Not sure why anyone would choose to live in SF except for geographic-specific opportunities. It's a dirty, overcrowded and high tax pit, and everyone living there that isn't in tech or finance hates you for your success.
I didn't, but always been interested in the financial markets from a young age. I frequent /r/algotrading and sometimes seeking alpha, sometimes useful stuff posted. I'm not doing HFT though, my algo holds on average for about 20 days
I plan to get wealthier during this "break" if the algo performs anywhere near as well as the backtest, 28% with 10% max drawdown. If all goes to plan, in 20 years I will be running my own research institution part time, but I hope to always have plenty of leisure time in the future. The 8 years before I quit were hell in comparison to my life now and I don't want to ever go back to that way of living
I'm very frugal, it would be difficult for my stash to be depleted. My conservative long term investments provide more than enough cash flow for my basic necessities - I only put extra in the algo for now, though the algo is less volatile so far than my long term investments.
Yes, the anxiety at the beginning and lack of purpose was strong, but over time it has faded and now I am used to the lifestyle and make my own purpose. I do plan to contribute more to society in the long term. I want to eventually start my own research institution (if algo goes bonkers). Algos do add liquidity to financial markets and help prevent bubbles like 2000 and 2007 from forming through greater market efficiency as well. However, right now I'm still enjoying my "rest" phase as the 8 years before that were not fun, long hours, long commute, so I don't feel bad about getting some break.
I'm a frugal guy, have enough dividends/interest from the conservative long term holdings to cover my basics, algo for providing long term prosperity and luxuries only. So far in the backtest it performs at 28% ROI with 10% max drawdown in the testing period of april 2009 - april 2020 vs. 11.5% ROI for SPX and 36% drawdown
- play video games, mostly strategy with a few RPGs and platformers
- exercise for 30 min - 1 hour every day
- do all my own cooking, house work, take on DIY projects
- read books, mostly fantasy, sci-fi and science text books for pleasure
I'm much, much happier than when I was employed as a software engineer. I highly recommend people to save money and leave the workforce and instead live a life of leisure as a capitalist and independent scientist.
There's nothing sinister about a copycat. It just feels that way selfishly for the original creator. Capitalism works best in the long run with near perfect competition, copy cats are great for everyone except the first guy with the idea.
Your first two paragraphs are severe contradictions. If this is anything like 1929, the bottom will be around 340, after retesting highs from 1987. In that case, 2400 SPX is a bargain sell and still getting out near the top in the scheme of things.
Even if this is only a relatively mild recession like 2000 or 1973, we'll be seeing 1600 - 1700 SPX or at least 30% below today's close.
A senior engineer is someone 3 years into their career no longer willing to work for paltry wages. Stop glorifying something every mid 20s in the profession deserves. It only serves to keep the power in the hands of the corporate elites and the wage pressure down on an already meek, mostly economically illiterate and unconfident group of otherwise intelligent and productive individuals. If you want to write an article worshipping your ideal of a nerdy super-hero, make it about senior architects at FAANG earning 1 million+ per year instead.
I agree with the post, but firefighters in the Bay Area are probably not the best example. There are many millionaire, early retired FF in California. Some in my old neighborhood that I knew personally even that were much wealthier than I am as a SE (I have since relocated to the southeast). Compensation is quite high, especially when considering total pay, often 250k+ and as high as 500k+ is possible.
yea and AMZN was 110 in December 1999, an equivalent drop for BTC would be to roughly $1000. I've been a crypto bull for a long time, but I sold everything 2 weeks ago. I sold a little early, but better to add that addition to my house than lose 95%
correct. All indicators (miners not switching, 60% Korean volume, 0 dev support, plethora of FUD articles about core) are showing that it's a P&D and now is a great time to sell all your BCH back to BTC.
his wealth has barely beaten the s&p 500 since he left though. The growth is more to do with the bull market in general than the specific feats of his money manager
>“It’s making people less generous and chivalrous,” Ms. Pennoyer said. “It used to be you’d go to a restaurant, and you’d put down your credit cards and split it 50-50, even if one person had steak and one had chicken. But now people pay exactly to the cent.”
How is this portrayed as a bad thing in the article? This solution to this problem is the ONLY reason I use Venmo. Perhaps the author was always the one ordering steak and misses his old friend-subsidized lifestyle.
Monogamy isn't dead as the author seems to imply by the falling marriage rates. Many people I know are not married but are in 10+ year long-term monogamous relationships (myself included). We don't ever plan to get married because I don't like the government telling me what to do and how our assets must be split in the case we decide to break up (though we never plan to). We also are vehemently anti-religious and would never support an institution like marriage for that reason either.
I personally don't want to have children because my life is fulfilling as it is and I don't want extra distractions when there is no void to fill, but I think this notion of "illegitimacy" is very outdated and should be retired.
I think a lot of the long term economic and population concerns will be solved by workplace automation and biotechnology revolutions in human lifespan respectively, so they are largely overblown. I also don't think a future child-raising industry where children are raised together in government sponsored and supervised systems would be as dystopian as depicted in Brave New World.
You can get rich from investing without being lucky, just not quickly. 7% returns become very big money over time if you let them ride for a few decades. Of course you have to have some primary income source to be able to save to invest money, but if you can earn 50k per year and save 10k per year in your 401k, you can easily retire a millionaire.
I totally understand what you are saying. Small companies may be better for you. For me, I'm only at work to get a paycheck. I'm also a very competitive person, but that's why I want to have a strong work/life balance -- so I can have time to work on the things I want to work on, like my game (http://wizardsofzenith.com) and improving my PRs at road races. But I definitely understand if your heart is really in the work you do at your job that a big company environment would be very frustrating.
I've worked at 3 startups (~50 employees, ~300 employees and ~120 employees) and 1 big company. I'll definitely never be working at a startup again unless I own it. I didn't realize how underpaid and overworked I was until I joined the big co. Nor did I realize how narcissistic and demagogic my leadership was. Of course there were some benefits like less bureaucracy, but the pros of working at a big company far outweigh the cons.
I put $34k down on an 80-10-10 mortgage. You can easily save that amount in a year or two if you are willing to live on $30-40k a year, which is still possible while renting if you are willing to live with roommates. My salary at the time was $85k.
I transferred money from my bank account to the equity in my home; from an assets and liabilities standpoint, that's no different than transferring money from your checking account to your stock account. Spending money is depleting assets. Now, the closing costs were real expenditures and totaled around $4k, but I'm pretty sure I was still under $30k for the year. Definitely my most expensive year though.
I spend most of my waking hours in Palo Alto. Unless of course you don't consider time at work "living", in which case I hope your plan is to retire ASAP so you can finally have a life.
Michael Jordan is the only billionaire athlete in the world, I'm pretty sure he is the anti-example of what you are trying to convey. Use Latrell Sprewell or Allen Iverson instead.