How I got wealthy without working too hard | Hacker News Reader

How I got wealthy without working too hard

amaca.substack.com

23 pointsamacasubstack28 comments

I don't get the "don't live in big cities" thing. Unless you prefer the country life, giving up big city qol (not to mention the social and professional networking opportunities) to reduce expenses by maybe $200k over a decade doesn't make sense in the context of the kind of hourly rates we are talking about here, especially since companies adjust your salary up if you live in a big city

Good point about leaving jobs that have many meetings, though

Also, I think it's smart to take breaks between contracts, as you can build your skills and become senior much faster if you can focus on studying full-time 2-3+ months every year. Compared to self-directed project-based study, jobs are a hopelessly inefficient way to build competence

Also, yeah....don't do a startup unless you are VERY sure you don't mind being stuck there and having it be your whole life for 5-7+ years if it works

You probably only count housing expenses (which are still way off), but giving up on QOL == savings too.

> giving up big city qol

What does this even mean?

Living in a sterile 600 sq ft box filled with IKEA furniture emitting VOCs? Hearing sirens all through the night? Stepping over needles and human poop on the sidewalk en route to the CVS that's currently being robbed? Enjoying that specific moment between 10:47am and 1:04pm when the 90-floor building's shadow allows actual sunlight to enter your sterile box's windows? Getting stabbed, raped, or becoming a victim of anti-Asian hate violence on public transport?

I've yet to hear an explication of what's so great about the city, other than access to different breweries, nightclubs, and fancy farm-to-table restaurants.

Here in the country, the microbrewery is closer - literally a row of carboys fermenting DIPAs in the basement, and cold kegs fresh off secondary. The free range eggs and organic vegetables are in the backyard, and the pastured bacon is curing from last week's butchering.

Nightclubs, I'll grant you. But I don't need to blow $3k on bottle service for a night with my wife.

>Take a $ 500-1000 / day, full-remote job. If you can’t find them, I’ll post a bunch.

lol yeah that is the rub. flagged, sorry. this post is terribe

I can post them, why is it terrible ?

A quick list from: https://www.cwjobs.co.uk/jobs/contract/remote/in-london

Java Developer - Remote - Contract £600 - £750 per day

Kotlin Developer - Contract (Outside IR35) - Remote £625 - £650 per day

PHP Developer - FinTech - Contract - Remote Up to £450 per day

The bottom end of that range is $125k/yr. That’s within the average of a senior software engineer. It’s not a big leap or, really, hard to get in that context.

The article specifically sites this as for senior software roles.

How come websites like payscale, glassdoor, etc say 125k is what Google pays in Bay Area?

Title seems needlessly editorialized (and presumably submitted by the author). Actual post title is more accurate to the content:

"How to become a millionaire without coding too hard"

> and presumably submitted by the author

if the username is a guide....

> Do this for 7 years while investing most of your salary in a diversified portfolio. Don’t go too crazy with Crypto.

In a bullish market, like last decade. This will work. This suggestion does require you to do sufficient research in financials.

people said this in 1993 "the bull market lasted a decade, it cannot continue". Even after accounting for the 2000 and 2008 crash, it would only revisit the lows of 1996. Even when stocks are overvalued or the bull market is long in tooth, staying invested can still pay off. The evidence suggests market timing does not work:there are no reliable signals for exiting the market.

Yes, you could have also said it in 1987 in Japan. The Nikkei 225 had returned 23% ARR since 1950 (for 37 years) and would return another ~60% before falling and going nowhere (except down) for the next 30 years.

We have never actually had a true deleveraging in the system (in terms of absolute debt loads), so we're kicking the can on that down the road. It's working for now, but it's not going to work forever. We'd need either a deflationary crush or an inflationary debt jubilee to reset the leverage - it's going to be painful either way.

That has been the modus operandi since the late 80s (in the U.S.) - increasing deficits, increasing debt, and bailing everyone out, but it will eventually stop working (number go up won't work forever).

There's some rather big leaps here.

First of all you need a skill to do this. If you aren't already pretty good at coding, how are you going to get the work? This is like saying we can all represent our country at the Olympics, just pick an easy sport.

Investment returns... how do you say this politely? If you already know the market is going up, why don't you just borrow money and go long the market?

Also, taxes. It might make sense to talk about how to minimize this, because it's going to be one of the biggest outgoings. Move to a tax haven if you're gonna be remote anyway. Malta, UAE, etc.

Americans pay taxes even if they live outside the US. You get a $90k (or however much it is today) “outside the US” exemption, and if you have a treaty, any taxes paid towards your domicile.

But you do pay taxes.

