Comment by pdx | Hacker News Reader

Comment by pdx | Hacker News Reader

Why do you want a million euro? Are you going to spend one million euro on something?

I bet the answer is that you aren't going to spend $1M on anything. You intend to put the $1M in some very safe investment and live off the interest, correct?

So you don't really need $1M, what you need is $100K per year passive income. It's the same thing.

If you look at your problem that way, things seem more doable. Instead of spending 10 years making $1M, you can spend the same 10 years growing your passive income from $1K to $10K to $100K.

As somebody who has made a lot of money in real estate and in stocks ... and who has also lost much of it, I believe a business is a better investment for you than stocks or real estate. A business is a machine that produces money. Making your money in stocks or real estate is like hunting. Every time you go hunting, you may be lucky, but you may be unlucky. It's not conducive to a stress free state of mind.

Since your current business can't ever be passive, you'll need to start a new one that can be. Your sailboat electronics passion seems like a good one. Electronic products can be passive income and sailboat owners have money.

Good luck.

When I first read the question, I thought Oh boy, there's going to be some asinine suggestions to this one. But this is one of the most sensible answers I can think of. Seeking to turn 1 buck to 10 in the markets, and quick, sounds like the beginning of a disaster. Reframing the question to one of passive income, one can view the 100K as a sort of financial buffer that can finance or cushion different forays into passive income generating ideas (for example, take a month off regular work, take 5K (or whatever it costs to maintain your family) out of the buffer, and work on some crazy idea that may or may not work out. You could do this 20 times (although I doubt anyone could be so dumb as to totally lose it all 20 times in a row!) and even if it's all financially unsuccessful, you would have learned a ton! That sounds doable and realistic and actually fun.

On a personal note: I'm in a similar position to the OP, except I inherited the money a few weeks ago, and am still trying to figure out how to go about this. Thanks a lot for this new perspective!!!

We should get in touch!

Thought the same! Will send mail this week.

You are right. I don't need the million euro since I don't know what to spend it on. What I'm looking for is freedom to learn and do new things that interest me.

I used to do this by working 6 months out of a year at most but I still don't own a house and don't have a nest egg. Nothing to ensure my family has a comfortable life if, God forbid, anything happens to me.

I like your perspective of growing passive income from 1k to 10k to 100k!

Well then for starters maybe you should spend some of that money on life insurance.

I looked into that and was very surprised at how small the payout is. I could buy 500k or 1mm of life insurance in the US from what I remember. Here in Spain it's 50k or 100k or a similarly small amount.

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