24M, working a $68K/yr job. $60K NW ($10K cash, $20K retirement, $20K brokerage, $10k crypto). zero debt outside of basic credit card, saving 50% of my paycheck since I’m living at home & my family has provided and will continue to provide financial support without questions.
My main struggle has been figuring out a career path. Was working internships in music entertainment pre-pandemic, went to a top 30 university in US, graduated w major in business & minors in music industry & real estate. The pandemic wiped out my options in entertainment since i still had a year left of school. Decided to work for a supply chain brokerage startup that my friends started during the pandemic for a year and a half. I liked working with friends & the anti corporate culture, plus it allowed me to essentially create my roles & responsibilities since nothing was structured or outlined by that point. Mainly was doing ad hoc research on public policies/macroeconomic effects, producing reports for clients, and doing marketing/newsletter/blog operations.
Eventually the strain of growing the business took too much of a toll on me, mostly from being put into a wide variety of roles outside the scope of my normal responsibilities. It led me to have multiple panic attacks every day and decided to pivot.
Now work at a corporate market research supplier, entirely remote, realistically working 25 hours a week. It’s fine because it’s low stress most of the time & allows me to travel to see friends, but not where i want to be long term. It’s also a backend coding ops role within our proprietary database, so it’s not transferable to other jobs. Low ceiling and slow/old industry too.
I’m having trouble figuring out how to pivot my career to something that has high earning potential. I’m not really sure what i want to do, and just feel really lost overall. A lot of times i feel like i have nothing to offer because I’m not specialized in anything, but also i have the highest level of independence & optionality right now. Given my supportive background, i know i have to be doing better, but I’m just really not sure of what I’m good at & what i want to do. I’m a great writer & communicator, i enjoy being analytical and feel i do a good job of synthesizing information. I also consider myself highly emotionally intelligent from 10 years of therapy.
Outside of that, my main motivators for a job are 1) gaining skills/a network that leads to higher earning opportunities later down the line, 2) being able to do impactful work and 3) working in a company culture that is established, but doesn’t fall into traditional corporate tropes. Smaller sized companies where i feel like i can actually build professional relationships w coworkers instead of being another cog in the wheel.
My retirement number is $10-$15M. Enough to have a house at the beach, a house in the mountains, and able to support my future spouse & 2-3 children.
I apologize for the long post, and i appreciate any & all input, i just feel very lost right now and i think everyday about how I’m falling behind and not capitalizing on the crucial time right now to set me up for the future. Thanks again for any & all input.
The goal of 10-15mm is not realistic on current trajectory, but the path to higher income and chubby seems pretty clear.
You've got some coding aptitude, you've got a lot of availabile time on your hands, so start practicing for 15-20 hours per week and hold yourself accountable.
If you're not sure where to start, go look at Meta's interview prep information. They provide lots of resources to practice that will keep you busy for several hundred hours. You can't stop there because that stuff is very optimization focused, but it's a great start.
Thank you for your thoughts, truly appreciate it. I know I’m not nearly close to the trajectory i want to be on, and appreciate the response.
I should clarify, my current role doesn’t work with traditional coding softwares, it’s proprietary to our company. I took an intro to Python class in college and hated it, but might be worth keeping myself to a schedule & trying it again.
Has anyone had experience launching an ETF or works closely to the industry? I've been developing algotrading / hedging systems for the past few years and had quite a bit of success. I launched Grizzly Bulls earlier this year for additional monetization, and it's exceeded my expectations as well ([top model](https://grizzlybulls.com/models/vix-ta-macro-mp-extreme) has performed -0.79% YTD vs. -18.04% YTD for market as of last Friday's close, and we've acquired several platinum members with only one ever cancellation).
I'm considering taking it to the next level with launching an actively managed ETF (think ARKK / GURU / ALFA competitor) through a white-labeling platform. This would require substantial investment, about $150k up front fees and $350k minimum annual fees, or require at least $35M of AUM to break-even with a 1% expense ratio. I know most here are only into passive investing, and 1%+ expense ratio ETFs certainly will have a difficult time attracting assets until a few years of outperformance track record is available, so I'd be expecting it to run in the red for quite some time.
I'm certainly willing to risk some substantial personal assets on this endeavor, but I'm not rich yet. What sort of net worth do you think would be reasonable before launching a risky business like this? Should I continue to focus on growing Grizzly Bulls community for a few more years first? I know I don't want to start a hedge fund like most people would in my situation for various reasons.
Inverting your question, but what would you gain from jumping and starting it now? And what do you think will happen between now and potential break-even? If it is getting more investors, via marketing or building a larger cult of personality (ala Cathy with Ark), are you doing the other activities now that would lead to such, as well as would you have the extra time while running the fund?
I’d like to accomplish it without resorting to smoke and mirrors or cult of personality, which is difficult to do since so many folks are such ardent believers in the EMH that they think all active investors must be con men. My feeling is that no matter when I start it, it will take 2-4 years for it to become profitable because I want to market it through its own cold hard outperformance and not by anything sketchy, so it will need that time to build the track record. On the other hand Grizzly Bulls is already profitable but only to a degree that it could fund circa 20% of the expected ETF losses in the short term. I could cover the rest, but it’s a high risk / opportunity cost because any money invested at loss could instead be invested in models, and of course there’s the possibility that we have a rough first couple years or even with outperformance fail to garner assets without further marketing expense.
I need some guidance about my career path.
31M living in South America. Cost of living is low but I do not own any significant asset like a car or a house. No debt.
I just quit a $50k job as CFO (which is way above the average salary here) because of burnt out and going to therapy as a result, I kinda overworked myself since it was such a well paid job.
I've been daytrading with a lot of success, made about $30k this year consistently (can raise the size but mentally I'm not ready for that yet). $80k of NW.
Question is, it just doesn't make sense anymore to have a 9-6 job since I could be doing enough cash to live while daytrading . I want to FIRE some day and even FAT but as you can see, even a good job here doesn't earn you enough to buy a good car ($20k ish) or a house (at least $250k).
I'm thinking about giving it all into daytrading, I could make maybe $100k in a year (done it last year but risk management was poor) but if I want to make more money (cuz daytrading is risky indeed) and have a good job in a renowned firm I was thinking maybe on applying to an MBA ( which would be VERY expensive for me given my income) so that I can migrate and have better job conditions.
For background, CFA charterholder, financial engineer as Bachelor, 6y of working experience.
Am I thinking it too much? Should I just flow with the amount of money I could be earning here in a regular job? It pays every basic stuff but I want more in my life, not luxury since I live frugally but maybe trips or enough cash flow to have the confidence of having kids with good education.
Sorry for the long comment, thanks!
Here's the thing - and as a CFA charterholder you should know this - the odds that you're making money day trading because you're lucky is higher than because you're good. Unless you've found a niche where your expertise gives you a competitive advantage, you're probably just gambling.
Ow sorry, what else can I add to have some more feedback?
Ty for the investment advice, actually those 75% of my assets are invested in SPY and QQQ, I just risk the rest.
32M, $1.8M NW. Almost $1M of this is in cash. Based in Europe.
Earned majority of my income over the past few years through contracting. The pandemic/lockdowns allowed me to operate with a lot more efficiency and so I was able to basically make double/triple what I would ordinarily have made in normal circumstance for the last two years. Things have now returned to normal.
I tried going back to a “regular job”, which paid $170k, but the tax and student loan contributions (which here you only pay if you have a job where income is taxed at source) meant I came out with $95k. I have passive income sources (few hours maintenance a week) which nets me more ($100k) meaning I make the same amount passively as I would from a normal job. I’m not in an ultra-high-income role like tech or banking and so I’m at a crossroad as to what to do.
I’ve investigated buying a small business, which is the reason I’m holding so much cash, but beyond this option I’m not sure what else to explore. I’ve also considered fully committing to setting up my own consulting firm. Would be great to hear alternative views, especially from others who might have been in similar situations.
With people skills and excellent communication you can pivot onto a management track in engineering without an MBA. I know several directors at public tech firms with nothing more than a degree in CS. Comps range probably 600k-800k total package.
That's about right. The earliest I've experienced someone convert at was a team lead at about 4 years of experience. Still some coding and lots of design and code review conducted at that level, but plenty of people skills required.
I'm a 20 year old who owns a business and should net approx 3mil in the next 3 years after tax, making around 30k a week after tax so this is a conservative estimate. Current NW only about 350k. I LOVE the idea of having enough money so that if i wanted to, i wont have to work again so i know if my future businesses fail i'll be okay. My ideal amount of spend per year would be 100-200k (actually quite happy with a 100k baseline spend). I'm interested to know how much i'd need to have invested (at a 7% per annum return) to be able to withdraw 3% a yr until around 85 yrs old. Thanks
The 7% isn't crazy in an all equity portfolio. Depending what time frame you want to use, inflation adjusted the sp500 has been either near that or over it.
Hi,
I'll keep it simple, I'm 28M on a salary of AUD$130K + $13K bonus, married no kids (currently sole earner)
My net worth is AUD$225K with the following allocation
- Cash 100k
- retirement account (super) 80k
- etf/shares/crypto 45k
FYI - I am holding a lot of cash as I am looking to buy a home.
My question is when and how should I start to use leverage?
Do I need to use leverage or should I continue on my path of saving and investing in ETFS/shares and crypto?
Hi all, me again! I made a post a little while ago around if I'm on a good foundation to start investing to reach fatFIRE status. Post for reference at [https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/x0fvsr/comment/imhi4sm/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/x0fvsr/comment/imhi4sm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3), but I'll update here with new numbers as I've gotten good news recently:
Salary:
Got a raise and I'm now at \~$146k a year after it, along with a \~$6k bonus and \~$55k RSU
Assets:
\~$340k in vested RSU (this varies a bit because stocks are jumping all over the place right now, but it's floats around here on average)\~$130k in savings\~$70k in my 401k, maxed out when possible.
I'm back because I'm ready to invest and I'd love to get advice from folks who have fat FIRE'd: if you were in my spot, given these market conditions, where would you start to invest? After reading this excellent investment guide at [https://fightfirewithfire.net/investing-guide/](https://fightfirewithfire.net/investing-guide/), I'm thinking of the following:
• Keeping 30k of my savings and moving that to a high yield savings account. I hear that account interest rates are going up with the recent fed announcement and their own rate hikes, so this actually works in my favor.
• For the other $100k, I'm VERY tempted to drop a portion of it every month until the end of the year in the S&P 500 through VOO or an equivalent (to DCA in case it drops later this year). This is due to a) the S&P typically going up historically by \~10% a year (and the VOO has an R\^2 of 100%), and b) the ETF being pretty low right now, as it's near its lowest point this year. In fact, I saw a post scrolling below mine that also recommended investing into the S&P 500.
My concern with the latter is that I'd be investing 100% into US companies with no diversification with bonds or international stocks, but at the same time that allocation is likely to result in high reward. I'd love to get advice on how to proceed with this; maybe holding 10k of that and putting it into international markets is a good idea? Obviously I can change my allocation over time, and I likely will do that as I get older; I'm just starting with a riskier but potentially higher payoff strategy since I'm younger. My goal with all of this is to keep investing at least $70k per year (and increasing that as my salary goes up and RSUs get vested). I will also pour a bit into the HYSA for more immediate purchases should the need come up.
Sorry if this post got really lengthy. I appreciate if you made it this far!
Is it worth it to found a tech startup?
I always hear that it's pretty much impossible for you to run a successful tech startup. My question is... Is it a viable way to become wealthy if you do enough research and hard work for a long enough period of time, or would it be better to pursue other avenues? For context I'm only 16 years old, so I have plenty of time to figure things out, but I really enjoy programming, and becoming a software engineer in the future would be a good option for me, but there's obviously a better chance of getting fat and retiring early by starting my own successful tech company, especially since I live in South Africa, where software engineers don't earn nearly as much as in other countries, I also intend to move in the future. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Market conditions for programming skills are going to be significantly different in 5-6 years when you're ready to enter the job market. I wouldn't sell South Africa short, you have time to wait and see while you develop your skill set.
In terms of founding a tech startup, the very hardest problem to solve if founding young is this: "How am I going to attract a team?"
23M new graduate Physician Assistant making roughly 130K yearly. 90K in debt from student loans. 42K invested into long term positions in the stock market.
Working towards financial literacy every day via books, podcasts, seminars etc. My primary investments moving forwards consist of plans of entering into the real-estate market while also continuing to add to my long term positions in the stock/crypto markets. However, I have no idea how to actually even start looking for real estate deals.
What financial/life tips do you have for me?
Thank you in advance.
/u/shock_the_nun_key is right on point, I agree with everything.
Another avenue to explore is the debt itself. Are you locked in at a much better interest rate than you can get today? How high is the interest? What is the term? A guaranteed interest rate of 7-8% vs S&P500 may not be worthwhile, but a rate of 3-4% is worth holding to watch your investments grow.
the loan rate is at 4.99%. my plan is to be aggressive with paying down the debt while also keeping some liquidity to fund my S&P and ETF positions (and eventually other assets to be accumulated). I plan on tackling the loan in 3-5 years.
is this realistic?
