bizarre. OP now has more money than they need or ever have had, and instead of relaxing and finally caring about something other than money, you suggest they actually start caring more about money.

Yeah, try to ignore the fact that it's money; imagine it's some other asset the person wants to keep, like 100 ponies. You would definitely suggest reading up on how to successfully keep ponies, right?

That's for the part where they need a hobby.

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

#382

Post by megaman8 »

Hold on to it and don't tell anyone you have the money: not even relatives, just your wife.

Be very careful when you spend it. There are 2 types of spending in life: Assets and liabilities, learn about this. You want to minimize your liabilities and maximize your assets.

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

#383

Post by ataturk »

dont_burn_it_up wrote: post #219

This is a great thread. Throwaway also. Gonna write some stream-of-consciousness here, because I have to start my work day, but I personally made approx. this amount from an exit, and it has gone very well for me and my family (wife + 3 kids). Some additional fine-tuned advice of what worked for me: (1) don't be afraid to spend money - high hourly rates - for a good accountant and good tax attorney. (2) if I were you…

Unless you absolutely need the financial adviser and accountant, I wouldn't hire them. I have gone through several accountants and people called CFPs are just idiots who steal from you. Learn to manage your own money and get tax help as needed, but most accoutants are sub-par, too. The last one I fired almost cost me $40K in taxes because he misunderstood cost basis. This was supposedly a seasoned pro, not some schmo. YOU HAVE TO KNOW YOUR FINANCES YOURSELF. No shortcuts. Otherwise people will steal from you while blowing smoke up your ass.

#15 was good advice--bragging about it ends badly for you.

Otherwise, best of luck. You won, so go play.

ETA: If you were managing your investments yourself before this, it's still the same, just more zeros and larger lots for the most part.

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

#384

Post by atmb4u »

As someone suggested in comments, save at least 1 year worth in a safe haven (preferably gold)

No need to freak out; Relax!

Do NOT donate - That is being irresponsible

Do NOT hire someone - It's not their money; you were at the right place at the right time - not them - you have the responsibility to invest right.

Please do NOT retire - you are at your prime age of contributing back to the society - surely, take more vacations, and spend time with family - may be work only 3 days a week.

Do NOT spend on a fancy house or a car - Not worth it.

If it's of your interest, become a venture capital - You should be looking at 10:1 success ratio - so be ready to lose money on most of the investments - but eventually, you'll create so much value, that it'll be worth it.

Take at least a quarter or two of time to decide the budget - you'll learn a lot. And I believe you have the liberty to do it. ;)

Set aside 10% or whatever you are comfortable to lose for risky investments(bitcoin and sorts) and returns from that for squandering - Don't go over budget there.

Park money in an insured, interest-bearing spot (1% yearly is going to give you 80k just for parking - consider money market accounts - Caveat: FDIC Insurance covers only till 250k per account per person - figure out the details)

Most importantly, what you are essentially getting is time - Try to find a cause worth spending your time.

One last piece of advice - Don't get attached - Know that money is the means, not the ends.

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

#385

Post by mindcrime »

First of all, congrats. You are in a great situation, now you just have to manage it to allow you to live your life the way you want from here on out.

The very first thing I'd do is watch this video (it's a famous scene from the movie The Gambler). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJjKP8vYjpQ

The basic idea is to establish your "position of 'Fuck You'". You basically have that already... house paid for, cars paid for, etc. Put enough of your money aside in conservative, safe, long-term investments that you'll never be hurting for money. Include things like your kids college tuition or whatever things are important to you. Once you have that, even if you blow the rest of the money on toys, sex, drugs, rock 'n roll, whatever, you always have the ability to say "fuck you" to anybody who hassles you.

Beyond that, you can decide if you want to try and grow your wealth by investing and actively managing your money. Maybe you would want to do some angel investing, who knows? Or maybe you want to engage in some philanthropy. You probably don't have enough money to get a hospital named after you, but you could buy uniforms for the local high-school band group, or donate to a local volunteer fire department, or any number of things.

