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Comment by x0x0 | Hacker News Reader

as Dickens said:

   Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen 
   [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, 
   annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.

Particularly as a startup employee, you have to understand your job can just disappear on short notice. Having 6 mos of living expenses in cash and more in general investments is one of the best feelings; I know that virtually no matter what goes on with my employer I have plenty of time to find a new job.

ps -- yes, you too can save money. For example, I use a crappy android phone on a cheap plan and don't have cable. Those two choices alone save me roughly $2k/year; over 10 years that's $20k. I'm not saying those should be your things, but I bet you've got something.

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The key thing I always try to aim for is "Spend less on things I don't care about". A good motivator is to use some of the money you save from unimportant (to you) things on stuff you really care about.

The money I save on not having Sky TV (or similar) gives me some cash in the bank and fresh roasted coffee delivered to my door each week. I save money and get coffee! I find my life slowly filling with things that make it better and memories of fantastic experiences, without spending anything extra.

We didn't get seat covers at our wedding, because I wouldn't remember anything about them now. We used some of that money to get some really nice flowers, which became nice gifts and is something everyone liked.

> I know that virtually no matter what goes on with my employer I have plenty of time to find a new job.

It also means the answer to the question "What's the worst that can happen?" starts to become "Things will be generally fine". That's a phenomenal weight to be lifted.

I do the same! There is never anything on TV worth watching when you have the internet and lots of books, so that saves me $50/month at least, and I have a cheap android with a $30/month unlimited text and data with 100 minutes and that is more than enough to get by. The savings for me is more like $1200 a year, not $2000 though. My girlfriend and I have also started cooking instead of going out which saves a TON of money and living nearby where we work saves a lot on gas (at least $1000/year).

I keep a 6 month emergency fund as well. Not only does it cushion me from something like a layoff, it also gives me the freedom to resign, should I run into something unreasonable or unethical. As a rule, I try to prevent myself from being backed into a corner.

One way to get a leg up on retirement and start building an emergency fund is to start contributing to a Roth IRA. The principal on a Roth IRA is post tax dollars that you can withdraw without an express penalty (other then the fact that the rate you can contribute the money back each year is capped).

As a bonus you will get much lower fees than if you contributed to a 401k that does not have employer matching. Check out Vanguard.

It's not a substitute for having some amount of hard cash, but 6 months hard cash is a lot to have lying around IMO. There is going to be some risk depending on how you choose to invest.

I totally agree WRT to the freedom and peace of mind, that is huge for me.

For taking that kind of risk, I'd hope you have a decent chunk of equity in said startup. That money is effectively the capital you have invested in the venture working out. It may even be more than the founders themselves have invested.

Isn't Micawber's philosophy that something good will hopefully turn up? Cautious optimism. Not exactly the perspective you have.

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