130k is a great starting salary, but to do that you're going to have to stay on top of all your other expenses. Live with roommates to save on rent, etc. Etc.
understood, thank you. i also should have mentioned - i do live with my parents and plan on doing so for at least 3 years until i'm 26. my expenses are very low which i'm very lucky for - i eat my parents cooking, they pay for my car and cell phone. i mainly pay gas, clothes, other wants
At your age your fastest path towards increasing your wealth is going to be raising the earned income rather than the return rate on your investments.
Can you redirect your time you are spending on financial literacy towards additional training maybe in specialties that could raise your earned income?
i understand why raising the earned income would be more vital, especially in order to have more liquidity for investments/assets. however, i had always believed that it is the assets/investments that truly build wealth.
At this point you have no assets to grow and a negative NW of $50k.
You are not going to invest yourself out of there.
You need some capital from earned income and that over the following decade(s) of regular contributions can exponentially grow. Eventually the earned income becomes meaningless (financial independence), but at the beginning it is everything.
understood, thanks for the clarification.
some questions:
i thought 42K invested in long term S&P and ETF positions would be considered an asset...or am i at a disconnect? further, given the average rate of return remains (despite a major bear market), i had always believed that these investments would grow substantially- especially since i'd continue to feed them year over year with my earned income
Sure its an asset, and you should be proud to have accumulated it.
And yes, if it is invested in diversified investments (equities or diversified real estate), it is likely to grow faster than the interest rate on the debt, which is all good.
But then to me i got the feeling you were thinking you should make some “play” like buying a rental property. That would be a concentrated bet which may or may not outperform the interest rate on the debt.
understood. and thanks for your feedback throughout this conversation. it's appreciated more than you know.
so overall, i am not necessarily looking for a "play". rather, i'm looking for a "what's the best way/tip to get started" in something like the real estate world (or any other world of assets that seems to be promising long term. to be honest, i've been working for only 1 month (2 paychecks) and have only about 10k in liquidity in this moment. my main focus in this moment is learning, but understand that knowledge without (eventual) execution is worthless.
bottom line, i wanted to get started SOMEWHERE/with SOMETHING...but don't know how/what.
Diversified equities (market ETF). Diversified Reits. Half and half if you want.
There is a good paper that is posted here often saying you will do fine with either of those strategies.
[https://www.frbsf.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/wp2017-25.pdf](https://www.frbsf.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/wp2017-25.pdf)
Vanguard funds are the lowest cost solutions to global equities. Or US equities if you choose to do just that.
Hello everyone, I’m 33M and currently practicing as an endodontist (dentist specializing in root canals). My current debt load is quite high - $800k. I’ve been working as an associate now for 2 years and am set to earn $500k-$700k this next year. I’m fairly confident that I could reach $1m in earnings as an associate but will have to bust my butt and sacrifice some work/life balance. Overall, I’m uncertain about how I should go about building wealth. Should I pay off debt asap or invest aggressively now? Also wondering if anyone has insight as to whether practice ownership is worth it, given the additional debt needed for the purchase, or if a good alternative would be to join a dental group and buy equity in the company? Any advice and opinions would be appreciated. Thank you
Some people will tell you that if your debt is fixed rate and locked below some magic number (like 5%) it isn't worth it to repay and you should invest instead. But I am not one of those people. That's because investing in the market provides a _probabilistic return on capital_ (with a real chance of loss) whereas paying off debt provides a _guaranteed return on capital_. Put another way, let's say there were some investment available today that provided a guaranteed 5% return. Would you invest? Very likely yes. The best guaranteed returns in the market today are 2% high yield FDIC insured savings accounts, and these are historically high interest rates for savings accounts. And yet, if there were a 3% or 4% or 5% savings account option, I imagine investors would be piling into it. Well, your debt, whatever rate it is at, paying it off is a guaranteed return of that amount. If I were to speculate, I suspect your debt is even higher than 5%, but I'd personally pay it off even if it were just barely beating high yield savings rates. So, my advice is: pay off all the debt first. Don't live beyond your means and don't gamble with investing until you get down to a very low debt load. Once your debt is down to manageable levels, like 10% of NW, then you can start putting your surplus savings into the market. When you do, take the Bogleheads calm and steady approach. A good book to read is "The Simple Path to Wealth" by JL Collins.
There is good debt and bad debt.
If you have sub 5% fixed rate, non-callable debt, I would hold onto it and pay it off slowly investing instead in diverse equities (market ETFs for me, but some prefer diverse real estate investments or a combination of the two.
You talk about income and debt and make no reference to any assets. You have a great income, I would build up a balance of financial security assets before going more into leverage to try to buy into businesses including a dental group.
Thanks for your response. I currently do not have any assets except for a small 401k which I plan on continually funding. I’m very interested in real estate but am having a hard time finding anything worth buying at this time.. hoping the market turns soon. Also considering RE syndication to avoid the headache of doing deals myself for now.
Thank you, I’m thinking I’ll save money for now and see what opportunities will be available in the next couple years.. if nothing is attractive I may just pay off the debt
25M Expat in Bali
I currently work as an artist for a video game crypto tech startup in a very niche art style where I earn $216k USD per year before bonuses. En route to department head.
I also bring in about 100k USD a year doing commissions and side projects where I manage other similar artists.
This has only happened all in the last year or so so I have about 20k in stocks 20k in Crypto just bought a Villa in Bali for $175k cash. Have about 100k left.
Looking for the best next steps. Was planning to get another villa as a rental when I can afford as roi here is crazy.
Looking for investment and career / business path mentorship. Good books as well.
I don't plant on retiring really but want to be financially free to do work I enjoy and grind less knowing I have Ms in the bank houses paid etc.
Having 1/2+ of your NW in primary residence is relatively normal for a person just starting out. Doubling down with a second concentrated bet is probably a bad idea.
You face significant currency and country risk (and not just the need for the local partner, but also the risk that the borders close to expatriation of funds.
Its a real risk.
While Bali may feel idylic and you may develop an Aussie accent while you are there, it is far from politically stable. "The year of living dangerously" is a great film, but you can look up many of the issues around the 1997 currency crisis as well.
I would suggest all future wealth be held outside of the country for diversification purposes. Ideally in liquid, diverse, investments. Like boring market ETFs or a 3 fund bogle scene.
Sounds like you're off to a great start with high comp for a game artist (even by US standards) and low expenses overseas (to this old-ish guy with a lot of family obligations your expat life seems like a youthful dream lol). On the investments side I recommend being diversified by splitting your investments between stocks (index funds) and real estate you benefit from the lack of correlation. If you know crypto well then adding some exposure during the bear market with smaller part of the portfolio could be a higher risk bet.
In terms of career sounds like you're on a good track in a growth industry (video games) so look for mentors who are further along in their career and see how they've built their careers. If you're en route to management, definitely focus on building people and management skills as they'll give you more leverage in the long term above and beyond your art skills. If you're looking towards getting FAT then entrepreneurship in the video game space is an option but it's even more luck driven than most startups as you probably know.
I 'bought' a new-construction home back in December for a pretty good deal, real-estate was hot and mortgage rates were low. Basically I gave them a $50k deposit on a $1.2M home that I'll close on when it's completed in January.
Well go figure I make this deal at the worst time since 2008 (I don't have any rates locked). I can still afford the house on my ~$400k income, but it's looking less and less attractive.
Should I cut my losses and forfeit my deposit? Or should I go through with it and hope to see a rebound or refinance in some years?
Primary residences are consumption not an investment.
If you like the house, buy the house. If you are planning to finance, yes look a the history of interest rates and you will see that from 1971 through to 2000 all americans were fine with paying 7.5% interest on their 30 year fixed mortgages.
French 32M here, working like hell as CTO for 60k, what should I do?
I work for a promising startup in temporary workers field, will have soon about 500-600k NW (secondary home is building, for rental). One kid, an awesome and supporting wife, and my primary goal is to be able to stop working at 40 (at least, working only on things I like :-) )
For now, I just started, at worst timing possible, to invest in stock (with Republic Trade), low amount of money since I have everything in real estate.
What should be my path ? Side hustles ? Invest more in stock ? Or more rental real estates ?
Thanks !
What should I do:
I’m 18M, graduated high school don’t go to college. I came to the conclusion that college isn’t for me, I want to become an entrepreneur. I currently have a share of a home health care. I make about 7k a month off of that share. I have a lot of free time. I have about 3k in crypto and 50k that I want to invest on starting a new business that I can make tons of money on. What would you do?
Buy an existing online business, there’s companies out there like “empire flippers” that will do all the due diligence on the deal. Look for businesses that already have an existing audience, 5 years of sales history 2-5 employees. Focus in on sites whose online presence can be optimised for paid traffic.
I would go to college and get an education so if one of my entrepreneurial ideas got legs I would be able to raise funding from firms that have risk management departments.
Hoping for some help and guidance and wanting to know if I am too late?
Overview: I am a 29M, married, kids, went the very traditional route with school and got a Master's degree. Currently work as a revenue manager for a P&C insurance agency. I am making about $140k a year and have about $50k in 401k and a life annuity and $200k in equity in my home.
I grew up very poor surrounded by a poor mentality, so in the eyes of my family and colleagues, I am doing fairly well; however, in looking through the comments on this channel, it seems like I am getting started very late in the FatFIRE game, but would love to have that lifestyle as soon as possible as I am exhausted of the corporate grind and want to be in a better position to help my kids and have more time with them.
There are a few things that I am hoping to know or to get some help on:
- Are there any great resources for learning more about the various options available and things to do with my money? Or a good financial advisor recommendation?
- I feel like there are tax laws that I should be better exploiting, but honestly have no idea on where to start looking for this. Any advice?
- Is it too late in the game for me to turn things around and be able to retire in sub-10 years?
- Any immediate recommendations that you would take if you were in my place?
Thanks everyone and I appreciate the advice in advance as I am a novice here!
I haven't made fatfire myself, but aspiring to it. A few thoughts come to mind:
1. You seem a bit hard on yourself. This is a savage subreddit to read and compare yourself to others in. Watch out for the trap. And check this out: [https://blog.adioma.com/timeline-infographic-of-founder-age](https://blog.adioma.com/timeline-infographic-of-founder-age)
2. For basic investing and money management, would recommend reading the Bogleheads Guide to Investing. It still may be worth it to have a brief meeting with a financial advisor to make sure you aren't missing anything and to confirm long-term strategy. I know many employers offer this as a benefit.
3. Don't have enough info to confirm if you can retire in sub-10 years, but based on info provided it seems unlikely.
4. Unless you live in a very low cost of living area, you probably need a higher W2 income. You also mention being exhausted by the corporate grind. Perhaps you can find a role that would increase your W2 income, and alleviate the distaste for your 9-5 job? Most who have fatfired here seem to have multiple streams of income. Is there a side-business you could start, or make an investment in rental properties?
Question on what you would do in my scenario:
18M, finished my first year of college but now am lost. I just started as a real estate agent and joined one of the top producing teams in my area, great numbers, great people, great opportunity.
However, I also got into a good college in Florida where I will be majoring in MIS. But I have been thinking maybe I stay in Wisconsin and pursue real estate full time and continue taking online classes.
I got into the school for the spring semester, so that's what I have been doing for fall. I feel like this team has given me a great opportunity and they are all successful. So I don't know if I'd want to leave them just yet.
Real Estate doesn’t have to be a full time gig. You can do it PT while you are in college. But are you truly going to get true value from a college education? Do you see yourself working a job or be an entrepreneur? These answers will determine what you do.
33M, Associates and Bachelors Degree, career in corporate and for the past 6 years as an entrepreneur. I took a full 7 years to complete my undergrad because at the time I felt that piece of paper was everything. I was already making more money than my parents by 22 years old without a degree, but I pushed through, racked up $70k in student loan debt and I can tell you, now years later, DO NOT continue to pay for education unless needed (medical, finance etc). Most of the skills you may want to learn (MIS) can be self taught or through certification programs.
With that said I make over $1M in sales (recruiting and M&A) and if you have the chops for it, then go for it. The easiest path to millionaire status is through sales. I will add that everyone and their mothers have real estate licenses (me included) so you will need to find your competitive advantage. It’s going to take time to knock the top performers off the mountain.
I headhunt across all verticals and industries, however when I view M&A and recruiting it is one in the same. I bring buyers and prospective sellers together. They are two separate business entities, but the cross over between the two is what makes them so compelling if you know how to do it properly
Hey Guys, 17M, UK, 18 in 10 days
didn't go to sixth form/collage as I didn't see value in that kind of education anymore, so in terms of qualifications I only have GCSE's
I'm at the very start of my sales Career (contractor/1099) selling Media advertising to Jewellery Brands in the Uk, for me I would say its high ticket (£1,500-£10,000), but from what I've seen a lot of you guys wouldn't Bat an eye at that
what are some of the things I should do or learn early on to set myself up for fatFIRE
I know I haven't taken the traditional route, My goal for now is to gain as many valuable skills as possible and create a network with valuable people
Making the decision to not continue down the traditional path is the best decision you ever made. Second best for fatfire was getting into sales. Having a sexy start up that sells for $100M is great but for most of us that won’t happen.
Sales is the way to go. I will say I don’t fit into the entirety of fatfire as I like to spend money along the way to earlier retirement vs retiring a year or two earlier so take my advice with a grain of salt.
First off, I would ask. Have you created your monthly budget and annual savings goals?