People underestimate how much wealth can be built using leverage and 100k a year invested income. Yes, markets go down, but over a 10 year time frame you will have enough to retire.

Yeah it's very doable. I did it in 5 years with a bit of lucky investments.

Although a million dollars won't make you happy. It's not what you actually want.

Some of the stuff is pretty generalized, I do agree not living in a big city is key to building wealth, the problem is all the great mid-sized cities with interesting stuff to do and are close to nature have skyrocketed in price, think Boulder CO, Bozeman MT, Bend OR, etc. Also contract work is not great, better to find full time work at a employer with decent work/life balance.

I like this post. If nothing else it challenges each of us to think about what really matters to us.

I think the business world has always relied upon the drive that many have to be the top dog, or one of the top dogs. Work 70 hrs/wk and you can be a team lead! If you don't care about that and make choices accordingly, you can optimize your life in a way that makes sense for you.

Sorry but being a dollar millionaire isn't the same as wealthy.

Only 1.1% of the population in the world has more than 1 million dollars of net worth.

What good is wealth if you are living in a boring old town with nothing to do? Also this would obviously not be true if you have a family because kids are a money sink.

Why do you need to be in boring old town? You can be at the beach, in big low-cost city in Latin America etc

Boring old towns often come with cheap space, something that's impossible to find in big cities. With space comes infinite possibilities. Set up a 1/4 acre farm and see how much can be automated. That'll suck all the free time out of a day.

There are many perks to living outside of the city. You can have twice the house for 1/3 the cost. It's much quieter. There are hobbies and activities that are only available outside of the city. Of course, if you are single, it's a terrible idea, but for married people or those in committed relationships, there are a lot of pluses to consider.

As an example, a friend lives in a 5 bed, 4 bath house and hour and a half out of the city. He has a woodshop, a workshop, fire pit, fireplace, man cave, 4 car garage, loves dirt biking, off-roading, cycling, fishing, flying his racing drone,and can play his drums as loud as he wants. He is also only an hour and a half from the city if he wants to go in for the day or weekend. He would be in a 2 bed, 1.5 bath condo if he lived in the city and wouldn't be able to do any of his hobbies; maybe the cycling.

Some people like boring towns and what you consider things to do may not be of interest to others.

For example I have many friends in large metropolitan areas whose lives revolve around eating and going out. On the other hand I much prefer going on hikes to going out to dinner and bars. Also if I want a more cultured experience I have enough money to hop on a plane and go anywhere I want. Overall the smaller town with the lower cost of living works very well for me.

Fellow "boring old town" member here. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Far away from me are the trivialities and concerns of concrete monoliths. I much prefer being able to walk outside on my own, and see open fields and forests where ever I turn.

Maybe I'm not an exception, but there are more than a few people who don't need much in life. A wood cabin in the mountains with 802.11 and solar power is all I need.

In my boring little town, a tourism town, we have a high-ranked ski hill within 40min of city centre, other options including heliskiing with a couple hours, world-class golf (and spa) with 20min of city centre and several other equally great ones within a couples hours drive, an enormous lake running a few hundred kilometres in length within 10min of city centre, world-class backcountry hiking in nearly every direction, a x-c ski area that regularly hosts world cups, awesome mountain biking, some amazing motorcycle highways, fantastic wineries and fruit farms, endless fresh vegetables, etc. International airport is 40min away. We even get some good performing arts acts. Lower Mainland is 4.5hr to downtown core. Population < 60K.

Not really seeing a downside to this place. Different strokes for different folks.

The core message is true: If you get a high paying job, keep expenses low, and invest the difference then you will accumulate wealth over time.

But this isn’t a secret. It’s the dream of a significant majority of the young CS students and grads that I’ve worked with as a mentor lately. They all grew up with the internet. Most of them know about Mr. Money Mustache or another FIRE blogger.

Yet very few of them end up moving to the country and doing high paying remote work. They all learn very quickly that remote companies aren’t in a rush to give $200-300K compensation to new grads with zero real world experience who live so far from the office that they have to do everything remote.

So instead they move to cities with jobs, where they meet people, establish friend groups, and eventually settle down with a partner. They also discover that full-time jobs are actually very nice right now, or that we’ll-paying full-remote contract work isn’t as easy to come by as blogs make it sound.

I do know a few people doing the remote work / country living thing, but they’re all building on top of decades of experience and reputation building to get those contracts.

In general, be skeptical of anyone selling an “it’s easy” vision of getting rich and not working hard. If it was truly easy, more people would be doing it. Usually these pitches are associated with people “selling the dream”, which is why this particular pitch is attached to a Substack that the author wants you to subscribe to in order to learn the secrets. Take with a grain of salt.

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