Hacker News Reader

Comment by sethammons | Hacker News Reader

What is your plan for retirement? Eating your savings regularly would erode compound growth.

I honestly don't think too deeply about this. I'm not at the age where I need to maximize an optimal retirement plan (of course the earlier the better). I just hope that in the end everything will work out. I'd rather focus on growing as a person now than much later in life. Compound personal growth is my focus instead of the monetary kind. A lot can change in 30 years. Maybe I'll find an alternate stream of passive income given all this free time. Maybe I'll die in 5 years. Maybe I'll find myself living a happily extremely frugal retirement in a rural area. Or maybe I'll just continue this way of living until 80.

Can I ask how old are you? I like your way of thinking

Thank you. I'm 30. Part of this thinking also comes from a place of privilege. I don't have kids and don't plan to have kids. I have a tech background and supportive family so worse case I just fall back on that. I'm not career driven though. I don't care to tie my identity, worth, personality, and life plans to my job. It's not the most secure mindset but it's what provides me the greatest sense of peace in life. Maybe "reality" will come for me. I'm too much in the present to care right now though.

> Compound personal growth is my focus instead of the monetary kind. A lot can change in 30 years.

On the flip side, if you start working on retirement now, assuming you have no kids you could retire by 45. You'll still have your strength and fitness for 15-30 years after that point.

You become less and less employable in this field the older you get beyond that, unless you're either a top N% engineer, you found your own company, or you go into senior management. The gravy train doesn't last forever.

Definitely something to keep in mind. Thank you for the wisdom.

I have also taken a 12 month break and I share your perspective. During my year off, I took amazing leaps forward on understanding myself and how to get more of what I value in life. I’ve been back to work for about 7 years now and my growth over that time is a small fraction of back when I could invest all my energy back into myself.

A net worth value can go up or down, money can inflate, markets can crash, life events can wipe away savings, but I was able to store some value that is beyond money and it keeps paying a dividend.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com