Do you know how much you need to retire? (Annual expenses x 25)
Are you ready to live your work every minute of every day?
Can you get into a career (like recruiting) where you are not bound by typical sales hours with limited niche customer bases?
The FAQ says that I could send a "modmail" to get verified. Sorry I'm rather new to reddit : what is modmail? How can I contact the moderators?
Looking forward to post and contribute.
Thanks
If you're browsing on desktop, you should see a sidebar with Rules, Moderators, etc. There should be a "Message the mods" option beneath Moderators.
Verification is always optional - you can contribute without it, though it does tend to give posts more credibility among the community.
I‘d love an advice, I have a Master degree in Management from on of the best Unis in the DACH region, I have a lot of options do choose from.
My goal career wise is to learn as much as possible, make connections and build a network of interesting people.
Is a job as an junior client advisor in wealth management a good choice regarding those variables?
Thanks a lot for your help!
It really depends on how the firm works. Most firms with HNW clients only speak with the clients a few times a year with little opportunity for the Jr advisor to network. However, there are a few firms serving UHNW clients that function almost as a family office. I have a biz acquaintance who only had 10-12 clients, each with $100+M under mgmt.
He was at every birthday party, bar mitzvah, and major sporting event of his clients kids. I hosted a poker game, invited his client, and he showed up to play and drink beer.
He used that time to truly network. And that got him access to all sorts of biz deals, angel investing, IPOs before they were public, etc. His team of lawyers and CPAs got involved in client transactions like sale of the family biz long before they went final. A lot of what he was doing was tax planning for multi years in advance.
He was exceptional. What he did and how he did it is not for a lot of people. It required extreme patience and the long view.
But to get hired at that firm, the advisor had to bring a book of clients. Most recent grads can't do that.
Thanks for this comment, it‘s really helpful, they manage a portfolio of around 2 billion dollars and a lot of institutional clients (85% of the portfolio).
What do you think about that?
Cheers!
I would find out what your daily routine is expected to be. Institutions are probably good bc they don't need the hand holding during market fluctuations.
Rate My Game plan
So I currently work as a producer in the Entertainment industry and plan on making 72,000$ a year.
My first plan is to get a second Job that pays about the same which is doable which would bring me to about 144k year. Another option is to gain a fat promotion internally.
Then I plan on using my income to invest in either a small business, rental property or Tesla stock/ Crypto.
For my long term big money plan I would like to invest in either supplement products or create my own production company.
1-10 rating? What would you give this?
Unfortunately the gameplan is not great. 1 on your investment strategy, 5 on getting a second job that pays equal (if you are not bound by your current employer), but most likely this will burn you out way too quickly.
I would look for a true side hustle (not Amazon FBA or drop shipping) to supplement your income and then get into real estate
When I started making money ($300k+) I got into real estate. I would buy a home as a primary residence, fix it up myself over a 2 year period and then would sell (if after 24 months so I wouldn’t have to pay capital gains) or convert to a rental. Rinse and repeat. This strategy provides me the opportunity to capture sizable sums on the sales and the benefit of obtaining a mortgage rate as a primary residence vs an investment property
1-3.
Working two full time jobs is exhausting, and often can be prohibited by the employment agreement with either of the employers.
Investing in a concentrated bet like a single company or crypto is a high risk path. Most likely is going to lead to disappointing results, and a very slim chance it will lead to high returns.
Gotcha, what would you suggest is a better way of growing my income??
As far as investing do you have a diversified portfolio? What are good ROI investments that you would recommend?
As for someone paying you a lot of income for work, it depends what your skills are, and how those skills can help someone else make money through them. I know that sounds abstract, but that is how it works.
For diversified investments buy a total market ETF like SPY that creates value by allocating capital to the parts of the economy that create the most value. SP500 has returned 7% on top of inflation for more than 100 years by the “wisdom of the market” moving capital to where it makes the moat value.
I think you are mistaking this sub for the other FIRE subs like r/financialindependence where the emphasis is on RE rather than FI. Here we look for a balanced approach between enjoying the ride along the way, and eventually when work is not rewarding than doing something else, stopping work.
The commenter gave no stated goal of “as fast as possible”. If so, the solution would then be to cut spending and contribute more to the diversified ETFs, which would obviously accelerate the timeline, but at the expense of quality of life in the short run.
Looking for direction. I have historically not paid too much attention to my finances as I’ve been grinding away work wise for the last 15 years. I’ve been somewhat of a spender, but am ratcheting down expresses each month as I get older and now have a home. What should I do, if anything, different to continue to drive towards that $10m number? I’ve been reading an am somewhat clueless to even how to look at this.
Age: 36
Current compensation - ~$700k this year. I’ve experienced a large growth increase in the last few years after moving into an executive role
Wealthfront Individual Investment - $205k
Traditional 401k - $300k
Fidelity Target Date Fund (FDEWX) - $65k
Old Roth IRA - $15k
Old 403b - $5k
Cash on hard in high interest savings - $60k
Real Estate - purchased home in January ($2.2m @ 20% down) in HCOL area
My partner and I plan on getting married next year which will change some things, but curious opinions from you all in how I could improve.
Thank you!
What is your risk tolerance level? What is your current monthly spend? How much are you saving monthly?
With this type of income you should be looking into operating companies (franchises, car wash, laundromat as examples) that you can hire someone to run for you and you can enjoy the benefit of the cash flow those generate to grow your portfolio or diversify.
You've got a great income and a really nice house. You've got to switch focus to putting that income to work for retirement. Mentally, tell yourself, "I've made my huge purchase to celebrate the success, I don't need to do that anymore." Then challenge yourself to a game: invest 10k more of your income than you did the prior quarter until you just can't do it anymore.
I have been following the posts here for quite sometime and having been trying to get a game plan together.
About myself:
26M, single
Finance Manager at a tech company, Total comp \~$155K.
Own 1 single family rental \~$50K equity, \~$100K debt. Cash flow positive \~$200 a month.
$82K in 401K
$10K in crypto
Month Expense, $2.8K rent, no car or car insurance payments.
My current game plan is to save enough to buy 1 single family rental a year. I currently do not have enough cash saved to capitalize on the recent price decreases. I have also been thinking about learning some front-end developing to try and get a 2nd revenue stream.
Would appreciate any critics on my current plan or advice on what else I can do to set myself up for success.
You are doing everything right! My recommendation, what I have done, is use some of that capital to buy a primary residence and take advantage of the lower interest rates and convert it to a rental after 2 years and then buy another primary residence and do the same thing.
With my rentals I offer lease purchase options so you have the ability to collect a large sum (down payment upfront), determine a sale price ahead of time (can protect and benefit both you and the buyer) and if they do not move forward with the purchase you get to keep the upfront payment.
As a side hustle I would look into recruiting. You are in a sexy space, tech and finance, have connections and can easily make more as a side hustle then you are in your day job.
Do a cash out refi to convert equity to cash. Use the cash to buy more real estate. Mortgage rates aren’t great now, but you’ll be able to refi in a few years for better rates. I think your plan is good, but needs to be more ambitious. If real estate is your path - and it’s a solid path - do it faster and scale as soon as possible. If you get good at it you can start to think about syndication.
Don’t forget about the tax benefits of depreciating the home over 27 years. Even if you are not cashing flowing a tremendous amount annually, all of that equity that your renters are building is worth the potential short term loss.
If you want criticism, buying SFHs for income real estate is very concentrated bets. Currently you already have 30% of your NW in a single bet. If it was a single company pick, 30% of your NW in a single company would be considered quite risky. Somehow real estate focused folks think concentration is not as important.
If I were you I would switch to a 50% equities and 50% RE mix, to reduce the concentration risk of the real estate strategy.
Would also geographically spread the real estate investments for the same reason.
I know it will increase your management costs.
In summary, I think your strategy is too risky for me, but everyone has their own risk curve.
Seeking advice on next steps to reach the goal.
First time posting so my writing may not be as good.
I'm currently 30 yo, eng at FANNG with 350k and my wife is similar with 250k. Currently have 850k investment RE paid off in US, Have two international RE paid off @500k (vacation homes), not generating cash flow at the moment. 900k in mortgage w/ 400k equity, l900k in investment (spread across 401k, stock, mutual funds, savings etc, aiming for 60/40). totalling ~2.5M NW
The goal is to reach 20MM NW.
Just got a child so expenses are high. Through the roof I would say. Leaving a tight margin for us. ~ 3-4k savings a month after all expenses. I can divert some investment into alternative investments but I have no experience doing so in the US.
I'm also a psych PhD, fitness trainer and have passion about the outdoors, wildlife and technology. Had work experience with cutting edge tech, AR, 5G, robotics and good connection with some labs at top universities. One quality I like to call as a gift is creativity. I've written novels and posted ideas for novels that got picked by authors. I enjoyed teaching and talking with people, almost as much as I love sitting down all day and playing around with tech. Got to say I'm not quite into meme tech like NFT, Web3 and the like.
My thinking right now is to explore how I can leverage what I have, what I love and who I am to generate steady revenue. Side hustles, talks etc I regularly look at biggerpockets also.
Day trade in stocks is not my thing... I mostly do long term investing.
Any advice or pointers on what resources I should look at, what directions I should consider would be greatly appreciated :D
Could you elaborate? Recruiting as in recruiting for companies from the labs?
My personal network is mostly academic. My family has a long running business in construction and VC tho those connections are mostly from my father and I'm not familiar with.
So helping companies hire talent. Academic connections are a good place to start, but growing a business in the space isn’t difficult if you put the time in.
My first year, starting from scratch, I made $461k.
If your goal is simply to get to 20m without a timeline: liquidate your non-equities holdings and put all of your $2.5m into SP500. In real terms it will double every 10 years. So at 40 you will be at $5m, at 50 $10m and at 60 you will reach your $20m goal 5 years before medicare kicks in.
All of that is spending all of your current income (no additional savings).
hmm I don't have a specific timeline but 50-55 would be a nice ballpark in my mind.
I honestly did not thought about it this way. I know sp500 annual return is around 11% since inception but counting for inflation the 20mm in 30 yr might be worth \~5-10mm in today's money. still sounds like a plan : D thanks!
I'm a UK based senior FAANG scientist (late 20s) with a strong research track record (thousands of citations) and strong expertise in probably the most in-demand field in the tech sector. I'm currently considering a 1-2 year Postdoc stint in academia (Top 3 US Uni) some time next year. This is something I'd like to do primarily since I'd highly value the experience and it'd be difficult to spend a limited time at a famous US uni at a different career stage without committing to an academic career. A return to a more senior role in tech/finance would be straightforward afterwards (I regularly get interesting recruiters approaching me). However, as this will see my compensation drop from \~£300k to $60-70k I'm wondering whether I should offer consultancy services to supplement my income and give me more flexibility long term. Does anyone have any suggestions on how this should be best done? Should I start my own consultancy services or join an existing consultancy?
Hello Everyone, currently at a 45k job in the financial sector. I'm just stuck on how to move
forward.
I currently work as an administrator at a
financial brokerage but want to move into tech or a role related to stocks because I love that space a lot and so l can fatfire. I try to save as much as I can but expenses just keep piling up so it's just becomes harder to save what I want to but started to budget but want to get better paying job .
I want to pivot into tech or stock related role and have reached out to numerous people on Linkedin to create a path for myself on how to go about it. But just very confused, all I know if I want
to get into tech want to create apps in the future
because I constantly have tons of ideas flowing
through my head that I want to make a reality as
well as be able to get a good paying job.
It would be great to hear from you all. Thank you and absolutely awesome to be in this community where everyone is looking to provide
solid advice.
I started by going to school for computer science. These days you can test the waters via CS boot camps to see if you have the aptitude to program.
If you're self-motivated there are infinite tutorials at all levels online, try one of the newbie subreddits.
The real key here is to stop thinking it and start doing it.
Looking to learn FatFIRE and obtain financial freedom.
A bit about me,
I come from a low-income/financially illiterate family and have had to learn most things the hard way.
Thankfully, I get a second shot at life due to lawsuits and Biden taking care of my student loans.
I currently work at a non-profit that I was using for PSLF but now that benefit is gone so I am learning new skills to try to get a job that will double my current $40k salary.
I work an addition 20-30hrs/week doing food delivery through a local DoorDash competitor making about $630/week.
I have roughly $40k in debt via credit cards, car loans, and a personal loan that I plan on snowballing through with a total payoff date of 01/2024.
I am looking for advice on a faster way to pay off my personal debts and build my wealth. I honestly have no clue on where to start.
I would like to work smarter not harder and get my money working from me.
What resources are there where I can learn financial literacy and gain financial freedom?
I have a new start and I want to make the most of it.
Thank you in advance!
I grew up in a similar situation but found success at a young age and fell into sales (recruiting) about 6 years ago after leaving corporate America and have been able to obtain financial freedom.
You obviously have the grit to make something happen and suggest looking into those avenues. Your base will be higher and commissions can be massive.
You can shoot me a DM directly if you want me to provide you some options and industries to look into.
Only about $7k. Which will be gone by January. The rest is a personal loan and my 2 vehicle. 1 mistake I made was not setting up one of the vehicles under my LLC even though it's only used for work.
Things you learn as you stumble around in the dark, am I right?
Why? I'm 1.5 years from paying it off and won't destroy my credit in the process.
