What I would do if I was 18 now
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What I would do if I was 18 now
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Re: What I would do if I was 18 now
#2>create a business that makes 5k usd per month
Ok, cool. How many people who legitimately set out to do that, actually accomplish that?
>save 3k per month and invest it in ETFs, and you will have 1.5m by age 38
Ok, so if i'm making 5k USD per month, 1k goes to tax, and 1k as you say goes to living, now I'm just barely at 3k. 20 years ago, the market was at a relative nadir. Today it is at an apex, so you will need to time it correctly to achieve 7% yearly gains (!), of which 2% will be lost to inflation.
Given that 0.7% of the world are millionaires, and just 4-5% of the USA are millionaires, I have a sneaking suspicion that it is not so easy to just set up this business and invest everything for 20 years, willy nilly, hey ho presto I'm a millionaire.
Thesd numbers are further compounded by the fact that most money in this country is "old money", which means that those who are rich currently inherited their wealth rather than built a business that generated this wealth for them.
So forgive me if I am a bit skeptical, but I really don't like to see business advice overly simplified so that people will risk their time effort and money to succeed, when failure rates are actually extremely high.
Day trading has a 95% chance of failure. A business has 90%.
If you don't have a product, a team, a funding runway, and aloof competition... then you are going to lose all of your money as an 18 year old startup founder.
Re: What I would do if I was 18 now
#3People forget how much more free time and freedom there is at college. Yes, there are deadlines and schedules but you’re given opportunities that the usual 40 hr/wk job won’t afford. You could take student loans out to buy yourself dumb things, for sure, but you can also take student loans out for really good things, too. The rest of your life that won’t so easily be the case. I would love to have the time flexibility I had at college now that I’m “in the industry”.
Re: What I would do if I was 18 now
#4>create a business that makes 5k usd per month Ok, cool. How many people who legitimately set out to do that, actually accomplish that? >save 3k per month and invest it in ETFs, and you will have 1.5m by age 38 Ok, so if i'm making 5k USD per month, 1k goes to tax, and 1k as you say goes to living, now I'm just barely at 3k. 20 years ago, the market was at a relative nadir. Today it is at an apex, so you will need to…
I didn’t even make it that far. He lost me at telling people to skip college and go to a coding boot camp. You might know how to code, but someone with a degree will have a little more analytical breadth and depth from math, CS, and even writing/communication courses.
Re: What I would do if I was 18 now
#5>create a business that makes 5k usd per month Ok, cool. How many people who legitimately set out to do that, actually accomplish that? >save 3k per month and invest it in ETFs, and you will have 1.5m by age 38 Ok, so if i'm making 5k USD per month, 1k goes to tax, and 1k as you say goes to living, now I'm just barely at 3k. 20 years ago, the market was at a relative nadir. Today it is at an apex, so you will need to…
I didn’t even make it that far. He lost me at telling people to skip college and go to a coding boot camp. You might know how to code, but someone with a degree will have a little more analytical breadth and depth from math, CS, and even writing/communication courses.
Yes, I do agree. Hiring is biased on aggregate towards people with CS degrees, or at least the ability to do coding puzzles.
Shipping + getting shit done surprisingly is not that well respected (on aggregate).
What's worse is that he's suggesting you bypass corporate employment all together and just YOLO start a startup.
It's like saying "to be rich, first, make sure you have 5,000 a month coming in. Then, here's how you spend it."
I am currently attempting to monetize one b2b site I have and one b2c. Both have flaws and the going is tough. I am giving it a good effort but I'm not getting the leads/traffic I need to scale revenue.
Even if I do succeed at making just 1k revenue per month, there's no guarantee it will continue to exist even just 5 years from now.
5k per month, with 3k invested into a stock market that averages 7% per year? That feels a bit pie in the sky to me.
But what do I know? I'm just some guy on the internet, not a SF-based millionaire cofounder or digital nomad ^.^
Re: What I would do if I was 18 now
#6It's easy everyone, just be successful.
Re: What I would do if I was 18 now
#7> If you save that $3k/m over 20 years and put it into Vanguard ETFs (at 7% over 20 years), you’ll be 38 and have $1.5 million in the bank! Save $6k/m, and you’ll have $3 million at 38. Yes, I said that correctly. Save $1k/m and you’ll have $500k by 38.
Simply, no. No. That's not how it work. You can't find index returning 7% avg on 20 year interval. Plus that gains are taxable in many contries, sometimes heavily.
Re: What I would do if I was 18 now
#8Demonstrates the easiest way to success. Just tell others how to be successful - live a crazy life that seems awesome and blog/write about it! Pretend you know something they don't so they stay hooked on your "personal brand". Voila!
Re: What I would do if I was 18 now
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn’t even make it that far. He lost me at telling people to skip college and go to a coding boot camp. You might know how to code, but someone with a degree will have a little more analytical breadth and depth from math, CS, and even writing/communication courses.
Yes, I do agree. Hiring is biased on aggregate towards people with CS degrees, or at least the ability to do coding puzzles. Shipping + getting shit done surprisingly is not that well respected (on aggregate). What's worse is that he's suggesting you bypass corporate employment all together and just YOLO start a startup. It's like saying "to be rich, first, make sure you have 5,000 a month coming in. Then, here's how…
5k/mo is pretty much rich from starting at 0. There’s many ways to aggregate that to more money beyond that. It’s like saying find a way to pay all of your bills and have 5k left over per month to be rich in the long run. Yeah, okay, but that’s pretty much a tautology.
Re: What I would do if I was 18 now
#10> Happiness comes from intangibles, like experiences, relationships, activities, not stuff.
Experiences don't make you happy. It's one of the mistakes millennials make. Vacations are exactly the same as buying shit - you're just buying more shit, except your buying a pre-packaged consumer-friendly vacation. Taking a vacation to south of France isn't going to make you happy. You'll be just as angsty there as you are in your current place - don't need the south of France or Machu Picchu to tell you your life is empty.
My advice: Create.
That's happiness right there.
If you want experiences that result in happiness, create some new experience. You know you're doing it right if you actually make the news - when someone ELSE gives a shit about your experience enough to report about it.
The actual process of creating something new is what makes you happy.