How I retired at age 25 | Hacker News Reader

How I retired at age 25

petermichaud.com

82 pointspmichaud46 comments

I'm glad I can appreciate the recursiveness of reading a minimally informative blog about getting rich, all the while knowing that the punchline is going to be "write lean content that strings people along".

I guess I always thought retired meant that if all your sources of income disappeared tomorrow, you could live off of your savings for the rest of your life. Don't get me wrong, I find owning a business where you can pay your own salary impressive as well, but retiring seems a bit misleading (unless there is some detail I'm missing).

I had the same reaction. Honestly, I don't think you are missing anything, this is like an oil baron saying he's set for life because his oil rig is pumping out enough money today so that he doesn't have to work. For some reason he forgets that the oil might run out 2, 5, or 10 years from now.

"I tinker around the edges of the business, but I don’t have to. It’s on autopilot, and if I don’t do anything to it at all, it’ll keep earning. It’s as secure as any investment vehicle, and if I want to, I can make it grow at any time."

We have different definitions of "retire". It sounds like you're still running your business.

Also, the idea that it's "as secure as any investment vehicle" is misguided. I'd trade my content site, which has been generating consistent income since 1999, for T-bills generating the same income any day of the week.

After reading all of that, I still don't know what he/you actually did.

Without numbers this isn't very useful.

This reminds me of when I was at WestPoint (US Military Academy). Everyone would talk about how once you graduated you were "set for life" (after your five year commitment). They would leave it at that, and not mention any numbers to back up the statement. I still remember I asked an officer what "big money" was. And he replied, "Oh, big money!! Like 65,000" Which is less than every single one of my friends and I made after quitting westpoint and getting jobs out of school.

Is that just a one time amount or yearly? I know of people that have been in the marines for 20 years and then have a retirement that pays him yearly and also has a job that pays well.

The other part nkh didn't mention is you can retire after 20 at half pay. If you make Lt Col by then (not so hard), that'll be about $45k free yearly income at age 42 for the rest of your life.

Plus, it's quite easy to then get a military contracting job. That, with the secret clearance you'll have as an officer, pays pretty nicely.

If you make Lt Col by then (not so hard)

I have a lot of friends who stayed at Westpoint, and served at least two tours in Iraq or Afghanistan. They would argue with you over the "not so hard" part of the argument.

My fiance's brother has done multiple tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan as part of the IED group. From the experiences he's been able to share, "not so hard" could only be written by someone without active duty military experience. I would never want to see the things our soldiers see or have the experiences they do.

They do a great service for our country; and honestly, can end up fairly well off if they manage to survive 20 years + land an additional job after retirement at 38+.

45k is a good chunk of change to have every year for free. That can pay the mortgage in most places pretty easily even in places that are really expensive you only need to work a little bit to cover the mortgage. Is insurance covered as well?

I wonder why you call it "$45k free yearly income", since you would have pissed 20 years of your life away. Not exactly "free".

Pissed away 20 years of your life making great money? Even as enlisted, if you aren't an idiot or an alcoholic, you should be able to sock away far more savings than private sector counterparts at a similar level of education and ability.

This is true. I know a guy who worked his way up the ranks from enlisted to officer who had saved a million by his mid thirties. He was frugal, but not extremely so.

Presumably it's: start several blogs, and make money via advertisements, referrals, and e-books.

The two sites linked in the article prominently advertise self-made books:

http://www.reactivehypoglycemia.info/

http://www.statisticshowto.com/

I think the lesson he's shooting at is the basic "don't be afraid to chase your dream because when I did everything turned out roses". I'm not opposed to that message but it seems self evident. Everyone has a dream, everyone knows some people chase their dream and succeed. What holds people back (as he says in the post) is fear that they won't succeed and I don't see how one anecdotal story is going to alleviate that.

About 80% of the income comes from books, 20% from things like ads and affiliate links (reply to grandparent).

Actually though, I was hoping to accomplish something different than "drop everything for your pie in sky, because it'll be great, trust me."

This is more:

1) Pay attention to the simple opportunities you have around you

2) Be prepared to work for quite a while before seeing any real return

3) Don't get stuck in the "I just need to pay the bills" trap. Get something--anything--out in the wild, and then iterate.

Those were my major roadblocks, and I thought they might be blocking someone else also, which is why I wrote this. That having been said it's an anchor piece for the writing I have outlined for the future, which will get much more specific.

Although, I'm not really interested in getting too deeply involved in the making money online blog niche with my personal site. I just think people like reading tangible case studies, so I'll oblige.

