SWB's path to financial independence

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Sclass
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by Sclass »

Well, I was thinking that this may be a good time to sit on your hands a few months. This seems like a silly timing. But I may be wrong. I’ve been warned that we might see runaway inflation soon and that I may regret never buying a home.

Good luck with things. Everyone has different requirements. Raising a family has its own requirements. Not sure how you’re arranging your housing situation but I can see getting a full home being important right about now.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

@Sclass Oh, I get where you are coming from. I agree 100% although the problem is it's felt like that for the past 12-18 months. I do see things slowing down a little in this market. The biggest problem here is inventory. I think a lot of people who might consider selling but consider their current housing livable are sitting out and waiting as they don't want to deal with this market either. Or perhaps it's always like this but there were quite a few nice houses that sold in 2019 and 2020 in particular areas and there just isn't the same out there today (even at inflated prices).

That said, we probably will end up sitting out the market for at least a few more months while we wait!

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Contract work is going well however it's contract-to-hire and I was disappointed when those above me made some decisions without involving me. When I objected, they did understand my objection and did want to involve me more in focusing on that area but I found it frustrating. I'm starting to think when people do something like that (which I know I haven't made very clear), it's best to judge them on their actions and potentially it's not worth following up. The backstory is they were antsy to do something and took action to do it even though what is needed to do that work is not in place yet and (in my opinion) it doesn't make sense to start yet. I should have ignored my opinion and been more proactive in shaping how we did that work as that would have had a better outcome without trying to correct too late. This kind of thing is why I prefer to be a contractor instead of an employee and I'm also starting to think I should just be 100% honest with myself on that front. That way I can avoid getting embroiled in this kind of thing. In early stage companies where often the people making the decisions only have very large company experience, these kinds of issues seem to be inevitable and if you're lower on the totem pole, you mostly have to just grin and bear it. Or, I'm starting to see, get out in front of it and try to shape things your way. So that is what I'll try next time.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Reading Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Ministry for the Future". Enjoying it so far at 50% but due back in 3 days. Thankfully, the story got even more gripping over the last couple chapters.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Finished "The Ministry for the Future". It was an enjoyable read although I think I like the first 1/3 to 2/3 of it the most. It did feel like the wide breadth revealed limitations in the authors topical understanding of today. For example, the book seems to conclude there is basically nothing you can do for the oceans and coral reefs besides perhaps providing more reef surface area (earlier on, by sinking carbon-fueled cargo ships). But the reality is there is a huge number of hobbyist enthusiasts today that keep corals in home aquariums and have learned how to propagate them and they, along with perhaps more well funded and focused government backed organizations, can keep these corals going indefinitely outside of the ocean. A big part of coral death is rising temperatures and the book goes into science-based solutions to a lot of issues but kind of tosses up the hands when it's anything to do with the ocean. I mean, could we not pursue trying to create more temperature-resistant strains of coral? Could we not create sanctuaries with ridiculous cooling/oxygenating power required to ensure at least some safe areas for coral (on much bigger scale than a home aquarium)?

The other part is it took the usual potshots at flyover country which is such a tired and lazy approach. Given the author was born in Illinois, just seems a bit weak (bow down before our superior ivy league coasters and ensure you shape your narrative to match their present world view). Perhaps he was merely born in Illinois and has no native love for the midwest. Obviously, I have an axe to grind but there is fodder for the grinding in the book. It's only a blip and a you miss it kind of thing but...

Ignoring those deficiencies/axe grinding, I did like the book as a whole. The narrative was maybe a bit weak but personally I didn't mind that at all as jumping around to different topics and perspectives was interesting. I do wonder how many of those views were actually science-based but it is a work of fiction.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

I've been cutting my own hair on and off for quite a while. Off when we've lived near my relatives and a relative cut it for me. It's been a while since I had a haircut so decided to try a new way after watching some videos. I went with this one (might have caught it off another thread here or might have been just searching):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JpAy_RTjos

Overall, I'm happy with it. Definitely a bit tricky but way easier than I expected. Both of our older kids wanted their hair cut too so I did theirs using the same approach and it worked fairly well. One has really straight hair that shows any mistakes more easily. Thankfully, they are young enough not to care and I'll try again in a couple weeks to see if I can even it out better.

basuragomi
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by basuragomi »

Are you aren't reading sanctimonious utopianism, are you even reading KSR? I'll admit to having read practically everything he's put out, but the style gets pretty predictable after a while.

One minor trick to getting an even haircut - put a large rubber band around the head as a guideline.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Oh, I didn't know his reputation. This was the first KSR book I've read. It was certainly entertaining.

