
Startup Bootstrap Funding: Unemployment - johnm
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=34682
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mynameishere
He's being glib throughout (and the content obviously provides no direct
commentary about startups), but I've spent serious thought on the question of
"buying one's freedom", as I phrase it. The ultimate goal of working really
should be either 1) The pure enjoyment of work itself, or 2) Not working, and
so getting your life back. There are various elective methods:

1) Having a successful business, and cashing out young enough to enjoy life.

2) Gambling and winning.

3) Saving enough money to live on the interest.

The latter is the only sure-thing available to people. When you really do the
math, however, you see that "saving" isn't really the heart of it. A rough
calculation suggests that for every 50 dollars of expense per month you have,
you need 10000 dollars in a typical safe bond fund. (This is optimistic,
actually.)

So, if your total expenses are 1000 dollars a month, you need 200,000 dollars
invested. The typical person is lucky to save 10,000 a year. Thus (not
including interest on the money) it takes 20 years to save up that much. With
interest, it might take about half as much.

The point is: For every 50 dollars of expense that you require while _not
working_ you will need to work an additional .5 through 1.0 years, depending
on interest earnings. Thus: If you re-work the numbers and say,

"Well, in my retirement, I can discard cable (at 50/month)"

...that one small concession allows you to retire up to a year earlier, on
average. If you can live a Thoreau-esque lifestyle, you can retire many, many
years earlier than otherwise. This is not so unreasonable when you consider
that humans aren't biologically intended to live amidst luxury.

~~~
mrtron
The real trick is doing something you enjoy to make that money, and then doing
a bit of work during your 'retirement' since you enjoy it.

So, I would suggest you only need 100k in your scenario if you plan on working
on and off with some contracting/consulting. If you are adequately motivated
you could do that in 3-5 years on your average salary.

I think I fall into the category of people who can't just cruise in a 'normal'
job. I just get too bored and can't deal with wasting the majority of my time
just putting in time. Long story short, I was only a year out of university
when I figured that out and left my easy job with great pay and leading a team
of 5 to go into the startup game.

So while I can identify with some of the concepts in this article - I really
don't tackle the issue with the same approach.

~~~
randallsquared
"The real trick is doing something you enjoy to make that money"

Well, one problem with that is that taking something you enjoy doing for
itself and depending on it for your paycheck may cause you to enjoy it less.
Possibly a lot less. There's a reason for the phrase "turned it into work". I
started playing around with Linux as a hobby, and the same with Python. After
I was making a living doing system administration and programming in Python, I
found those activities far less attractive. Fortunately, I was able to find
fun in things like Common Lisp, but writing actual production software in CL
turned that into work, too. In order for something to be fun, it has to be
optional, basically. I'm sure there are people for whom this isn't true; if
that's you, count yourself lucky. :)

~~~
mrtron
Unfortunately that isn't me - but there are some ways around it. I enjoy
tinkering, prototyping, breaking new ground like your average geek. So I try
to stick to that as much as possible.

There are some times that I am forced to do some things that turn into work -
but I try to minimize it. Hopefully if my longer term plans come to fruition I
can avoid it entirely :)

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suboptimal
A good lesson on why not to hire employees.

Or to own a grocery store, apparently.

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jrockway
As with most websites, the comments are even better reading than the article
(which is excellent). One that stuck out:

 _This guy is going to be in legal trouble. He certified every 2 weeks he was
looking for work and admitted he wasn't. I work for the state unemployment
office. This is going to be investigated. Jail time!_

Wow, dude... lighten up :)

~~~
artaak
The comments are outrageously hilarious. It is unbelievable how much energy is
spent by some people to prove that someone is "wrong"!

It reminds me this cartoon: <http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png>

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rantfoil
If you enjoyed this, I can also recommend a book called "A Working Stiff's
Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I
Can't Remember" -- really quite a riot and makes you thankful for loving and
enjoying being in front of a computer creating stuff. At least, that's what it
did for me.

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johnm
This might not work so well for people just out of school but for hackers
wanting out of a lame (but relatively high-paying) job, I say... Go wild!