"I just think people like reading tangible case studies, so I'll oblige."

Peter, for some commenters here, there is the feeling that you have told this very motivational story that is also "lean" on content. I don't disagree, although I do appreciate your story.

I think it would be great if you shared more detail about your experiences, successes, failures, etc. in a way that people in the HN community would find more substantial. Patrick McKenzie (patio11) does a great job of this, and I think HN'ers owe him a great debt for the quality of what he shares. (And many others here do this as well.)

I sincerely apologize, but "I just think people like reading tangible case studies, so I'll oblige." is misleading.

What is tangible? I read case studies every. single. day. to the point of nausea. You are sharing experience--which is left up to the reader to decide if it is true or not--rather than any "tangible case studies".

Side note: Your writing very clearly mimics Tim Ferriss and your whole basis may very well have been inspired by him. Just an observation and possibly the parallels are resonating with those who are commenting on here and have read him.

"About 80% of the income comes from books, 20% from things like ads and affiliate links".

You may be disappointed that pmichael isn't showing you his bank balance. I'm not. He does tell you how he's making money...well, you have to have the background of knowing how money is made for these sorts of business activities, but most on HN seem clued in about ebooks and adsense. Its a good enough story as is.

On the contrary, I don't believe someone has to show a bank account to share an experience or make a suggestion. I too am clued into both physical and e-publishing, adsense, etc.

But, what he is sharing is an experience, not a case study. That was the root of my comment which you replied to.

Way to insult Tim Ferris. I found his book very detailed and number oriented--opposite of this blog post.

You're forgetting - get in a niche that you know, and do a better job than anyone else.

Most of us here know that mantra, but I guess you were too busy erm .. doing stuff.

It feels suspicious to me that this article is now up to 18 points?

The suspicion? Some users up-vote a headline before reading the article.

I upvoted it (after reading) because I like periodic reminders that sexy web apps aren't the only way.

"Work for someone who produces actual content and then happen to be married to them so you can claim all that money is yours."

How lame. I'm 35 and I haven't even started working.

I'm 35 too and wondering what I'll do when I grow up;-)

Maybe you and Willie_Dynamite can start a blog about how you retired at Day One.

How? In school?

Where do you get your money, Willie?

The ATM.

This is clearly a sarcastic response. Yet, he received nine points. Why? I thought humor was not allowed? I am trying to flame. I am asking seriously.

I keep noticing lately this kind of blogs: "I made millions without hard work from this simple passive-income scheme with just a small e-book..." etc.

I wonder who's making the REAL money. And what is he selling. These blogs are probably fabricated, but what's their point? Lots of people doing blogs and e-books about lots of niches? Only Google gains from that.

Or maybe lots of unhappy "entrepreneurs" looking for SEO tips? That's more like it...

I'm waiting for the sequel "How I sucked in a whole bunch of HN readers by submitting a corny, too-good-to-be-true headline"

the niche disease site and ebook made 40k in its 12th month??

I was wondering that as well. I am pretty confused about the time frame, he said the book was released last summer and in it's first month made $10 and in it's 12th month make 40k. How can he know what the 12th month is if it hasn't been twelve months since the book was released? Am I missing something?

I think he's just projecting his current income growth for the next 12 months, which sounds a little bit naive. :-)

Thank you for writing this, it's great food for thought, especially as you're under no obligation to either write it or to write to a particular level of detail.

Reading this was time well spent in the ongoing adjustment of my brain.

Pictures or it didn't happen.

Total bullshit.

How lucky for him that his wife had a strange disease! We can't all be this lucky though.

Well looking at your profile picture, I would say you got rich by pillaging and plundering on the modern high seas: the internet.

What is wrong with people here? They lack any sense of humor. Besides, this guy is making money selling ads. I'm surprised there wasn't a solicitation for a book. Oh wait.

Humor is the gateway drug. If people start upvoting jokes, then HN will turn into Reddit. Then into Digg. Before you know it, you might as well call it HNchan.

Interesting idea. I suppose hospitals should get rid of the clowns that entertain hospitalized children. I mean, they use humor to make them laugh. I suppose medical science should retract their findings that laughter can indeed heal, since humor obviously is a destructive force.

I don't mind if people don't want to upvote a joke. That is fine by me. But, we don't need to downvote them either.

I disagree with jokes being the catalyst which will change HN into Reddit or Digg. I don't think it is the comments that turn the worm, rather the quality of the bookmarks which are submitted. If the heart is true, the body will be also.

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