I'll try that tip with the rubber band. That might help keep the fade line even between the two different clipper heads used in the video above (#2 and #4).

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Progress: 95% ($1,139,500 of $1,200,000) minus some self-employment taxes (quarterly taxes due Sept 15)

Bunch of gains from investments (AMD/XLNX, some mutual funds and few other stocks).

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Sclass
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by Sclass »

About your issues consulting for misguided management.

I had this problem twice. I got backed into a technical corner I couldn’t design my way out of. Basically I got apathetic and stopped pushing back against what I call technical greed. They wanted to swing for the fences in all directions. In the past I would reign them in and deliver a reliable and profitable product that fell short of their dreams. Two points in my career I stopped fighting. The results led to me quitting.

A report once told me I didn’t own the business. To a large extent this was true…even in my startup where I held a lot of founders grants. He said my job was to cash as many paychecks as possible for as long as possible. I told him we’d fail if I did that. He said then we should just apologize at that point. He’s still there. (ETA - the company survives on the prior product that I uncompromisingly designed).

As a consultant that is clearer cut. You really are in the business of cashing as many of their checks as possible. As long as you have some plausible deniability so you don’t destroy your reputation, your job is to bill your hourly rate for many hours. I get it, at some point you’ll be working on a total piece of trash that you created at their discretion. There is a balance to find. Something between “take the fine man’s money” to “create something you’re proud to tell others you were involved in”. Remember, you’re not a shareholder so you’ll only get street cred and pride if things work out swimmingly.

As a consultant I think you did your duty advising them that the architecture was not optimal. Beyond that they’re just paying you to carry out their will. Perhaps you can turn their failure of vision into an opportunity for more consulting if they have the funding to set things right.

If they want you off the project that’s fine as long as you have another to bill on.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

@Sclass That makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks for sharing your take on it. I'm in the midst of it so I'll hold off on writing more to see how it shakes out.

That said, it's been informative to me in that I realized another potential way of marketing my background that might be a good lead to well paying shorter term contracts. It's basically about how to migrate from one way of doing frontend (web) development with a specific framework to the more modern approach of making SPAs (Single Page Applications with GMail being a common example). The focus is on that migrate bit -- the how to get from A to B with the least pain. And now that I think about it, it's a fairly general solution so might work well with other frameworks too. Not 100% sure there is enough "meat on the bones" for it to work but something to think about.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Picked up a used small exercise bike thing locally for $20. It's the type without a front handle bar that collapses into a relatively small rectangle. I've got a sit-stand desk that I usually don't adjust from sit so raised that up a bit and I'm pedaling while typing. I wanted to try this for some time but wasn't sure it was for me so this is a nice way to give it a try.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

I am now fully accepting the realization that I can no longer work at a startup as an employee. When working in startups, I need to either be a contractor or a (co)founder. I think the remaining options are:

- contract (doing that right now)
- doing my own startups (doing that right now)
- work for FAANG (kind of thinking I don't want to work for the F in FAANG though)

In the startup industry and really the software industry, there is a fair amount of looking up to those who work at FAANGs however a lot of the startups I worked at have people from them and I think there is a lot of false prestige at least in terms of how useful their background at FAANGs are outside of big companies. The FAANGs are huge and the roles are often very specific and/or aimed at very limited surface. So you get great compensation and (hopefully) great experience in one area but it doesn't translate directly over to startups. It actually seems like more of a hindrance to some degree as really it's working for corporate giants but just sexier corporate giants.

So I don't think the experience I would get at FAANGs would be particularly useful outside of the FAANG. So it would be mostly about compensation and the (hopefully) more professional working environment that (hopefully) has better processes in place. It seems like a lot of "hopefully"s though. Oh, and for younger people, the professional connections would no doubt be very useful but I'm not that young.

So I think the happy path for me is contract + own startups.

zbigi
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by zbigi »

I'm in similar situation, been contracting for a long time now. FAANGs in my country pay less than contracting - I'd need to move to Switzerland (Facebook and Google are there) for a significant pay bump. That, combined with the FAANG inteview preparation ordeal, makes me want to stay with remote contracts for the time being.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

@zbigi The interview prep is a bear. I'm somewhat tempted to try the interview cycle with F in FAANG just to get the experience (I did interview with them once a long time ago while in the San Francisco Bay Area). I don't know what they would offer me. I think they are doing tiered offers based on region and I'm in a lower cost region so it might be that their offer would be lower than what I can get contracting (although maybe I can negotiate it up -- sounds like competing offers is the best way to get ratcheted up though). I suspect it would be a bit more technically if you include RSUs and benefits (I do need a false tooth replaced soon so joining for a bit to get that done might actually not be a bad benefit but otherwise we're fine with our current benefits). So far, for peace of mind and income, contract seems best.