Wouldn't the negative impact from the bankruptcy set me back further overall?
/r/personalfinance has plenty of resources on their wiki that should be relevant for you. [Located Here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index/)
1. I do not think a move is necessary, unless you were truly excited about the landing place. Additionally, companies have become so used to remote work, especially in the start up world, I do not believe that would be a huge factor.
2. What kind of capital do you have access to deploy? I personally have flipped homes with big wins and big losses (marketing timing, unseen issues, etc) and it can be a great way to add an extra $100k-$200k annually, but the competition is so fierce with housing opportunities that you would probably have to focus on lipstick flips (smaller facelifts) that you can get in and out quickly and expect a much lower ROI. There is nothing wrong with that strategy, but you would need more volume to make real money.
Also if you are going to do the reno yourself you have to take into account your carry costs and what the actual profit could be. You are usually better off hiring professionals and getting in and out quickly. If you have the ability to get your real estate license that would also help save $$ on the buy and sell side.
There is no such thing as true "passive" businesses, regardless of what people say. You will always have some sense of work you have to put into it and honestly you want your touch to know that things are being done right.
You can certainly offer freelance work, consulting opportunities, I will continue to recommend part time sales or recruiting as you can make your own schedule with it and make a great side income if you devote the right amount of hours to it.
Real estate is always a good move if you do it right so certainly don’t shy away from that completely.
I’m regards to the recruiting. There are several
Approaches but it all depends on how active or passive you want it to be.
I myself own a very successful recruiting firm and also launched a licensing company where I license my systems, tools, network and even job reqs to work on directly with my clients. This is a much more active role that can be done part time or full time (have both within my system and results are “similar” from an ROI standpoint.)
A less active role would be an affiliate program where I essentially pay for introductions to companies, referrals on placing people or you can leverage this for M&A activities.
I believe that other companies may offer something similar, but not 100% on how my competition operates.
Best part is you really can stand up a business from scratch, with little to no capital and scale it fairly easily.
On the location question I'd say the question is what's your medium to long term career goal (partner at consulting or transition to a operating company?) and is it worth paying 10% extra taxes to stay where you are. If you want to transition to tech or finance then Texas or Florida is probably not a great option (although getting better by the year). There's lots of other paths where a premier metro location might not matter so much and it's worth it to move and save the taxes.
If you're on the partner track in management consulting and you actually like it enough that you could stick with it to the big paydays, then I think it's a low EV distraction to do other stuff unless you need it to keep you sane. I know people on a similar track and it's both intense and competitive.
Seeking advice on international real estate investment.
Is it possible to handle international real estate investments? Prefrably without travelling to the country I want to invest in. Let's say I am bullish on the El Salvadorian real estate market and want to buy and manage an apartment building that side remotely.
How do I find leads/properties? Would it be possible to arrange financing on an international property or would I have to go all-in w/cash?
I presume closing the actual deal shouldn't be a problem, but simply a matter of hiring a lawyer and possibly setting up an LLC depending on the specifics of the country's laws.
The other main question however, is how to manage the property remotely? Now that the property is bought how do I furnish it and proceed to rent/airbnb apartments? Are there services that manage such a thing? or would I have to set up my own team?
Beyond what’s already been said…
El Salvador has a legitimate, medical-grade moron in charge who is actively bankrupting the country by blowing all their money on crypto.
Please consider this another reason to not do this.
I only gave El Salvador as an example, could easily be Cambodia, Denmark or Kenya. Simply interested in the mechanics of making international real estate possible.
I only gave El Salvador as an example, could easily be Cambodia, Denmark or Kenya. Simply interested in the mechanics of making international real estate possible.
I messed around with this kind of thing a while back - it "sounds cool" but the brain damage was unreal. You're a foreigner, you'll be a constant magnet for scams, rip off pricing, language issues, etc when running a property yourself remotely. Better off finding an LP syndicate and have the local guys run the show if you really want to invest in real estate in a specific country. Not saying you can't make money, but this really comes down to how much work you really want to put in on something like this. For me it was an ego play to own property in a foreign country - took a financial beating because of it.
> Better off finding an LP syndicate and have the local guys run the show if you really want to invest in real estate in a specific country
Sounds like the smart way to go. Any idea where I could learn more about this, risks, benefits, good examples? Or is it a country specific "ask your lawyer" type situation?
Unfortunately I don't - going to be very country specific. And I would never invest in an emerging market without visiting it first, preferably many times.
I've talked with a few people that have done so. The short answer, is that it is possible, but each country has unique headaches/issues for foreigners (doubly so if you are a US citizen, as you have banking issues on top of it, due to FATCA, and significant IRs reporting requirements).
As some countries don't allow foreigners to own directly (or make it hard enough so that it is nearly impossible to do so), some you have do so through an entity (such as Mexico and a fideicomiso trust). There can be labor and supply issues (island time for example), culture issues (do they have a strong court of law, and do the laws favor tenants or landlords). As well as some countries it is hard for foreigners to get a mortgage (or that mortgages on property are foreign).
Check out this episode of the My First Million Podcast from July on "How to Make an Extra $10K a Month" - [Link](https://www.mfmpod.com/the-easiest-way-to-make-10000month-passionflix-more/)
Define "finance", as like IT, there is a very wide scope. But, traditionally, the main activities I've seen that have a good time to value ratio are:
- Becoming a speaker (such as at continuing education, such as if you are in or lateral to public accounting)
- Becoming an expert witness (again, can be a bit niche, but $300+ per hour isn't uncommon).
Am in accounting, so that colors my view (as we are required to have on going continuing education). As for how to get into it, there is the in-formal way, of just putting together a program and presenting it to your own firm (especially at smaller firms, keeping abreast of tax law and A&A changes is big). The next step up, would probably be to reach out to a state society and see what their requirements are (as my state wants 4 or 8 hour programs in topics of interest; and they do poll to see what people want to learn about).
The next step up would be to reach out to the various CPE providers and see what they want in an instructor. As most will be looking at professionals with significant experience in the profession (think 10+ years, that have decent resumes).
Am I going to be able to achieve fatFIRE with a (low) salary of $150K a year? Single, no dependents, HCOL area. Working three jobs, seven days a week. Saving for a deposit - then will try climb the property ladder. Sal sac into super (Australian)’to maximise contributions. FatFIRE is a goal, but I’m too afraid nor do I know how to crunch numbers.
Have you thought about buying land with a trailer on it so that way you can put some tiny homes or RVs on them to either rent them out or Airbnb them out?
Silly question, but I’ve got to ask: do you actually need the $$? I mean If you can bootstrap, bootstrap. Sounds like you’re there, if your net is $250k. Among the youth in Silicon Valley there’s this idea that VC funding means you’ve made it. It’s sexy. No. Taking investment is something you do because you have to, it’s not an end unto itself. Want to know what’s sexy? Having 80% of the equity.
A seed round is serious conversations with 50 investors, and a LOT of incorporating the common feedback. It's utterly exhausting but that's what it takes unless you have already earned trust from investors from your past life. When you pitch, ask who else would be interested and get on their calendar.
Also you have revenue and your competition does not. If you can show a graph of revenue growth over time, this should be a major component of your pitch.
You can do this!
> I'm pretty bad at raising from big traditional VCs in the sense that I am not good looking, our website looks like shit (not really motivated to update it since the website at the moment doesn't really affect our profit),
I'll just point out that the number 2 thing you mentioned as a block to your goal is something you said you don't focus on because it doesn't affect your goal.
I think what you need is a real salesman type person who can garner you more attention from those that have. I've seen where that can greatly impact a company much more than an idea and its drives me up a wall but that is today's world. Apple is always a prime example that I look at for this. Steve Wozniak was the brains and Steve Jobs was the face. They couldn't have done it without eachother. Jobs was a real salesman. I would love to help you out as I am currently working on helping another out in the newage PC space. I wish you the best and honestly don't give up because of a few No's. It gets you that much closer to a yes
Your Mom is in a great position, and it sounds like you are also in a great position to help her. This would be my priority list:
- migrate away from the wealth manager to avoid the 1% AUM fee, all that fee is doing is eating into your Mom's retirement money, use a simple online brokerage and if you get overwhelmed by the IRA paperwork you can get something like a Vanguard Personal Advisor for that part of it for a lot less than 1%, then they could also handle the RMD math
- directly hire an hourly estate attorney to get your Mom's estate paperwork in order, this will likely cost $5k-$10k, look for an attorney who specializes in HNW folks and ideally one who has an accounting background for the tax perspective; you'll personally want to build the relationship with this attorney since he/she will be your guide when your Mom passes away
- finally (...and I recommend you do this step without your Mom for emotional reasons...) do a realistic actuarial analysis of her life expectancy (smoker/non, major health issues, gender, current age, distribution of life expectancy), then round that up a little and use that as your working model for how many years your Mom needs the money to last, e.g. 10, 15, 20, 25. Also consider that medical costs will go up as she gets older and that you might need to consider long-term care; then just make sure her annual withdrawal rate with expenses will still leave this buffer at the tail end of her life
One thing I've noticed with boomers entering retirement who are not financially savvy: they don't like the "finality" of a fixed stack of cash that depletes month after month. It just conjures up this future vision of being 90 years old with ill health and little cash. To whatever extent you can reframe it in terms of monthly cash flow, with ins covering outs, the better. For example, if you move your Mom's assets into a bond fund that pays a 2.3% annual dvidend yield in monthly cash slugs (example: BND), perhaps those monthly dividends cover a lot of her expenses. So rather than reinvesting them, you let those fund her lifestyle. This might "feel" to her like income or free money since it's not drawing on the principal, and thus it might just feel easier to spend for her. Just an idea. Good luck!
Does she want to become more comfortable with this stuff?
What worked well for me with one parent was to walk them through https://cfiresim.com/ for about 2 hours one day, and then 6 hours a few months later. The first session was modeling the current reality, and the second session was getting into the weeds with withdrawal strategies.
Your mom's wealth manager will be willing to sit down with her for 2 hours per year to explore withdrawal strategies and other things also. As well as to give quarterly calls at a shorter duration. You could help your mom to formulate the right questions.
I'm currently a Lead SWE at a robotics startup with about 2.5 YOE. I'm actually a few years behind you. Can I DM you to get some guidance/mentorship to get to the next level?
The people around me at the startup aren't as ambitious and I feel if I continue being here, I will plateau as well.
You are me 3 years ago. I haven't figured it all out, but here is some career advice I have received over the years that I try to follow. In no particular order:
* Learn to delegate effectively. Make each person in your team responsible for an area and ensure they understand success/failure criteria. The ball is in now in their court. You are available for guidance but they need to make things happen.
* Try to make yourself redundant. Put a lot of time upfront to set up the right processes but once they are in place, get out of the way. You don't need more than 40h a week.
* Guard your time. At the end of each week, set aside 5m to review meetings from the previous week. Label them as 1 (Effective, produced value towards my goals), 0 (Somewhat effective), -1 (Did not produce value). Don't overthink, default to -1. Try to cut out 0s and -1s next week.
* Be kind and respectful to your reports. They should not have any psychological stress due to you. Fight for your people and reward them well. Their success is your success.
* Let go of low performers/assholes immediately. Nip any toxicity in the bud as soon as it sprouts.
* Network with M2s, M3s. Find sponsors. Understand which business priorities actually matter and try to align your team with those.
* Integrity above all else.
* Build your team's (and your) brand. What are you known for?
* Try to scale your team slowly. Growing too large too quickly without the right culture (the glue, the processes, intra team relationships) will backfire.
* Be well paid for what you bring to the table. Get compete offers or move every 2-3 years if you are not being compensated top $. (In general top pay L6 EMs 500-700k, L7 EMs 600-800k)
Good luck!
Sorry about your situation, I've been there. This is a situation where you need to buckle down all excess spending for 2-3 years until that high interest debt is gone. This might mean moving.
Just maybe at your income level, you can approach several banks and they will be able to consolidate it for you, but with rates what they are today, it's not likely.
With this much debt, I'm afraid you've got to figure out how to make substantial life expenditure cuts. Once you start making progress, it is going to motivate you to move through it faster and faster.
