What do you mean by succeed? To me, it's very specific. It is to live without debt or a mortgage in a safe place where I can afford medical insurance (which currently costs me $65,000/year). It also meant being able to spend as much time with them as my children required.
I guess you could say it took me from ages 21-38. If you count study as a child, 12-38.
However by the time I was 23 I was already super happy. I had a good job and could afford to take my girlfriend out a couple times a week. So the times from 23-38 were fulfilling and very enjoyable even though I didn't feel I "made it" until 38.
12: Started reading business books & biographies
16: Kicked out of high school
21: Dropped out of college & started to teach myself programming.
21: Fired from my first job as programmer
23-31: Worked as computer programmer, moonlighting journalist & got lots of free learning materials. Also spent all extra money on books.
25: Got angel funding for a business that sort of failed 3 years later
28-31: Programming jobs. Fired from another one.
34: PM job at Microsoft. Everyone sold their stock options due to dumb things Marc Andreesen said but I kept it all. Stock went up 1300% in the next 4 years. My friends who had been there much longer all seemed to listen to Marc.
38: Retired to due handicapped kid born. Stock was worth $1 million, had to sell it when I left. So $600K after taxes.
40: Bought a business, fixed it up, and it supported us beautifully for the next 20 years. Spent a lot but also saved a lot. HN calls it a lifestyle business. I made, say, minimum salary for an NFL football player. We bought our house for cash in a neighborhood where one of my favorite guitarists lived, but they couldn't make the house payment and moved out. Same for a local newscaster. I bought another house in the neighborhood for cash as an office.
60: Sold the business, now live off investments. Traded the houses for a farm in town.
Can you give more details on the business you purchased? Any resources you found useful to learn this process? It’s something I’d like to do after waging away
It was an eBay-related business that I had used many times. The resources I used were common sense and a realistic perspective on business, neither of which I was raised with :O. I went in knowing it might be a ripoff so I didn't go into debt. Just used up some of my retirement account.
There was little time for due diligence so I developed a relationship to the owner of the business to help calm my nerves.
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What do you mean by succeed? To me, it's very specific. It is to live without debt or a mortgage in a safe place where I can afford medical insurance (which currently costs me $65,000/year). It also meant being able to spend as much time with them as my children required.
I guess you could say it took me from ages 21-38. If you count study as a child, 12-38.
However by the time I was 23 I was already super happy. I had a good job and could afford to take my girlfriend out a couple times a week. So the times from 23-38 were fulfilling and very enjoyable even though I didn't feel I "made it" until 38.
12: Started reading business books & biographies
16: Kicked out of high school
21: Dropped out of college & started to teach myself programming.
21: Fired from my first job as programmer
23-31: Worked as computer programmer, moonlighting journalist & got lots of free learning materials. Also spent all extra money on books.
25: Got angel funding for a business that sort of failed 3 years later
28-31: Programming jobs. Fired from another one.
34: PM job at Microsoft. Everyone sold their stock options due to dumb things Marc Andreesen said but I kept it all. Stock went up 1300% in the next 4 years. My friends who had been there much longer all seemed to listen to Marc.
38: Retired to due handicapped kid born. Stock was worth $1 million, had to sell it when I left. So $600K after taxes.
40: Bought a business, fixed it up, and it supported us beautifully for the next 20 years. Spent a lot but also saved a lot. HN calls it a lifestyle business. I made, say, minimum salary for an NFL football player. We bought our house for cash in a neighborhood where one of my favorite guitarists lived, but they couldn't make the house payment and moved out. Same for a local newscaster. I bought another house in the neighborhood for cash as an office.
60: Sold the business, now live off investments. Traded the houses for a farm in town.
Can you give more details on the business you purchased? Any resources you found useful to learn this process? It’s something I’d like to do after waging away
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/3gbx78/til_t...
It was an eBay-related business that I had used many times. The resources I used were common sense and a realistic perspective on business, neither of which I was raised with :O. I went in knowing it might be a ripoff so I didn't go into debt. Just used up some of my retirement account.
There was little time for due diligence so I developed a relationship to the owner of the business to help calm my nerves.
Genuinely curious where this might be, the only place I can think of might be Tillamook, OR!
Redmond, WA