How I got wealthy without working too hard • Hacker News Board

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#61

Post by tdeck » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 4:49 PM UTC

moonchrome wrote: post #57

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #14

> Take a $ 500-1000 / day, full-remote job > Take 2 months for holidays in-between contracts > Do this for 7 years while investing most of your salary in a diversified portfolio. Working $1000/day contracts for 5 days per week, 10 months per year is equivalent to $217K of contractor income per year. But contractor income is not comparable to normal career income because you have to handle additional taxes and health…

> But contractor income is not comparable to normal career income because you have to handle additional taxes and health insurance, so this is more like a $150K (plus or minus) full time job once you subtract self-employment taxes and pay for health insurance. What ? I've never heard of a scenario where you get less money after tax as a contractor vs employee, even without doing things like claiming a bunch of everyd…

IIUC in the U.S. you have to pay the employer payroll taxes if you're self employed.

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employe...

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#62

Post by ghaff » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 4:49 PM UTC

germinalphrase wrote: post #27

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #14

> Take a $ 500-1000 / day, full-remote job > Take 2 months for holidays in-between contracts > Do this for 7 years while investing most of your salary in a diversified portfolio. Working $1000/day contracts for 5 days per week, 10 months per year is equivalent to $217K of contractor income per year. But contractor income is not comparable to normal career income because you have to handle additional taxes and health…

Which is, of course, still very good money for a single earner in most of the country.

Especially in early career.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#63

Post by go_elmo » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 4:49 PM UTC

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #51

go_elmo wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats just being humble. Most successful people think its that way because they are special and worked hard. Wrong. Most people work hard, its the LUCK many underestimate. Being aware of this is healthy in so many ways, especially socially.

Luck and hard work aren't exclusive attributes for success.

Didnt say so, did I? Hard work is necessary but not sufficient, thats my statement.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#64

Post by OldHand2018 » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 4:49 PM UTC

OJFord wrote: post #43

gnicholas wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's quite possible that he started out putting 1% into crypto (or even less), and it just grew much faster than his other asset classes.

If you're concerned with balance initially, why wouldn't you rebalance?

The author of the article states that he rebalances out of crypto because of the growth rate.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#65

Post by unpolloloco » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 4:49 PM UTC

picture wrote: post #17

dymk wrote: post #5

What’s the purpose of an article like this if the author starts with a list of decisions which lead to his success, but then immediately follows with “my journey was 99% luck and 1% planets alignment”? The article is clearly supposed to be a “how-to” of sorts, but then goes and muddies it’s messaging with that second part. The list of things to do isn’t really useful then, is it?

> I was born in a developed country in the 80s (Italy), with access to fresh water, very good carbohydrates and a decent education system. This seem like a pretty hard to follow "how-to"

Given that 80% of the world doesn't have that, yeah. But for that 20%, the author's path isn't entirely unreasonable (if a bit quick). Make $$$, spend $, invest $$. it requires living somewhere other than CA and probably not having kids, but if you can make those sacrifices and can play the software engineer game, it's more a matter of math working out than it is an unreasonable path.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#66

Post by pkrotich » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 4:50 PM UTC

moonchrome wrote: post #57

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #14

> Take a $ 500-1000 / day, full-remote job > Take 2 months for holidays in-between contracts > Do this for 7 years while investing most of your salary in a diversified portfolio. Working $1000/day contracts for 5 days per week, 10 months per year is equivalent to $217K of contractor income per year. But contractor income is not comparable to normal career income because you have to handle additional taxes and health…

> But contractor income is not comparable to normal career income because you have to handle additional taxes and health insurance, so this is more like a $150K (plus or minus) full time job once you subtract self-employment taxes and pay for health insurance. What ? I've never heard of a scenario where you get less money after tax as a contractor vs employee, even without doing things like claiming a bunch of everyd…

I guess you cheat your taxes then - 1099 sucks, you don't get employer matches on taxes.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#67

Post by wavefunction » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 4:50 PM UTC

shiftpgdn wrote: post #29

jcroll wrote: post #2

> Work and self-actualisation can be rewarding and meaningful, but looking at the sea from an hammock and drinking too much beer with friends three times a week is also a completely respectable way of waiting for the gravitational swallowing of the planet. Part of wants to accept this from the author and the other part of me is wary. I didn't have a child because I wanted to be happy, I did it because I wanted a more…

The biggest reality check in my life was working at an engineering firm with a bunch of near retirement baby boomers with no children. They all came across ass listless, unhappy, and living a life with no greater purpose. It was unquestionably one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. As you get older and friends drift and pass away family is one of the most important things in life. I know anti-natalism is hip rig…

Life has whatever purpose you give to it. That's it.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#68

Post by PragmaticPulp » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 4:50 PM UTC

moonchrome wrote: post #57

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #14

> Take a $ 500-1000 / day, full-remote job > Take 2 months for holidays in-between contracts > Do this for 7 years while investing most of your salary in a diversified portfolio. Working $1000/day contracts for 5 days per week, 10 months per year is equivalent to $217K of contractor income per year. But contractor income is not comparable to normal career income because you have to handle additional taxes and health…

> But contractor income is not comparable to normal career income because you have to handle additional taxes and health insurance, so this is more like a $150K (plus or minus) full time job once you subtract self-employment taxes and pay for health insurance. What ? I've never heard of a scenario where you get less money after tax as a contractor vs employee, even without doing things like claiming a bunch of everyd…

> What ? I've never heard of a scenario where you get less money after tax as a contractor vs employee

It’s called self-employment tax: https://smartasset.com/taxes/self-employment-tax

It’s not actually a separate tax. Normally your employer pays these taxes but you don’t see it. When you are a contractor you are self-employed, so as an employer of yourself you have to pay these taxes like any other employer.

Some people play games with certain corporate structures where they pretend they’re only worth a fraction of what they’re getting paid and then they extract the rest as dividends. It’s one of those tax tricks that works as long as nobody ever looks to closely at your tax returns, but if you’re caught you have to pay it back plus penalties.

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#69

Post by canaus » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 4:50 PM UTC

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #51

go_elmo wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats just being humble. Most successful people think its that way because they are special and worked hard. Wrong. Most people work hard, its the LUCK many underestimate. Being aware of this is healthy in so many ways, especially socially.

Luck and hard work aren't exclusive attributes for success.

What other attributes are there for success?

Re: How I got wealthy without working too hard

#70

Post by stagger87 » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 4:52 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #14

> Take a $ 500-1000 / day, full-remote job > Take 2 months for holidays in-between contracts > Do this for 7 years while investing most of your salary in a diversified portfolio. Working $1000/day contracts for 5 days per week, 10 months per year is equivalent to $217K of contractor income per year. But contractor income is not comparable to normal career income because you have to handle additional taxes and health…

> So there’s a lot missing from this blog post. I suspect maybe the author got lucky with some outlier investments, but that’s not something that can be conveyed in a “how to” blog post.

Why do you think that? All the numbers work out. Even in your hypothetical scenario, investing 100k for 7 years, especially in the last 7 years, would easily bring you 1M total investments.

> FIRE type wealth trajectories are possible, but this isn’t what it looks like. Working normally-paid jobs for 7 years and just living your normal life doesn’t get you there.

This is exactly what FIRE is, and again, using numbers from your own post, which I think are reasonable, this is exactly what it looks like. 1M invested, 25k/yr expenses = 40 years with no gains in investments, people into FIRE usually assume 4% growth, so he would be even better off. If that isn't FIRE, I don't know what is.