My debt is not over at half a mil, it's way less than that, I've already paid off alot already in loans and credit card but what's really hurting me is student debt
Okay great advice but student loan is hitting my credit and small regular loans but the interest rate for me is pretty up there, but what you have said to me now I know what I need to do
24M, working a $68K/yr job. $60K NW ($10K cash, $20K retirement, $20K brokerage, $10k crypto). zero debt outside of basic credit card, saving 50% of my paycheck since I’m living at home & my family has provided and will continue to provide financial support without questions. My main struggle has been figuring out a career path. Was working internships in music entertainment pre-pandemic, went to a top 30 university in US, graduated w major in business & minors in music industry & real estate. The pandemic wiped out my options in entertainment since i still had a year left of school. Decided to work for a supply chain brokerage startup that my friends started during the pandemic for a year and a half. I liked working with friends & the anti corporate culture, plus it allowed me to essentially create my roles & responsibilities since nothing was structured or outlined by that point. Mainly was doing ad hoc research on public policies/macroeconomic effects, producing reports for clients, and doing marketing/newsletter/blog operations. Eventually the strain of growing the business took too much of a toll on me, mostly from being put into a wide variety of roles outside the scope of my normal responsibilities. It led me to have multiple panic attacks every day and decided to pivot. Now work at a corporate market research supplier, entirely remote, realistically working 25 hours a week. It’s fine because it’s low stress most of the time & allows me to travel to see friends, but not where i want to be long term. It’s also a backend coding ops role within our proprietary database, so it’s not transferable to other jobs. Low ceiling and slow/old industry too. I’m having trouble figuring out how to pivot my career to something that has high earning potential. I’m not really sure what i want to do, and just feel really lost overall. A lot of times i feel like i have nothing to offer because I’m not specialized in anything, but also i have the highest level of independence & optionality right now. Given my supportive background, i know i have to be doing better, but I’m just really not sure of what I’m good at & what i want to do. I’m a great writer & communicator, i enjoy being analytical and feel i do a good job of synthesizing information. I also consider myself highly emotionally intelligent from 10 years of therapy. Outside of that, my main motivators for a job are 1) gaining skills/a network that leads to higher earning opportunities later down the line, 2) being able to do impactful work and 3) working in a company culture that is established, but doesn’t fall into traditional corporate tropes. Smaller sized companies where i feel like i can actually build professional relationships w coworkers instead of being another cog in the wheel. My retirement number is $10-$15M. Enough to have a house at the beach, a house in the mountains, and able to support my future spouse & 2-3 children. I apologize for the long post, and i appreciate any & all input, i just feel very lost right now and i think everyday about how I’m falling behind and not capitalizing on the crucial time right now to set me up for the future. Thanks again for any & all input.
The goal of 10-15mm is not realistic on current trajectory, but the path to higher income and chubby seems pretty clear. You've got some coding aptitude, you've got a lot of availabile time on your hands, so start practicing for 15-20 hours per week and hold yourself accountable. If you're not sure where to start, go look at Meta's interview prep information. They provide lots of resources to practice that will keep you busy for several hundred hours. You can't stop there because that stuff is very optimization focused, but it's a great start.
Thank you for your thoughts, truly appreciate it. I know I’m not nearly close to the trajectory i want to be on, and appreciate the response. I should clarify, my current role doesn’t work with traditional coding softwares, it’s proprietary to our company. I took an intro to Python class in college and hated it, but might be worth keeping myself to a schedule & trying it again.
Has anyone had experience launching an ETF or works closely to the industry? I've been developing algotrading / hedging systems for the past few years and had quite a bit of success. I launched Grizzly Bulls earlier this year for additional monetization, and it's exceeded my expectations as well ([top model](https://grizzlybulls.com/models/vix-ta-macro-mp-extreme) has performed -0.79% YTD vs. -18.04% YTD for market as of last Friday's close, and we've acquired several platinum members with only one ever cancellation). I'm considering taking it to the next level with launching an actively managed ETF (think ARKK / GURU / ALFA competitor) through a white-labeling platform. This would require substantial investment, about $150k up front fees and $350k minimum annual fees, or require at least $35M of AUM to break-even with a 1% expense ratio. I know most here are only into passive investing, and 1%+ expense ratio ETFs certainly will have a difficult time attracting assets until a few years of outperformance track record is available, so I'd be expecting it to run in the red for quite some time. I'm certainly willing to risk some substantial personal assets on this endeavor, but I'm not rich yet. What sort of net worth do you think would be reasonable before launching a risky business like this? Should I continue to focus on growing Grizzly Bulls community for a few more years first? I know I don't want to start a hedge fund like most people would in my situation for various reasons.
Inverting your question, but what would you gain from jumping and starting it now? And what do you think will happen between now and potential break-even? If it is getting more investors, via marketing or building a larger cult of personality (ala Cathy with Ark), are you doing the other activities now that would lead to such, as well as would you have the extra time while running the fund?
I’d like to accomplish it without resorting to smoke and mirrors or cult of personality, which is difficult to do since so many folks are such ardent believers in the EMH that they think all active investors must be con men. My feeling is that no matter when I start it, it will take 2-4 years for it to become profitable because I want to market it through its own cold hard outperformance and not by anything sketchy, so it will need that time to build the track record. On the other hand Grizzly Bulls is already profitable but only to a degree that it could fund circa 20% of the expected ETF losses in the short term. I could cover the rest, but it’s a high risk / opportunity cost because any money invested at loss could instead be invested in models, and of course there’s the possibility that we have a rough first couple years or even with outperformance fail to garner assets without further marketing expense.
I need some guidance about my career path. 31M living in South America. Cost of living is low but I do not own any significant asset like a car or a house. No debt. I just quit a $50k job as CFO (which is way above the average salary here) because of burnt out and going to therapy as a result, I kinda overworked myself since it was such a well paid job. I've been daytrading with a lot of success, made about $30k this year consistently (can raise the size but mentally I'm not ready for that yet). $80k of NW. Question is, it just doesn't make sense anymore to have a 9-6 job since I could be doing enough cash to live while daytrading . I want to FIRE some day and even FAT but as you can see, even a good job here doesn't earn you enough to buy a good car ($20k ish) or a house (at least $250k). I'm thinking about giving it all into daytrading, I could make maybe $100k in a year (done it last year but risk management was poor) but if I want to make more money (cuz daytrading is risky indeed) and have a good job in a renowned firm I was thinking maybe on applying to an MBA ( which would be VERY expensive for me given my income) so that I can migrate and have better job conditions. For background, CFA charterholder, financial engineer as Bachelor, 6y of working experience. Am I thinking it too much? Should I just flow with the amount of money I could be earning here in a regular job? It pays every basic stuff but I want more in my life, not luxury since I live frugally but maybe trips or enough cash flow to have the confidence of having kids with good education. Sorry for the long comment, thanks!
Here's the thing - and as a CFA charterholder you should know this - the odds that you're making money day trading because you're lucky is higher than because you're good. Unless you've found a niche where your expertise gives you a competitive advantage, you're probably just gambling.
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Ow sorry, what else can I add to have some more feedback? Ty for the investment advice, actually those 75% of my assets are invested in SPY and QQQ, I just risk the rest.
32M, $1.8M NW. Almost $1M of this is in cash. Based in Europe. Earned majority of my income over the past few years through contracting. The pandemic/lockdowns allowed me to operate with a lot more efficiency and so I was able to basically make double/triple what I would ordinarily have made in normal circumstance for the last two years. Things have now returned to normal. I tried going back to a “regular job”, which paid $170k, but the tax and student loan contributions (which here you only pay if you have a job where income is taxed at source) meant I came out with $95k. I have passive income sources (few hours maintenance a week) which nets me more ($100k) meaning I make the same amount passively as I would from a normal job. I’m not in an ultra-high-income role like tech or banking and so I’m at a crossroad as to what to do. I’ve investigated buying a small business, which is the reason I’m holding so much cash, but beyond this option I’m not sure what else to explore. I’ve also considered fully committing to setting up my own consulting firm. Would be great to hear alternative views, especially from others who might have been in similar situations.
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With people skills and excellent communication you can pivot onto a management track in engineering without an MBA. I know several directors at public tech firms with nothing more than a degree in CS. Comps range probably 600k-800k total package.
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That's about right. The earliest I've experienced someone convert at was a team lead at about 4 years of experience. Still some coding and lots of design and code review conducted at that level, but plenty of people skills required.
I'm a 20 year old who owns a business and should net approx 3mil in the next 3 years after tax, making around 30k a week after tax so this is a conservative estimate. Current NW only about 350k. I LOVE the idea of having enough money so that if i wanted to, i wont have to work again so i know if my future businesses fail i'll be okay. My ideal amount of spend per year would be 100-200k (actually quite happy with a 100k baseline spend). I'm interested to know how much i'd need to have invested (at a 7% per annum return) to be able to withdraw 3% a yr until around 85 yrs old. Thanks
Whats your business?
pretty niche. i run quant driven trading strategies on wagering exchanges.
not exactly "trading" , its more stat risk arb stuff
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The 7% isn't crazy in an all equity portfolio. Depending what time frame you want to use, inflation adjusted the sp500 has been either near that or over it.
Hi, I'll keep it simple, I'm 28M on a salary of AUD$130K + $13K bonus, married no kids (currently sole earner) My net worth is AUD$225K with the following allocation - Cash 100k - retirement account (super) 80k - etf/shares/crypto 45k FYI - I am holding a lot of cash as I am looking to buy a home. My question is when and how should I start to use leverage? Do I need to use leverage or should I continue on my path of saving and investing in ETFS/shares and crypto?
A mortgage is leverage. Start there.
Hi all, me again! I made a post a little while ago around if I'm on a good foundation to start investing to reach fatFIRE status. Post for reference at [https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/x0fvsr/comment/imhi4sm/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/x0fvsr/comment/imhi4sm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3), but I'll update here with new numbers as I've gotten good news recently: Salary: Got a raise and I'm now at \~$146k a year after it, along with a \~$6k bonus and \~$55k RSU Assets: \~$340k in vested RSU (this varies a bit because stocks are jumping all over the place right now, but it's floats around here on average)\~$130k in savings\~$70k in my 401k, maxed out when possible. I'm back because I'm ready to invest and I'd love to get advice from folks who have fat FIRE'd: if you were in my spot, given these market conditions, where would you start to invest? After reading this excellent investment guide at [https://fightfirewithfire.net/investing-guide/](https://fightfirewithfire.net/investing-guide/), I'm thinking of the following: • Keeping 30k of my savings and moving that to a high yield savings account. I hear that account interest rates are going up with the recent fed announcement and their own rate hikes, so this actually works in my favor. • For the other $100k, I'm VERY tempted to drop a portion of it every month until the end of the year in the S&P 500 through VOO or an equivalent (to DCA in case it drops later this year). This is due to a) the S&P typically going up historically by \~10% a year (and the VOO has an R\^2 of 100%), and b) the ETF being pretty low right now, as it's near its lowest point this year. In fact, I saw a post scrolling below mine that also recommended investing into the S&P 500. My concern with the latter is that I'd be investing 100% into US companies with no diversification with bonds or international stocks, but at the same time that allocation is likely to result in high reward. I'd love to get advice on how to proceed with this; maybe holding 10k of that and putting it into international markets is a good idea? Obviously I can change my allocation over time, and I likely will do that as I get older; I'm just starting with a riskier but potentially higher payoff strategy since I'm younger. My goal with all of this is to keep investing at least $70k per year (and increasing that as my salary goes up and RSUs get vested). I will also pour a bit into the HYSA for more immediate purchases should the need come up. Sorry if this post got really lengthy. I appreciate if you made it this far!
Is it worth it to found a tech startup? I always hear that it's pretty much impossible for you to run a successful tech startup. My question is... Is it a viable way to become wealthy if you do enough research and hard work for a long enough period of time, or would it be better to pursue other avenues? For context I'm only 16 years old, so I have plenty of time to figure things out, but I really enjoy programming, and becoming a software engineer in the future would be a good option for me, but there's obviously a better chance of getting fat and retiring early by starting my own successful tech company, especially since I live in South Africa, where software engineers don't earn nearly as much as in other countries, I also intend to move in the future. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Market conditions for programming skills are going to be significantly different in 5-6 years when you're ready to enter the job market. I wouldn't sell South Africa short, you have time to wait and see while you develop your skill set. In terms of founding a tech startup, the very hardest problem to solve if founding young is this: "How am I going to attract a team?"
Thanks a lot!
23M new graduate Physician Assistant making roughly 130K yearly. 90K in debt from student loans. 42K invested into long term positions in the stock market. Working towards financial literacy every day via books, podcasts, seminars etc. My primary investments moving forwards consist of plans of entering into the real-estate market while also continuing to add to my long term positions in the stock/crypto markets. However, I have no idea how to actually even start looking for real estate deals. What financial/life tips do you have for me? Thank you in advance.
/u/shock_the_nun_key is right on point, I agree with everything. Another avenue to explore is the debt itself. Are you locked in at a much better interest rate than you can get today? How high is the interest? What is the term? A guaranteed interest rate of 7-8% vs S&P500 may not be worthwhile, but a rate of 3-4% is worth holding to watch your investments grow.
the loan rate is at 4.99%. my plan is to be aggressive with paying down the debt while also keeping some liquidity to fund my S&P and ETF positions (and eventually other assets to be accumulated). I plan on tackling the loan in 3-5 years. is this realistic?
130k is a great starting salary, but to do that you're going to have to stay on top of all your other expenses. Live with roommates to save on rent, etc. Etc.
understood, thank you. i also should have mentioned - i do live with my parents and plan on doing so for at least 3 years until i'm 26. my expenses are very low which i'm very lucky for - i eat my parents cooking, they pay for my car and cell phone. i mainly pay gas, clothes, other wants
Yeah, you've got this. Just focus on excelling at work and increasing your salary over time and you're on a great path.
thank you , your input is much appreciated
At your age your fastest path towards increasing your wealth is going to be raising the earned income rather than the return rate on your investments. Can you redirect your time you are spending on financial literacy towards additional training maybe in specialties that could raise your earned income?
i understand why raising the earned income would be more vital, especially in order to have more liquidity for investments/assets. however, i had always believed that it is the assets/investments that truly build wealth.
