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Comment by wallflower | Hacker News Reader

I really am annoyed and almost think it is borderline wrong that he failed to mention that to be an angel investor (his $120k invested in startups), you have to be an accredited investor by the standard IRS regulations. My guess is most of the people reading his blog aren't accredited investors, otherwise they would not be reading his blog regularly and getting all pumped up 4HWW style.

"Currently, there are two ways to qualify as an individual:

- You are single and make $200K/year, or you are married and make $300K/year as a household

- You have over $1M in liquid assets"

http://blog.adamnash.com/2010/05/19/accredited-investors-fix...

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He outright says, "I would not suggest mimicking this approach," and not to even try "unless you limit angel investment funds to 10% or less of your liquid assets." Which at 120k of angel investments would make you an accredited investor.

The point of his post wasn't to push people into becoming an angel investor, but to push people to be willing to invest heavily in their own education and dreams.

For example, take Mondays off, with a pay cut, and pursue a writing career.

You don't have to be accredited, but the company would be playing with fire by taking your money if you're not.

Good point. Friends & family can always invest.

The actual regulations are that the company owes you slightly more in terms of unaudited financials as an unaccredited investor, and there's a maximum total (something like 20 or 30?) number of unaccredited investors they can have.

Companies try to avoid it -- who wants one extra burden as a startup, even a small burden? But it's not as onerous as you might think.

It's certainly worth mentioning, but... I've made an angel investment, not as friends or family, and I'm not an accredited investor. Be up-front about it to the company, naturally, but we talked to several companies, and it's not uncommon for them to be willing to consider it.

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