Ask HN: Anyone here retire early, how do you like it
20 comments
I have one kid and a wife.
Right now, we're at ~$1.1M net worth right now, most of it liquid.
Not too long ago, I remember taking out a $10,000 loan and feeling overwhelmed by this number. I had no idea how I'd pay off such a huge amount.
At that point, I thought $30,000/yr was enough to live on.
Right now we're building a house, that we'll have paid off in ~4 years, worth $700K.
Not too long ago, $450/month for an apartment felt like an unneeded extravagance.
All of this to say... this number is a moving goalpost. At $1M, your mindset may have changed. Your life situation may have changed. Your priorities may change.
In fact, most likely they will.
Right now I'm struggling to define this elusive number for myself. I don't know if $3M will be enough, nor $5M.
Instead, I'm turning inward to figure out what is joy in the present moment?
If I can achieve that, nothing else will matter, since joy will be my reality every day.
Right now, we're at ~$1.1M net worth right now, most of it liquid.
Not too long ago, I remember taking out a $10,000 loan and feeling overwhelmed by this number. I had no idea how I'd pay off such a huge amount.
At that point, I thought $30,000/yr was enough to live on.
Right now we're building a house, that we'll have paid off in ~4 years, worth $700K.
Not too long ago, $450/month for an apartment felt like an unneeded extravagance.
All of this to say... this number is a moving goalpost. At $1M, your mindset may have changed. Your life situation may have changed. Your priorities may change.
In fact, most likely they will.
Right now I'm struggling to define this elusive number for myself. I don't know if $3M will be enough, nor $5M.
Instead, I'm turning inward to figure out what is joy in the present moment?
If I can achieve that, nothing else will matter, since joy will be my reality every day.
What do you mean by liquid? Is that cash in a savings account?
Inflation eats cash so I have been reading about Financial Independence and the 4% SWR.
Inflation eats cash so I have been reading about Financial Independence and the 4% SWR.
Liquid as in I can get cash out if I need it.
It's in investment accounts, cash accounts, cryptocurrencies.
All of which I could sell and withdraw cash in 1-2 days.
It's in investment accounts, cash accounts, cryptocurrencies.
All of which I could sell and withdraw cash in 1-2 days.
I think TechLead gave the best insight into this[0].
Perhaps I'm out of line here but it's worth asking yourself if you're thinking about this because the prospect of taking on responsibility seems too daunting for you. Perhaps the career you're persuing doesn't give you the sense of purpose you might want. Maybe you need to do some soul searching.
Don't dedicate the next ten years of your life to a meme. Instead why not spend that time persuing something meaningful that you love doing. There's no point in spending ten years doing something you hate just to end up doing nothing. If you want to just dick around, take a vacation. If you can't do that, then persue a job where you can.
I know I get extremely bored after about two weeks of vacationing. I can't imagine spending the rest of my life doing that.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/embed/G6eVVrTjNcY
Perhaps I'm out of line here but it's worth asking yourself if you're thinking about this because the prospect of taking on responsibility seems too daunting for you. Perhaps the career you're persuing doesn't give you the sense of purpose you might want. Maybe you need to do some soul searching.
Don't dedicate the next ten years of your life to a meme. Instead why not spend that time persuing something meaningful that you love doing. There's no point in spending ten years doing something you hate just to end up doing nothing. If you want to just dick around, take a vacation. If you can't do that, then persue a job where you can.
I know I get extremely bored after about two weeks of vacationing. I can't imagine spending the rest of my life doing that.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/embed/G6eVVrTjNcY
I want the freedom to do whatever I want.
If I can live off my million in savings , I’d make games and music all day.
If I can live off my million in savings , I’d make games and music all day.
It's good to test drive that idea first. I took a bunch of long gaps between jobs (luckily and somewhat surprisingly no one really cared about that) and this allowed me to further refine what I like and don't like doing for extended periods of time, how I deal with lack of external pressure etc.
A lot of people have been working 9-5 jobs their whole life and that's all they know. They gradually start dreaming about ditching the job and being free to pursue hobbies, and after a couple of years this dream becomes their life goal. My advise is, if anyone wants to commit oneself to X years of misery in current job just to live that dream in the future, I recommend test-driving that dream first if you can. It's very possible that you'll end up missing job environment and will just want to switch jobs or careers or go part-time etc., which is an option available without the X years of grinding through misery first.