That said, I think I will mull over how to get competing FAANG offers and consider trying it if I can get a good enough offer. It's nice to know even if don't go with it. I've been doing the leetcode exercises for a bit and it's kind of fun. But I should make a plan which probably includes doing at least one leetcode/day.
Last edited by SavingWithBabies on Fri Oct 01, 2021 4:42 pm, edited 3 times in total.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Progress: 92.4% ($1,109,000 / $1,200,000)

- stock market took a bit of a dump as did AMD/XLNX
- paid quarterly taxes

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Today we reached the $1,200,000 goal with investments going up and a contract payment clearing. But I'm not yet done. The $1,200,000 goal is basically being safe in the sense that if we were careful with spending (and were on ACA/subsidized health insurance), we would be able to live off of our investments.

So what changes? I've been thinking about that quite a bit. I think I've identified these things:

- while my own business development efforts have not had resounding success, I have found it more fulfilling than working for others so I do want to focus more time on this -- I think these efforts have the greatest potential (along with greatest risk)
- I do not want to be an employee at a startup unless I'm a founder/cofounder
- I find bootstrapping more interesting than rapid venture capital-backed growth (however bootstrapping and screwing over people who work for you like MailChimp is not something I want to emulate)
- I like much smaller (as in smaller head count) companies
- I like contracting if it works in a way that I'm working roughly 1/2 to 2/3 of the year and have some good chunks of time off
- I want to figure out a way to contribute to the greater good of my local area by providing a path to becoming a software developer -- I think there are people who might have the interest and potential to be software developers but there are not many local opportunities

Yes but what actually changes right now? Well... Nothing really? I'm going to keep going on the contract I'm on until it's done. Then I'm going to take some time off. I've deferred some work on my side business that I need to catch up on.

Then there are the other goals:

- paid off house or equivalent
- money for building/buying catamaran
- helping homeschool our kids
- being able to provide for their future educational needs

So still lots to figure out. I'm not quite sure how to keep track of progress to towards these goals in a clear cut way so I'll have to think about that too.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Old progress: 104.4% ($1,253,000 / $1,200,000)
New progress: 78.3% ($1,253,000, $1,600,000)

Going to take the easy route and just switch my goal back to $1.6M. If we do end up buying a house without a mortgage or with a mortgage but for more than expected, I'll rejigger the goal(s) but otherwise, seems good enough. Stepping back, the more important thing is figuring out what changes and I'm honestly not sure about that except what I wrote above (wanting to spend more time in efforts where I have more ownership/control, don't want to be an employee, wouldn't mind contracting for decent chunk of the year).

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Progress: 89.9% ($1,439,000 / $1,600,000 -- edited as forgot to account for mutual funds dropping)

Mostly due to increase in AMD/XLNX investment value. I took some time off and have been trying to get back to work. The stock market has been a distraction -- I know it's old hat to many here but watching the waves in gains and losses has been mesmerizing. I also purchased my first options (some 2024 AMD LEAPS).

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Progress: 88.1% ($1,410,000 / $1,600,000)

The holidays have and continue to be fun! I spoiled our kids a bit with presents but didn't go too far overboard. Also found some electrical kits that they are really enjoying.

Net worth jumped around this month quite a bit. When AMD dropped, I took the opportunity to buy some more 2024 LEAPS. The AMD/XLNX merger got pushed back to the current quarter after it was expected to close by the end of this past year. I'm definitely focused on the long term though so not a big deal on my end just interesting to watch.

Work is fine now that I've mentally compartmentalized my efforts into being an hourly contract worker and not having to think about joining as an employee. Still find things frustrating -- mostly around inefficiencies and poor choices that are out of my control -- but that is inevitable on these kinds of projects and I've resolved to just grin and cash the checks as long as I can.

House hunting still going not so great. Tempted to move further out and then buy land and build a house more where we want it. Potentially a multi-generational house (divide it in a way we have separate living spaces but in the same building -- can't easily build separate structures on the same plot here). That is tricky but it might just work out. We'll see...

Overall, 2021 was a good year net worth-wise with an increase of just under $571,000. Income played a part but it was mostly the investments. I still find it hard to believe things increased that much taking us from ~$840,000 to ~$1,400,000. Fingers crossed the overall market doesn't go too bad and that AMD gets a chance to shine over the next couple of years.

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