Income is superfluous if you have enough to burn for a hundred years or more. For me, it was as simple as buying some monero and relocating to a lake home: No city burn rates, and my stash rose 12x so far, with another 50x foreseeable in the baseline scenario, 10000x in extremely low-probability tail scenarios.
Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
91–100 of 184 posts
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#92I'm not yet. 31 years old and working on it. I have a good chunk of money invested, but my magic number is 1 million and a paid off rental (maybe 2) + 1 primary residence. I have 12 years left on my mortgage. This house will eventually become one of my rentals.
The idea is just to reduce expenses a ridiculous amount and invest everything in the stock market + rentals. I should reach my goal by 40 - 45.
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#93Doing pretty well from consulting these days, however I can't manage to generate any passive income. Having saved about 30k in the past years doesn't seem to help either, interest rates are ridiculously low. Stocks and bonds are not really my area of expertise so I decided to stick to cash. Investment funds might be an option in the nearby future.
Just buy index funds. They have low fees, and beat most (if not all) managed funds long term anyway. Find a fond tracking S&P 500, one global and maybe some other markets, and you should be set.
Keep in mind that index funds will probably decline by about 3-4x over the next 10 years on the demographic cycle.
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ethereum seems to have great potential to multiply its value in the next 12-24 months. I think the probability of ETH going from 1B$ -> 2-5B$ market cap is far greater than BTC going from 10B$ to 20-50B$ due to several factors. My line of thinking has been that in order for the 4% to be meaningful, you need to start with at least a million. Saving a portion from the salary and getting 4% annualized growth just wouldn…
You do realise you're gambling, right? There's nothing wrong with that, but be honest with yourself about the risks of having nearly all your money in one instrument (ETH) which could easily wildly fluctuate up or down. If you honestly think it's a bet worth making, go look up the kelly criterion.
It does wildly fluctuate up and down, but he's also got a 1.5M startup and he's only 30, so he can easily afford the risk.
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#95I'm only responding because nobody else has replied to your thread. Feel free to ignore me if you think it is irrelevant. My favourite Dr. Who quote: "Work for? I don't work for anyone. I'm just having fun." Describes me, even though I receive money every month. My expenditures are considerably less than the money I receive every month by having fun. If I didn't receive money, then I would be in trouble, so I don't r…
The married part is the one I am more interested in. I too live extremely cheaply, but my girlfriend has way more expense than me (still reasonable, but too high in my book). We are not married, but we spend a lot of time together and I am a little afraid that this difference in how we spend money will be a problem. How did you manage it? My very first step was to have her create a save account where she deposit each…
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Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
The married part is the one I am more interested in. I too live extremely cheaply, but my girlfriend has way more expense than me (still reasonable, but too high in my book). We are not married, but we spend a lot of time together and I am a little afraid that this difference in how we spend money will be a problem. How did you manage it? My very first step was to have her create a save account where she deposit each…
you need to have some sort of compromise. It's unreasonable to expect her to cxhange and you not to.
My wife wanted to buy a new car earlier this year but I didn't, so we compromised and bought a new car.
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
If dividends weren't priced in then prices wouldn't dip when stocks go ex-dividend.
Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they go up. Lots of people think they're priced in, and the point at which they go ex-dividend is a convenient point to decide that it's now worth a bit less. Was it "priced in" before? No idea. Going ex-dividend is a single, identifiable point at which people can say it surely must be worth less now. I personally value dividend paying stocks more highly than non-dividend paying stocks…
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Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
The real interest rate is usually negative in today's environment; I'd love to know where you're getting a risk-free 4% after inflation and tax.
Why does it have to be risk free? Did you make your money not taking risks? Taking calculated (not stupid) risks helps you get decent returns above 5% quite easily. Put half of it in a low fee index fund, and half in stocks you believe in. Those stocks are higher risk, but can have a much higher (or lower) return than the index, i.e. risk 20% of your capital for a potential 50% gain. You can add bonds to the mix if y…
Half in picked stocks is a very high risk strategy. I wouldn't recommend it.
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they go up. Lots of people think they're priced in, and the point at which they go ex-dividend is a convenient point to decide that it's now worth a bit less. Was it "priced in" before? No idea. Going ex-dividend is a single, identifiable point at which people can say it surely must be worth less now. I personally value dividend paying stocks more highly than non-dividend paying stocks…
> the point at which they go ex-dividend is a convenient point to decide that it's now worth a bit less. The company has less cash ex-dividend, so as a matter of fact is worth a bit less.
Valuation isn't, however, a matter of fact, but of values. We distinguish descriptive facts from prescriptive valuations. It is an important distinction, lost on many Rijksbank "Nobel" prize-winning economists.
Re: Ask HN: How have you achieved financial independence?
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had the opportunity to hear major german bank disappoint affluent customers by telling them that, in stark contrast to the past, there is no risk-free 4% in the stock market any more (when using the basic strategies available retail like investment funds etc). If true, you might have to play a more active role and "run a business" instead of "invest some".
What's the "risk-free" amount then? 2%? 1%? 0.25%? 2% just means you need more money saved, not that you need to actively run a business into your 80's to continue feeding yourself.
They said risk-free would be -0.4% or something. I suppose they would have been biased to say "buy our funds", and they didn't really push any other products except maybe real estate. Everyone was bummed out.
Curious to hear other opinions.