A lot of people have been working 9-5 jobs their whole life and that's all they know. They gradually start dreaming about ditching the job and being free to pursue hobbies, and after a couple of years this dream becomes their life goal. My advise is, if anyone wants to commit oneself to X years of misery in current job just to live that dream in the future, I recommend test-driving that dream first if you can. It's very possible that you'll end up missing job environment and will just want to switch jobs or careers or go part-time etc., which is an option available without the X years of grinding through misery first.
Then why not try and make a career out of that? Become an indie game developer. Join a music label, or make your own. You don't have to do the nine to five. You can be your own boss. It just takes some work to get there.
By all means get your million and take an extended vacation. But when you get bored of that, think about the things that would be fun to persue. Good luck.
By all means get your million and take an extended vacation. But when you get bored of that, think about the things that would be fun to persue. Good luck.
I'll make a career out of it once I make my real money in normal software development.
The game industry is too unstable to make a living out of. I tired once upon a time
The game industry is too unstable to make a living out of. I tired once upon a time
I'm going to mirror a sentiment that somebody else mentioned earlier in this discussion that you should modify your definition of "retired" to mean "I don't need to work for a few years", and go see if not working is in fact something you want to do.
I started along that path in my late 20s, gradually ramping up the length of time between contract gigs as I determined that yes, in fact, I do like not working for long periods of time while travelling through Southeast Asia and Central America. For me, the sweet spot was about 9 months off at a time before, surprisingly, I'd feel like working again for a while.
So I modified my definition of Retired to mean "retired enough for me", and kept doing short contracts to save up for the next trip whenever the mood to work struck. Eventually, I built a couple SaaS products that have ramped up to the point where I don't need to work at all anymore. So I hit a point that people would more closely equate to "actually retired" when I was in my early 40s.
These days, I still do a bit of part time contract work here and there, more as a hobby than an income stream. And I keep the product stuff ticking away at as close to zero hours of maintenance/support as possible. But any day (or week or month) I choose can be off, so that's close enough to retirement for me.
I started along that path in my late 20s, gradually ramping up the length of time between contract gigs as I determined that yes, in fact, I do like not working for long periods of time while travelling through Southeast Asia and Central America. For me, the sweet spot was about 9 months off at a time before, surprisingly, I'd feel like working again for a while.
So I modified my definition of Retired to mean "retired enough for me", and kept doing short contracts to save up for the next trip whenever the mood to work struck. Eventually, I built a couple SaaS products that have ramped up to the point where I don't need to work at all anymore. So I hit a point that people would more closely equate to "actually retired" when I was in my early 40s.
These days, I still do a bit of part time contract work here and there, more as a hobby than an income stream. And I keep the product stuff ticking away at as close to zero hours of maintenance/support as possible. But any day (or week or month) I choose can be off, so that's close enough to retirement for me.
Looks like you took the path that looks very good to me, I would be able to take about 2 months off next year.
Maybe I'll visit both Southeast Asia and Central America to determine which I like better. As a practical matter Spanish is much easier for me than any Asian language I've tried so far, but I think life in Southeast Asia is much cheaper. So I'll have to think about it.
What's been your favorite travel experience so far, if anything I think life is too short to spend it in America just trying to get another raise when this entire world exists
Maybe I'll visit both Southeast Asia and Central America to determine which I like better. As a practical matter Spanish is much easier for me than any Asian language I've tried so far, but I think life in Southeast Asia is much cheaper. So I'll have to think about it.
What's been your favorite travel experience so far, if anything I think life is too short to spend it in America just trying to get another raise when this entire world exists
Focus on building investments that generate passive income. $1M in the bank account can be burned quickly.
$1M of real estate investments generating $5-10k USD per month, can go a long way.
$1M of real estate investments generating $5-10k USD per month, can go a long way.
That's a high return. I studied my local area and gross return was 6-7%. I felt trackers gave a better return
I don’t actually see a problem with this if you can achieve it. Discipline might be the tricky part.
If only I had that sort of option. My wife won't even consider moving to a different county.
You do. You just won’t even consider moving on to a different wife.
Then I'll be too poor to move!
Aren't you afraid of the outside world interfering in your plan?
tony hsieh tried to retire early. didn't work out so well.
one strategy for how to deal with problems is to try to fix them.
another strategy is to run away from them.
one strategy for how to deal with problems is to try to fix them.
another strategy is to run away from them.
I then figure I could move ether to SEA or Central America and live out the rest of my days only programing for fun. Life seems too short to spend it in SCRUM calls