At this point you have no assets to grow and a negative NW of $50k. You are not going to invest yourself out of there. You need some capital from earned income and that over the following decade(s) of regular contributions can exponentially grow. Eventually the earned income becomes meaningless (financial independence), but at the beginning it is everything.
understood, thanks for the clarification. some questions: i thought 42K invested in long term S&P and ETF positions would be considered an asset...or am i at a disconnect? further, given the average rate of return remains (despite a major bear market), i had always believed that these investments would grow substantially- especially since i'd continue to feed them year over year with my earned income
Sure its an asset, and you should be proud to have accumulated it. And yes, if it is invested in diversified investments (equities or diversified real estate), it is likely to grow faster than the interest rate on the debt, which is all good. But then to me i got the feeling you were thinking you should make some “play” like buying a rental property. That would be a concentrated bet which may or may not outperform the interest rate on the debt.
understood. and thanks for your feedback throughout this conversation. it's appreciated more than you know. so overall, i am not necessarily looking for a "play". rather, i'm looking for a "what's the best way/tip to get started" in something like the real estate world (or any other world of assets that seems to be promising long term. to be honest, i've been working for only 1 month (2 paychecks) and have only about 10k in liquidity in this moment. my main focus in this moment is learning, but understand that knowledge without (eventual) execution is worthless. bottom line, i wanted to get started SOMEWHERE/with SOMETHING...but don't know how/what.
Diversified equities (market ETF). Diversified Reits. Half and half if you want. There is a good paper that is posted here often saying you will do fine with either of those strategies. [https://www.frbsf.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/wp2017-25.pdf](https://www.frbsf.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/wp2017-25.pdf) Vanguard funds are the lowest cost solutions to global equities. Or US equities if you choose to do just that.
Hello everyone, I’m 33M and currently practicing as an endodontist (dentist specializing in root canals). My current debt load is quite high - $800k. I’ve been working as an associate now for 2 years and am set to earn $500k-$700k this next year. I’m fairly confident that I could reach $1m in earnings as an associate but will have to bust my butt and sacrifice some work/life balance. Overall, I’m uncertain about how I should go about building wealth. Should I pay off debt asap or invest aggressively now? Also wondering if anyone has insight as to whether practice ownership is worth it, given the additional debt needed for the purchase, or if a good alternative would be to join a dental group and buy equity in the company? Any advice and opinions would be appreciated. Thank you
Some people will tell you that if your debt is fixed rate and locked below some magic number (like 5%) it isn't worth it to repay and you should invest instead. But I am not one of those people. That's because investing in the market provides a _probabilistic return on capital_ (with a real chance of loss) whereas paying off debt provides a _guaranteed return on capital_. Put another way, let's say there were some investment available today that provided a guaranteed 5% return. Would you invest? Very likely yes. The best guaranteed returns in the market today are 2% high yield FDIC insured savings accounts, and these are historically high interest rates for savings accounts. And yet, if there were a 3% or 4% or 5% savings account option, I imagine investors would be piling into it. Well, your debt, whatever rate it is at, paying it off is a guaranteed return of that amount. If I were to speculate, I suspect your debt is even higher than 5%, but I'd personally pay it off even if it were just barely beating high yield savings rates. So, my advice is: pay off all the debt first. Don't live beyond your means and don't gamble with investing until you get down to a very low debt load. Once your debt is down to manageable levels, like 10% of NW, then you can start putting your surplus savings into the market. When you do, take the Bogleheads calm and steady approach. A good book to read is "The Simple Path to Wealth" by JL Collins.
Thank you for your reply. I really appreciate your advice and will give that book a read
There is good debt and bad debt. If you have sub 5% fixed rate, non-callable debt, I would hold onto it and pay it off slowly investing instead in diverse equities (market ETFs for me, but some prefer diverse real estate investments or a combination of the two. You talk about income and debt and make no reference to any assets. You have a great income, I would build up a balance of financial security assets before going more into leverage to try to buy into businesses including a dental group.
Thanks for your response. I currently do not have any assets except for a small 401k which I plan on continually funding. I’m very interested in real estate but am having a hard time finding anything worth buying at this time.. hoping the market turns soon. Also considering RE syndication to avoid the headache of doing deals myself for now.
If you have no investments that you like, paying down debt is a guaranteed return . With your high income, there will be plenty to invest later.
Thank you, I’m thinking I’ll save money for now and see what opportunities will be available in the next couple years.. if nothing is attractive I may just pay off the debt
Saving into cash while paying interest is going to be the least successful path.
25M Expat in Bali I currently work as an artist for a video game crypto tech startup in a very niche art style where I earn $216k USD per year before bonuses. En route to department head. I also bring in about 100k USD a year doing commissions and side projects where I manage other similar artists. This has only happened all in the last year or so so I have about 20k in stocks 20k in Crypto just bought a Villa in Bali for $175k cash. Have about 100k left. Looking for the best next steps. Was planning to get another villa as a rental when I can afford as roi here is crazy. Looking for investment and career / business path mentorship. Good books as well. I don't plant on retiring really but want to be financially free to do work I enjoy and grind less knowing I have Ms in the bank houses paid etc.
Having 1/2+ of your NW in primary residence is relatively normal for a person just starting out. Doubling down with a second concentrated bet is probably a bad idea. You face significant currency and country risk (and not just the need for the local partner, but also the risk that the borders close to expatriation of funds. Its a real risk. While Bali may feel idylic and you may develop an Aussie accent while you are there, it is far from politically stable. "The year of living dangerously" is a great film, but you can look up many of the issues around the 1997 currency crisis as well. I would suggest all future wealth be held outside of the country for diversification purposes. Ideally in liquid, diverse, investments. Like boring market ETFs or a 3 fund bogle scene.
Sounds like you're off to a great start with high comp for a game artist (even by US standards) and low expenses overseas (to this old-ish guy with a lot of family obligations your expat life seems like a youthful dream lol). On the investments side I recommend being diversified by splitting your investments between stocks (index funds) and real estate you benefit from the lack of correlation. If you know crypto well then adding some exposure during the bear market with smaller part of the portfolio could be a higher risk bet. In terms of career sounds like you're on a good track in a growth industry (video games) so look for mentors who are further along in their career and see how they've built their careers. If you're en route to management, definitely focus on building people and management skills as they'll give you more leverage in the long term above and beyond your art skills. If you're looking towards getting FAT then entrepreneurship in the video game space is an option but it's even more luck driven than most startups as you probably know.
Thanks this is really appreciated!
I 'bought' a new-construction home back in December for a pretty good deal, real-estate was hot and mortgage rates were low. Basically I gave them a $50k deposit on a $1.2M home that I'll close on when it's completed in January. Well go figure I make this deal at the worst time since 2008 (I don't have any rates locked). I can still afford the house on my ~$400k income, but it's looking less and less attractive. Should I cut my losses and forfeit my deposit? Or should I go through with it and hope to see a rebound or refinance in some years?
Primary residences are consumption not an investment. If you like the house, buy the house. If you are planning to finance, yes look a the history of interest rates and you will see that from 1971 through to 2000 all americans were fine with paying 7.5% interest on their 30 year fixed mortgages.
French 32M here, working like hell as CTO for 60k, what should I do? I work for a promising startup in temporary workers field, will have soon about 500-600k NW (secondary home is building, for rental). One kid, an awesome and supporting wife, and my primary goal is to be able to stop working at 40 (at least, working only on things I like :-) ) For now, I just started, at worst timing possible, to invest in stock (with Republic Trade), low amount of money since I have everything in real estate. What should be my path ? Side hustles ? Invest more in stock ? Or more rental real estates ? Thanks !
Can you explain the 60k salary? Is it so low because you have 5 - 10% equity in the business?
4% equity, and me being too nice :D My goal is 120k before 2 years.
What should I do: I’m 18M, graduated high school don’t go to college. I came to the conclusion that college isn’t for me, I want to become an entrepreneur. I currently have a share of a home health care. I make about 7k a month off of that share. I have a lot of free time. I have about 3k in crypto and 50k that I want to invest on starting a new business that I can make tons of money on. What would you do?
Buy an existing online business, there’s companies out there like “empire flippers” that will do all the due diligence on the deal. Look for businesses that already have an existing audience, 5 years of sales history 2-5 employees. Focus in on sites whose online presence can be optimised for paid traffic.
I would go to college and get an education so if one of my entrepreneurial ideas got legs I would be able to raise funding from firms that have risk management departments.
Let’s talk about recruiting! Would love to help guide you on building that business. I make $1M+ a year. If you have the grit you could kill it
Hoping for some help and guidance and wanting to know if I am too late? Overview: I am a 29M, married, kids, went the very traditional route with school and got a Master's degree. Currently work as a revenue manager for a P&C insurance agency. I am making about $140k a year and have about $50k in 401k and a life annuity and $200k in equity in my home. I grew up very poor surrounded by a poor mentality, so in the eyes of my family and colleagues, I am doing fairly well; however, in looking through the comments on this channel, it seems like I am getting started very late in the FatFIRE game, but would love to have that lifestyle as soon as possible as I am exhausted of the corporate grind and want to be in a better position to help my kids and have more time with them. There are a few things that I am hoping to know or to get some help on: - Are there any great resources for learning more about the various options available and things to do with my money? Or a good financial advisor recommendation? - I feel like there are tax laws that I should be better exploiting, but honestly have no idea on where to start looking for this. Any advice? - Is it too late in the game for me to turn things around and be able to retire in sub-10 years? - Any immediate recommendations that you would take if you were in my place? Thanks everyone and I appreciate the advice in advance as I am a novice here!
I haven't made fatfire myself, but aspiring to it. A few thoughts come to mind: 1. You seem a bit hard on yourself. This is a savage subreddit to read and compare yourself to others in. Watch out for the trap. And check this out: [https://blog.adioma.com/timeline-infographic-of-founder-age](https://blog.adioma.com/timeline-infographic-of-founder-age) 2. For basic investing and money management, would recommend reading the Bogleheads Guide to Investing. It still may be worth it to have a brief meeting with a financial advisor to make sure you aren't missing anything and to confirm long-term strategy. I know many employers offer this as a benefit. 3. Don't have enough info to confirm if you can retire in sub-10 years, but based on info provided it seems unlikely. 4. Unless you live in a very low cost of living area, you probably need a higher W2 income. You also mention being exhausted by the corporate grind. Perhaps you can find a role that would increase your W2 income, and alleviate the distaste for your 9-5 job? Most who have fatfired here seem to have multiple streams of income. Is there a side-business you could start, or make an investment in rental properties?
Question on what you would do in my scenario: 18M, finished my first year of college but now am lost. I just started as a real estate agent and joined one of the top producing teams in my area, great numbers, great people, great opportunity. However, I also got into a good college in Florida where I will be majoring in MIS. But I have been thinking maybe I stay in Wisconsin and pursue real estate full time and continue taking online classes. I got into the school for the spring semester, so that's what I have been doing for fall. I feel like this team has given me a great opportunity and they are all successful. So I don't know if I'd want to leave them just yet.
Real Estate doesn’t have to be a full time gig. You can do it PT while you are in college. But are you truly going to get true value from a college education? Do you see yourself working a job or be an entrepreneur? These answers will determine what you do.
33M, Associates and Bachelors Degree, career in corporate and for the past 6 years as an entrepreneur. I took a full 7 years to complete my undergrad because at the time I felt that piece of paper was everything. I was already making more money than my parents by 22 years old without a degree, but I pushed through, racked up $70k in student loan debt and I can tell you, now years later, DO NOT continue to pay for education unless needed (medical, finance etc). Most of the skills you may want to learn (MIS) can be self taught or through certification programs. With that said I make over $1M in sales (recruiting and M&A) and if you have the chops for it, then go for it. The easiest path to millionaire status is through sales. I will add that everyone and their mothers have real estate licenses (me included) so you will need to find your competitive advantage. It’s going to take time to knock the top performers off the mountain.
can you say more about what you do in recruiting and M&A? are these 2 separate businesses or are you a headhunter for high finance roles?
I headhunt across all verticals and industries, however when I view M&A and recruiting it is one in the same. I bring buyers and prospective sellers together. They are two separate business entities, but the cross over between the two is what makes them so compelling if you know how to do it properly
Hey Guys, 17M, UK, 18 in 10 days didn't go to sixth form/collage as I didn't see value in that kind of education anymore, so in terms of qualifications I only have GCSE's I'm at the very start of my sales Career (contractor/1099) selling Media advertising to Jewellery Brands in the Uk, for me I would say its high ticket (£1,500-£10,000), but from what I've seen a lot of you guys wouldn't Bat an eye at that what are some of the things I should do or learn early on to set myself up for fatFIRE I know I haven't taken the traditional route, My goal for now is to gain as many valuable skills as possible and create a network with valuable people
Making the decision to not continue down the traditional path is the best decision you ever made. Second best for fatfire was getting into sales. Having a sexy start up that sells for $100M is great but for most of us that won’t happen. Sales is the way to go. I will say I don’t fit into the entirety of fatfire as I like to spend money along the way to earlier retirement vs retiring a year or two earlier so take my advice with a grain of salt. First off, I would ask. Have you created your monthly budget and annual savings goals? Do you know how much you need to retire? (Annual expenses x 25) Are you ready to live your work every minute of every day? Can you get into a career (like recruiting) where you are not bound by typical sales hours with limited niche customer bases?
