Perhaps the smarter play instead of cashing out at some point (unless the price is that good) is to appoint a CEO and other executives at some point to run things.
The day to day is ran by the GM and current staff. It’s just the big decisions, marketing, financials, accounting, paying everyone, legal issues, etc that I’m handling.
I will just take a lesser role in the future. And maybe hire people who are even better than me at some of those things.
There’s no such thing as financial independence. That seems to be a hype that influencers have kicked off.
Even if you have comfortable savings, like millions in the bank, you are not protected from shit like currency fluctuations, inflation, environmental disasters, shit employees, market turmoil, political landscape changing, war…
It’s like dreaming of being self-employed. Instead of having one boss, you have many, and they have no duty of care over you.
So the “Financial Independence” waffle is about on par with the Trailer Park Boys’ “Freedom 35” plan.
Well, yeah, but at some point in our lives we need to be in a position of financial independence. What’s the alternative? Being your own boss of many revenue streams feels like minimising risk. Could still get hit by a mereorite, of course.
Praying for that meteor, whilst living off state welfare and benefits sounds pretty sick to me
wets self
Of course there is.
The number is going to vary for people. Millions might be a struggle bus for some, for others it’s generational wealth.
What you really seem to be taking issue with is there’s no absolute guarantees in life. Sure, ok, that’s true in absolute literal terms, but for most people, there’s a number that gets close.
edit: for example, let’s say you own your primary residence and spend $100k a year, all in. Decent living by most reasonable standards. 4% rule suggests $2.5M in savings is relatively safe. If you had $10M - a high, but not totally crazy number for someone making enough to spend $100k/year - I think you’d be really, really, really financially independent and secure as all get go - you could put $5M in a diversified global equity portfolio, $1M in cash in varied currencies, $2M in gold, and $2M in whatever crazy shit makes you feel secure (land, stable food stockpile, guns, ammo, booze, bitcoin, etc, etc). The 99+% scenario here is your money keeps growing and you die with more money than you know what to do with, with very few scenarios (including currency fluctuations, inflation, disasters, market turmoil, etc) where this falls apart.
I guess I’ll throw my two cents into this thread. My parents grew up poor but set the foundation for me and my sibling to do OK in life. I ended up obsessed with the notion of retirement by 40 years old after reading such an article when I was 15 or 16 years old and would read my dad’s Forbes magazines. Yeah, maybe my upbringing was a little different from most kids my age.
I never really made it big in my career since I never went to college, but I basically learned how to live on what my income was at age 22 for my entire career, which meant by the time I was in my mid 30s to 40s I was saving & investing 1/2 to 2/3 of each paycheck, even after also falling in love with charitable giving. I was on track to retire with the equivalent of 2M USD by age 50 but got laid off years early.
My wife was gone by then and my only child (who is only 20 years younger than me) had already moved out on his own, so I started looking around the world. I have come to enjoy giving to others, and without a job it would be hard to just give money, but I could give my time and caring, so that’s kinda what I’ve been doing. I may still join or start a small business here in Taiwan, but I’ve enjoyed just volunteering in different ways and being a friend to others so far.
Everybody needs purpose, which I see other people having touched on. If you look at finance stuff, they talk all about how you need a mountain of money to maintain a lifestyle and blah, blah. What I’ve seen is that people need to maintain a reason they live, and in doing so they’re happy to change their lifestyle. If you learn to be a giver, someone who helps others and expects nothing in return, you have purpose and reason regardless of how much money you’ve got.
Granted I’m only a few years into having stopped paid work now, but so far that has really been the most important thing for me. Even the most recent trip I did, it wasn’t the stereotypical caricature of a single middle-age man’s vacation of surfing, drinking, and a massage after. Instead I was able to meet up with friends for a few days and enjoy time sight-seeing together and even help each of them out in a small way during my time in that city. You need purpose more than you need money. Money without purpose is just begging for calamity.
Getting paid off doesn’t limit you from starting a new thing, either way. Should you get bored of retirement, are you signed on to something that limits your freedom to open another company? Loads of people.open a business just to sell it off later, rinse and repeat. Not a bad thing per se I wouldn’t think. If you’re OK with you’re baby going to possible shit hehe.
Obviosuly if you have something proprietary and worth a lot, that’s different. If it’s just a buy and sell type operation, why not? Open a new one. You are probably extremely networked and able to do something different whilst fast.
If you have kids and a family you’ll have to work longer. Potentially a lot longer. I dont spend money but somehow it’s spent lol. Except on my car. Get rid of the car first !
Why retire so young? Why not just take a 6 month sabbatical?
This is how my brain read this. Amen brother haha!
Eh. Or maybe your definition of purpose is just really broad - I’m pretty sure my purpose is to primarily hang on the beach. ;D
I would sell up and retire early in a heartbeat.
Can’t imagine being bored, just find some good hobbies.