Should you continue to work? It's up to you... my guess is that if you flat-out retire at your age you'll find yourself bored pretty quickly, but it depends on what kinds of things you choose to engage in. Maybe there are some hobbies that have been latent in the back of your mind, that you would enjoy, but you just never made time to take up. Spend some time exploring things. Think about what you enjoyed as a kid that you gave up as an adult, etc. Or maybe you want to spend some time volunteering - become a volunteer firefighter, or volunteer at an animal shelter, or a soup kitchen, or a homeless shelter or something.

Anyway, it's hard to give somebody else advice on this, because we all have different values and priorities. But I think the "position of fuck you" stuff is pretty universal. Lock that in, and what you do beyond that is up to you, while you always have that as your floor.

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

#386

Post by ataturk »

zip1234 wrote: post #278
dont_burn_it_up wrote: post #219

This is a great thread. Throwaway also. Gonna write some stream-of-consciousness here, because I have to start my work day, but I personally made approx. this amount from an exit, and it has gone very well for me and my family (wife + 3 kids). Some additional fine-tuned advice of what worked for me: (1) don't be afraid to spend money - high hourly rates - for a good accountant and good tax attorney. (2) if I were you…

I disagree on not hiring an adviser. The key is to know what kind of adviser they are. If they are a fee-only adviser with fiduciary responsibility, it is likely exceptionally worthwhile. It sounds like you have a good handle on how to manage your finances, but there is a LOT to know. Minimizing taxes, planning children's' college, etc. Also, the good ones don't charge a flat 1% all the way up. They will charge less…

Not one single one I interviewed was worth anything. It's not their money so they don't do things efficiently for you and they give bad advice as often as good advice, leading me to believe it is mainly all guesswork on their part.

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

#388

Post by ryanmercer »

ryanmercer wrote: post #182
fsloth wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is getting very off topic, but.. Um... what would you actually spend 2 trillion a year on for four years on to implement a change in society? I mean sure, it's roughly the size of the oil market so theoretically you could buy all the oil in the world for 4 years and just not use it, thus forcing everyone on a massive pace to post-oil economy. But there's a huge hysteresis in how the society works, at such a mass…

>but.. Um... what would you actually spend 2 trillion a year on for four years on to implement a change in society? First I'd set some milestones for private rocket companies to hit that had funding payouts, think x-prize but considerably more money and tiered. I want to see something like BFR operational ASAP. In this scenario I'd actually try and 40% or so of SpaceX which would chew up 10 billion or more at their m…

I absolutely *want all of our eggs out of one basket.

Hadn't had my coffee yet heh.

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

#389

Post by cma »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #358
alsothrownaway wrote: post #71

As someone who has been in your shoes to a lesser degree, here are some things I learned: It is best to not upgrade your lifestyle at all, but instead to use your position to bring broken people out of the pit. Here is why: - 1. It is better to end the suffering of someone else than to make your own already-awesome life slightly better. - 2. If you lose everything like I did, you will have actually lost nothing and o…

Except attempts at "ending the suffering of someone else" will more often than not break them even more, and leave you both broke. Free money messes with people in ways that you might not expect.

There are pretty clear cases where it is a net win. Helping a kid with malaria treatment isn't likely to throw them deep into the paradox of plenty.

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

#390

Post by seansmccullough »

dlhavema wrote: post #294
ericcholis wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, it's super easy to pick up a material hobby (like collecting something). Instead, I'd pick up a working hobby. Let's say you really enjoy volunteer work. I'm sure there's a ton of good not-for-profits that need an experienced project manager. Money can't buy happiness. Money can free up your time to explore enriching endeavours. A windfall should be a gateway to really explore what the world has to offer with…

- Make sure my debts are paid, and ensure long term stable income Totally. No need to carry a car loan, mortgage, Credit card debt anything anymore.

Depending on the mortgage rate, it might be better to keep it and invest the money that would have been used to pay off the mortgage instead.
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