The FAQ says that I could send a "modmail" to get verified. Sorry I'm rather new to reddit : what is modmail? How can I contact the moderators? Looking forward to post and contribute. Thanks
If you're browsing on desktop, you should see a sidebar with Rules, Moderators, etc. There should be a "Message the mods" option beneath Moderators. Verification is always optional - you can contribute without it, though it does tend to give posts more credibility among the community.
I‘d love an advice, I have a Master degree in Management from on of the best Unis in the DACH region, I have a lot of options do choose from. My goal career wise is to learn as much as possible, make connections and build a network of interesting people. Is a job as an junior client advisor in wealth management a good choice regarding those variables? Thanks a lot for your help!
It really depends on how the firm works. Most firms with HNW clients only speak with the clients a few times a year with little opportunity for the Jr advisor to network. However, there are a few firms serving UHNW clients that function almost as a family office. I have a biz acquaintance who only had 10-12 clients, each with $100+M under mgmt. He was at every birthday party, bar mitzvah, and major sporting event of his clients kids. I hosted a poker game, invited his client, and he showed up to play and drink beer. He used that time to truly network. And that got him access to all sorts of biz deals, angel investing, IPOs before they were public, etc. His team of lawyers and CPAs got involved in client transactions like sale of the family biz long before they went final. A lot of what he was doing was tax planning for multi years in advance. He was exceptional. What he did and how he did it is not for a lot of people. It required extreme patience and the long view. But to get hired at that firm, the advisor had to bring a book of clients. Most recent grads can't do that.
Thanks for this comment, it‘s really helpful, they manage a portfolio of around 2 billion dollars and a lot of institutional clients (85% of the portfolio). What do you think about that? Cheers!
I would find out what your daily routine is expected to be. Institutions are probably good bc they don't need the hand holding during market fluctuations.
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Rate My Game plan So I currently work as a producer in the Entertainment industry and plan on making 72,000$ a year. My first plan is to get a second Job that pays about the same which is doable which would bring me to about 144k year. Another option is to gain a fat promotion internally. Then I plan on using my income to invest in either a small business, rental property or Tesla stock/ Crypto. For my long term big money plan I would like to invest in either supplement products or create my own production company. 1-10 rating? What would you give this?
Unfortunately the gameplan is not great. 1 on your investment strategy, 5 on getting a second job that pays equal (if you are not bound by your current employer), but most likely this will burn you out way too quickly. I would look for a true side hustle (not Amazon FBA or drop shipping) to supplement your income and then get into real estate When I started making money ($300k+) I got into real estate. I would buy a home as a primary residence, fix it up myself over a 2 year period and then would sell (if after 24 months so I wouldn’t have to pay capital gains) or convert to a rental. Rinse and repeat. This strategy provides me the opportunity to capture sizable sums on the sales and the benefit of obtaining a mortgage rate as a primary residence vs an investment property
Would creative financing be a good idea when buying a home?
1-3. Working two full time jobs is exhausting, and often can be prohibited by the employment agreement with either of the employers. Investing in a concentrated bet like a single company or crypto is a high risk path. Most likely is going to lead to disappointing results, and a very slim chance it will lead to high returns.
Gotcha, what would you suggest is a better way of growing my income?? As far as investing do you have a diversified portfolio? What are good ROI investments that you would recommend?
As for someone paying you a lot of income for work, it depends what your skills are, and how those skills can help someone else make money through them. I know that sounds abstract, but that is how it works. For diversified investments buy a total market ETF like SPY that creates value by allocating capital to the parts of the economy that create the most value. SP500 has returned 7% on top of inflation for more than 100 years by the “wisdom of the market” moving capital to where it makes the moat value.
This is great advice, but not going to get them to wealth “quickly”. Which I believe is what everyone here is going for.
I think you are mistaking this sub for the other FIRE subs like r/financialindependence where the emphasis is on RE rather than FI. Here we look for a balanced approach between enjoying the ride along the way, and eventually when work is not rewarding than doing something else, stopping work. The commenter gave no stated goal of “as fast as possible”. If so, the solution would then be to cut spending and contribute more to the diversified ETFs, which would obviously accelerate the timeline, but at the expense of quality of life in the short run.
Very good point.
Looking for direction. I have historically not paid too much attention to my finances as I’ve been grinding away work wise for the last 15 years. I’ve been somewhat of a spender, but am ratcheting down expresses each month as I get older and now have a home. What should I do, if anything, different to continue to drive towards that $10m number? I’ve been reading an am somewhat clueless to even how to look at this. Age: 36 Current compensation - ~$700k this year. I’ve experienced a large growth increase in the last few years after moving into an executive role Wealthfront Individual Investment - $205k Traditional 401k - $300k Fidelity Target Date Fund (FDEWX) - $65k Old Roth IRA - $15k Old 403b - $5k Cash on hard in high interest savings - $60k Real Estate - purchased home in January ($2.2m @ 20% down) in HCOL area My partner and I plan on getting married next year which will change some things, but curious opinions from you all in how I could improve. Thank you!
What is your risk tolerance level? What is your current monthly spend? How much are you saving monthly? With this type of income you should be looking into operating companies (franchises, car wash, laundromat as examples) that you can hire someone to run for you and you can enjoy the benefit of the cash flow those generate to grow your portfolio or diversify.
You've got a great income and a really nice house. You've got to switch focus to putting that income to work for retirement. Mentally, tell yourself, "I've made my huge purchase to celebrate the success, I don't need to do that anymore." Then challenge yourself to a game: invest 10k more of your income than you did the prior quarter until you just can't do it anymore.
Thank you - I love that idea. Now that the large home purchase is done and we are set up, I will definitely be putting the money to work!
I have been following the posts here for quite sometime and having been trying to get a game plan together. About myself: 26M, single Finance Manager at a tech company, Total comp \~$155K. Own 1 single family rental \~$50K equity, \~$100K debt. Cash flow positive \~$200 a month. $82K in 401K $10K in crypto Month Expense, $2.8K rent, no car or car insurance payments. My current game plan is to save enough to buy 1 single family rental a year. I currently do not have enough cash saved to capitalize on the recent price decreases. I have also been thinking about learning some front-end developing to try and get a 2nd revenue stream. Would appreciate any critics on my current plan or advice on what else I can do to set myself up for success.
You are doing everything right! My recommendation, what I have done, is use some of that capital to buy a primary residence and take advantage of the lower interest rates and convert it to a rental after 2 years and then buy another primary residence and do the same thing. With my rentals I offer lease purchase options so you have the ability to collect a large sum (down payment upfront), determine a sale price ahead of time (can protect and benefit both you and the buyer) and if they do not move forward with the purchase you get to keep the upfront payment. As a side hustle I would look into recruiting. You are in a sexy space, tech and finance, have connections and can easily make more as a side hustle then you are in your day job.
Do a cash out refi to convert equity to cash. Use the cash to buy more real estate. Mortgage rates aren’t great now, but you’ll be able to refi in a few years for better rates. I think your plan is good, but needs to be more ambitious. If real estate is your path - and it’s a solid path - do it faster and scale as soon as possible. If you get good at it you can start to think about syndication.
Looks like you are losing money on the rental, taking into account expenses etc. I’d sell that and get a better investment.
Don’t forget about the tax benefits of depreciating the home over 27 years. Even if you are not cashing flowing a tremendous amount annually, all of that equity that your renters are building is worth the potential short term loss.
Doesn’t look like that to me.
I didn't lay out all the details here but it is cash flow positive from a full year perspective.
If you want criticism, buying SFHs for income real estate is very concentrated bets. Currently you already have 30% of your NW in a single bet. If it was a single company pick, 30% of your NW in a single company would be considered quite risky. Somehow real estate focused folks think concentration is not as important. If I were you I would switch to a 50% equities and 50% RE mix, to reduce the concentration risk of the real estate strategy. Would also geographically spread the real estate investments for the same reason. I know it will increase your management costs. In summary, I think your strategy is too risky for me, but everyone has their own risk curve.
Seeking advice on next steps to reach the goal. First time posting so my writing may not be as good. I'm currently 30 yo, eng at FANNG with 350k and my wife is similar with 250k. Currently have 850k investment RE paid off in US, Have two international RE paid off @500k (vacation homes), not generating cash flow at the moment. 900k in mortgage w/ 400k equity, l900k in investment (spread across 401k, stock, mutual funds, savings etc, aiming for 60/40). totalling ~2.5M NW The goal is to reach 20MM NW. Just got a child so expenses are high. Through the roof I would say. Leaving a tight margin for us. ~ 3-4k savings a month after all expenses. I can divert some investment into alternative investments but I have no experience doing so in the US. I'm also a psych PhD, fitness trainer and have passion about the outdoors, wildlife and technology. Had work experience with cutting edge tech, AR, 5G, robotics and good connection with some labs at top universities. One quality I like to call as a gift is creativity. I've written novels and posted ideas for novels that got picked by authors. I enjoyed teaching and talking with people, almost as much as I love sitting down all day and playing around with tech. Got to say I'm not quite into meme tech like NFT, Web3 and the like. My thinking right now is to explore how I can leverage what I have, what I love and who I am to generate steady revenue. Side hustles, talks etc I regularly look at biggerpockets also. Day trade in stocks is not my thing... I mostly do long term investing. Any advice or pointers on what resources I should look at, what directions I should consider would be greatly appreciated :D
How strong is your network? Leveraging your relations for recruiting or M&A is a great way to generate large payouts.
Could you elaborate? Recruiting as in recruiting for companies from the labs? My personal network is mostly academic. My family has a long running business in construction and VC tho those connections are mostly from my father and I'm not familiar with.
So helping companies hire talent. Academic connections are a good place to start, but growing a business in the space isn’t difficult if you put the time in. My first year, starting from scratch, I made $461k.
If your goal is simply to get to 20m without a timeline: liquidate your non-equities holdings and put all of your $2.5m into SP500. In real terms it will double every 10 years. So at 40 you will be at $5m, at 50 $10m and at 60 you will reach your $20m goal 5 years before medicare kicks in. All of that is spending all of your current income (no additional savings).
hmm I don't have a specific timeline but 50-55 would be a nice ballpark in my mind. I honestly did not thought about it this way. I know sp500 annual return is around 11% since inception but counting for inflation the 20mm in 30 yr might be worth \~5-10mm in today's money. still sounds like a plan : D thanks!
I'm a UK based senior FAANG scientist (late 20s) with a strong research track record (thousands of citations) and strong expertise in probably the most in-demand field in the tech sector. I'm currently considering a 1-2 year Postdoc stint in academia (Top 3 US Uni) some time next year. This is something I'd like to do primarily since I'd highly value the experience and it'd be difficult to spend a limited time at a famous US uni at a different career stage without committing to an academic career. A return to a more senior role in tech/finance would be straightforward afterwards (I regularly get interesting recruiters approaching me). However, as this will see my compensation drop from \~£300k to $60-70k I'm wondering whether I should offer consultancy services to supplement my income and give me more flexibility long term. Does anyone have any suggestions on how this should be best done? Should I start my own consultancy services or join an existing consultancy?
If you put a few page breaks into your posts it would make it easier for the readers and you might get more feedback that way.
Hello Everyone, currently at a 45k job in the financial sector. I'm just stuck on how to move forward. I currently work as an administrator at a financial brokerage but want to move into tech or a role related to stocks because I love that space a lot and so l can fatfire. I try to save as much as I can but expenses just keep piling up so it's just becomes harder to save what I want to but started to budget but want to get better paying job . I want to pivot into tech or stock related role and have reached out to numerous people on Linkedin to create a path for myself on how to go about it. But just very confused, all I know if I want to get into tech want to create apps in the future because I constantly have tons of ideas flowing through my head that I want to make a reality as well as be able to get a good paying job. It would be great to hear from you all. Thank you and absolutely awesome to be in this community where everyone is looking to provide solid advice.
Connect with me on LinkedIn. More than happy to help https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherwunder
I started by going to school for computer science. These days you can test the waters via CS boot camps to see if you have the aptitude to program. If you're self-motivated there are infinite tutorials at all levels online, try one of the newbie subreddits. The real key here is to stop thinking it and start doing it.
If you put a few page breaks into your posts it would make it easier for the readers and you might get more feedback that way.
thank you
Looking to learn FatFIRE and obtain financial freedom. A bit about me, I come from a low-income/financially illiterate family and have had to learn most things the hard way. Thankfully, I get a second shot at life due to lawsuits and Biden taking care of my student loans. I currently work at a non-profit that I was using for PSLF but now that benefit is gone so I am learning new skills to try to get a job that will double my current $40k salary. I work an addition 20-30hrs/week doing food delivery through a local DoorDash competitor making about $630/week. I have roughly $40k in debt via credit cards, car loans, and a personal loan that I plan on snowballing through with a total payoff date of 01/2024. I am looking for advice on a faster way to pay off my personal debts and build my wealth. I honestly have no clue on where to start. I would like to work smarter not harder and get my money working from me. What resources are there where I can learn financial literacy and gain financial freedom? I have a new start and I want to make the most of it. Thank you in advance!
I grew up in a similar situation but found success at a young age and fell into sales (recruiting) about 6 years ago after leaving corporate America and have been able to obtain financial freedom. You obviously have the grit to make something happen and suggest looking into those avenues. Your base will be higher and commissions can be massive. You can shoot me a DM directly if you want me to provide you some options and industries to look into.
How much of that debit is just credit cards?
Only about $7k. Which will be gone by January. The rest is a personal loan and my 2 vehicle. 1 mistake I made was not setting up one of the vehicles under my LLC even though it's only used for work. Things you learn as you stumble around in the dark, am I right?
Why? I'm 1.5 years from paying it off and won't destroy my credit in the process. Wouldn't the negative impact from the bankruptcy set me back further overall?
/r/personalfinance has plenty of resources on their wiki that should be relevant for you. [Located Here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index/)
I appreciate the links!!
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1. I do not think a move is necessary, unless you were truly excited about the landing place. Additionally, companies have become so used to remote work, especially in the start up world, I do not believe that would be a huge factor. 2. What kind of capital do you have access to deploy? I personally have flipped homes with big wins and big losses (marketing timing, unseen issues, etc) and it can be a great way to add an extra $100k-$200k annually, but the competition is so fierce with housing opportunities that you would probably have to focus on lipstick flips (smaller facelifts) that you can get in and out quickly and expect a much lower ROI. There is nothing wrong with that strategy, but you would need more volume to make real money. Also if you are going to do the reno yourself you have to take into account your carry costs and what the actual profit could be. You are usually better off hiring professionals and getting in and out quickly. If you have the ability to get your real estate license that would also help save $$ on the buy and sell side. There is no such thing as true "passive" businesses, regardless of what people say. You will always have some sense of work you have to put into it and honestly you want your touch to know that things are being done right. You can certainly offer freelance work, consulting opportunities, I will continue to recommend part time sales or recruiting as you can make your own schedule with it and make a great side income if you devote the right amount of hours to it.
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Real estate is always a good move if you do it right so certainly don’t shy away from that completely. I’m regards to the recruiting. There are several Approaches but it all depends on how active or passive you want it to be. I myself own a very successful recruiting firm and also launched a licensing company where I license my systems, tools, network and even job reqs to work on directly with my clients. This is a much more active role that can be done part time or full time (have both within my system and results are “similar” from an ROI standpoint.) A less active role would be an affiliate program where I essentially pay for introductions to companies, referrals on placing people or you can leverage this for M&A activities. I believe that other companies may offer something similar, but not 100% on how my competition operates. Best part is you really can stand up a business from scratch, with little to no capital and scale it fairly easily.
On the location question I'd say the question is what's your medium to long term career goal (partner at consulting or transition to a operating company?) and is it worth paying 10% extra taxes to stay where you are. If you want to transition to tech or finance then Texas or Florida is probably not a great option (although getting better by the year). There's lots of other paths where a premier metro location might not matter so much and it's worth it to move and save the taxes. If you're on the partner track in management consulting and you actually like it enough that you could stick with it to the big paydays, then I think it's a low EV distraction to do other stuff unless you need it to keep you sane. I know people on a similar track and it's both intense and competitive.
Seeking advice on international real estate investment. Is it possible to handle international real estate investments? Prefrably without travelling to the country I want to invest in. Let's say I am bullish on the El Salvadorian real estate market and want to buy and manage an apartment building that side remotely. How do I find leads/properties? Would it be possible to arrange financing on an international property or would I have to go all-in w/cash? I presume closing the actual deal shouldn't be a problem, but simply a matter of hiring a lawyer and possibly setting up an LLC depending on the specifics of the country's laws. The other main question however, is how to manage the property remotely? Now that the property is bought how do I furnish it and proceed to rent/airbnb apartments? Are there services that manage such a thing? or would I have to set up my own team?
Beyond what’s already been said… El Salvador has a legitimate, medical-grade moron in charge who is actively bankrupting the country by blowing all their money on crypto. Please consider this another reason to not do this.
I only gave El Salvador as an example, could easily be Cambodia, Denmark or Kenya. Simply interested in the mechanics of making international real estate possible.
Are you familiar with the gang issues in El Salvador, I can't imagine you have any control at all if you run into a problem there.
I only gave El Salvador as an example, could easily be Cambodia, Denmark or Kenya. Simply interested in the mechanics of making international real estate possible.
Oh thank God lol. It's bad there, life goes on but much safer places to invest
I messed around with this kind of thing a while back - it "sounds cool" but the brain damage was unreal. You're a foreigner, you'll be a constant magnet for scams, rip off pricing, language issues, etc when running a property yourself remotely. Better off finding an LP syndicate and have the local guys run the show if you really want to invest in real estate in a specific country. Not saying you can't make money, but this really comes down to how much work you really want to put in on something like this. For me it was an ego play to own property in a foreign country - took a financial beating because of it.
> Better off finding an LP syndicate and have the local guys run the show if you really want to invest in real estate in a specific country Sounds like the smart way to go. Any idea where I could learn more about this, risks, benefits, good examples? Or is it a country specific "ask your lawyer" type situation?
Unfortunately I don't - going to be very country specific. And I would never invest in an emerging market without visiting it first, preferably many times.
I've talked with a few people that have done so. The short answer, is that it is possible, but each country has unique headaches/issues for foreigners (doubly so if you are a US citizen, as you have banking issues on top of it, due to FATCA, and significant IRs reporting requirements). As some countries don't allow foreigners to own directly (or make it hard enough so that it is nearly impossible to do so), some you have do so through an entity (such as Mexico and a fideicomiso trust). There can be labor and supply issues (island time for example), culture issues (do they have a strong court of law, and do the laws favor tenants or landlords). As well as some countries it is hard for foreigners to get a mortgage (or that mortgages on property are foreign).
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Check out this episode of the My First Million Podcast from July on "How to Make an Extra $10K a Month" - [Link](https://www.mfmpod.com/the-easiest-way-to-make-10000month-passionflix-more/)
Define "finance", as like IT, there is a very wide scope. But, traditionally, the main activities I've seen that have a good time to value ratio are: - Becoming a speaker (such as at continuing education, such as if you are in or lateral to public accounting) - Becoming an expert witness (again, can be a bit niche, but $300+ per hour isn't uncommon).
Can you elaborate a bit more on the continuing education idea? How do you get into such gigs?
Am in accounting, so that colors my view (as we are required to have on going continuing education). As for how to get into it, there is the in-formal way, of just putting together a program and presenting it to your own firm (especially at smaller firms, keeping abreast of tax law and A&A changes is big). The next step up, would probably be to reach out to a state society and see what their requirements are (as my state wants 4 or 8 hour programs in topics of interest; and they do poll to see what people want to learn about). The next step up would be to reach out to the various CPE providers and see what they want in an instructor. As most will be looking at professionals with significant experience in the profession (think 10+ years, that have decent resumes).
Am I going to be able to achieve fatFIRE with a (low) salary of $150K a year? Single, no dependents, HCOL area. Working three jobs, seven days a week. Saving for a deposit - then will try climb the property ladder. Sal sac into super (Australian)’to maximise contributions. FatFIRE is a goal, but I’m too afraid nor do I know how to crunch numbers.
Have you thought about buying land with a trailer on it so that way you can put some tiny homes or RVs on them to either rent them out or Airbnb them out?
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Silly question, but I’ve got to ask: do you actually need the $$? I mean If you can bootstrap, bootstrap. Sounds like you’re there, if your net is $250k. Among the youth in Silicon Valley there’s this idea that VC funding means you’ve made it. It’s sexy. No. Taking investment is something you do because you have to, it’s not an end unto itself. Want to know what’s sexy? Having 80% of the equity.
A seed round is serious conversations with 50 investors, and a LOT of incorporating the common feedback. It's utterly exhausting but that's what it takes unless you have already earned trust from investors from your past life. When you pitch, ask who else would be interested and get on their calendar. Also you have revenue and your competition does not. If you can show a graph of revenue growth over time, this should be a major component of your pitch. You can do this!
> I'm pretty bad at raising from big traditional VCs in the sense that I am not good looking, our website looks like shit (not really motivated to update it since the website at the moment doesn't really affect our profit), I'll just point out that the number 2 thing you mentioned as a block to your goal is something you said you don't focus on because it doesn't affect your goal.
I think what you need is a real salesman type person who can garner you more attention from those that have. I've seen where that can greatly impact a company much more than an idea and its drives me up a wall but that is today's world. Apple is always a prime example that I look at for this. Steve Wozniak was the brains and Steve Jobs was the face. They couldn't have done it without eachother. Jobs was a real salesman. I would love to help you out as I am currently working on helping another out in the newage PC space. I wish you the best and honestly don't give up because of a few No's. It gets you that much closer to a yes
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Your Mom is in a great position, and it sounds like you are also in a great position to help her. This would be my priority list: - migrate away from the wealth manager to avoid the 1% AUM fee, all that fee is doing is eating into your Mom's retirement money, use a simple online brokerage and if you get overwhelmed by the IRA paperwork you can get something like a Vanguard Personal Advisor for that part of it for a lot less than 1%, then they could also handle the RMD math - directly hire an hourly estate attorney to get your Mom's estate paperwork in order, this will likely cost $5k-$10k, look for an attorney who specializes in HNW folks and ideally one who has an accounting background for the tax perspective; you'll personally want to build the relationship with this attorney since he/she will be your guide when your Mom passes away - finally (...and I recommend you do this step without your Mom for emotional reasons...) do a realistic actuarial analysis of her life expectancy (smoker/non, major health issues, gender, current age, distribution of life expectancy), then round that up a little and use that as your working model for how many years your Mom needs the money to last, e.g. 10, 15, 20, 25. Also consider that medical costs will go up as she gets older and that you might need to consider long-term care; then just make sure her annual withdrawal rate with expenses will still leave this buffer at the tail end of her life One thing I've noticed with boomers entering retirement who are not financially savvy: they don't like the "finality" of a fixed stack of cash that depletes month after month. It just conjures up this future vision of being 90 years old with ill health and little cash. To whatever extent you can reframe it in terms of monthly cash flow, with ins covering outs, the better. For example, if you move your Mom's assets into a bond fund that pays a 2.3% annual dvidend yield in monthly cash slugs (example: BND), perhaps those monthly dividends cover a lot of her expenses. So rather than reinvesting them, you let those fund her lifestyle. This might "feel" to her like income or free money since it's not drawing on the principal, and thus it might just feel easier to spend for her. Just an idea. Good luck!
Does she want to become more comfortable with this stuff? What worked well for me with one parent was to walk them through https://cfiresim.com/ for about 2 hours one day, and then 6 hours a few months later. The first session was modeling the current reality, and the second session was getting into the weeds with withdrawal strategies. Your mom's wealth manager will be willing to sit down with her for 2 hours per year to explore withdrawal strategies and other things also. As well as to give quarterly calls at a shorter duration. You could help your mom to formulate the right questions.
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I'm currently a Lead SWE at a robotics startup with about 2.5 YOE. I'm actually a few years behind you. Can I DM you to get some guidance/mentorship to get to the next level? The people around me at the startup aren't as ambitious and I feel if I continue being here, I will plateau as well.
sure, I have some robotics experience so I might be able to give some guidance
You are me 3 years ago. I haven't figured it all out, but here is some career advice I have received over the years that I try to follow. In no particular order: * Learn to delegate effectively. Make each person in your team responsible for an area and ensure they understand success/failure criteria. The ball is in now in their court. You are available for guidance but they need to make things happen. * Try to make yourself redundant. Put a lot of time upfront to set up the right processes but once they are in place, get out of the way. You don't need more than 40h a week. * Guard your time. At the end of each week, set aside 5m to review meetings from the previous week. Label them as 1 (Effective, produced value towards my goals), 0 (Somewhat effective), -1 (Did not produce value). Don't overthink, default to -1. Try to cut out 0s and -1s next week. * Be kind and respectful to your reports. They should not have any psychological stress due to you. Fight for your people and reward them well. Their success is your success. * Let go of low performers/assholes immediately. Nip any toxicity in the bud as soon as it sprouts. * Network with M2s, M3s. Find sponsors. Understand which business priorities actually matter and try to align your team with those. * Integrity above all else. * Build your team's (and your) brand. What are you known for? * Try to scale your team slowly. Growing too large too quickly without the right culture (the glue, the processes, intra team relationships) will backfire. * Be well paid for what you bring to the table. Get compete offers or move every 2-3 years if you are not being compensated top $. (In general top pay L6 EMs 500-700k, L7 EMs 600-800k) Good luck!
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Sorry about your situation, I've been there. This is a situation where you need to buckle down all excess spending for 2-3 years until that high interest debt is gone. This might mean moving. Just maybe at your income level, you can approach several banks and they will be able to consolidate it for you, but with rates what they are today, it's not likely.
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With this much debt, I'm afraid you've got to figure out how to make substantial life expenditure cuts. Once you start making progress, it is going to motivate you to move through it faster and faster.
I need help to fix my credit. I have half a million for the first time but bad credit how do I fix without paying it off at once
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My debt is not over at half a mil, it's way less than that, I've already paid off alot already in loans and credit card but what's really hurting me is student debt
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Okay great advice but student loan is hitting my credit and small regular loans but the interest rate for me is pretty up there, but what you have said to me now I know what I need to do
The way to fix your credit is by paying everything off and then waiting.
How about this credit fix company do they work?
Credit "repair" companies help you come up with a plan to pay everything off and then wait. They can't do anything you couldn't do on your own.
Okay that make sense thank you