HN Explorer

Ask HN: How much money do you have?

12 points by microdrum ↗ HN
No one talks about this. How much money do you have? How old are you?

Count your house equity, your bank, brokerage, and IRA. But don't count anything that isn't vested and at least arguably liquid, and don't count anything you inherited.

48 comments

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newfeatureok
Why not count inheritance? What’s the point of this exercise?
dusted
Because you literally didn't do anything to get it (except, maybe, murder).
cercatrova
About 100 million (startup exit, not to flex, just answering the question). Why do you ask?
endriju
Just curious - do you invest in startups?
cercatrova
Yeah it's enjoyable, there's really no need for anyone to have this much money.
giantg2
I hate you, and I hate myself even more.
cercatrova
Basically luck, survivorship bias. See Morgan Housel's Psychology of Money book, and this passage about luck and risk in it:

https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/the-psychology-of-mon...

giantg2
Now if only the guy with the $100 million had enough survivor's guilt to give me $1 million lol

Edit: looks like my joke failed

cercatrova
Haha well are you're working on anything interesting?
giantg2
Nope. I'm just a corporate peon.
anotheryou
Ha, you sparked some thought in me, going a bit off-topic here though :)

I'd love to see some non-profit R+D department for social media. And I wonder what's the closest thing to that existing right now.

On the science side there are dry studies, either relatively tiny or looking at what is there.

On the practical side there are technical people fighting for privacy, decentralization and against censorship, but with little feel or innovation beyond that.

No one does proper product research.

I wrote a concept for a curation tool in my studies, but it didn't really fit the program and I wonder where it could fit after all. Now I'm just earning money as a product manager and can't afford not to.

dusted
This is one of my favorite articles on the subject of wealth :)
omosubi
well done - how do you spend your time now?
cercatrova
Building new stuff, learning a lot, arguing on HN, honestly the same as before haha
lalwanivikas
What are you learning if I may ask? And building?
satvikpendem
There is the trifecta of development, design, and business. Usually someone is only good at one of those things. I want to see what it's like to be good at all 3, and see if I can build a very valuable company as a single founder/employee, by leveraging automation as much as possible. Even if I can't, I'm sure I'll find a bunch of problems for which I can create a new startup to solve.

Not OP but just wanted to answer haha

cercatrova
Learning some new programming languages like Rust, might build some tools for myself, we'll see though.
larrykubin
Tons of people talk about this - check Blind, /r/financialindependence, and the millions of people on Twitter and WallStreetBets that post every winning options trade. People are constantly comparing sizes on the internet.
sharps_xp
don’t forget people who drive loud cars. their sizes are substantial probably
cpach
I’m okey, still need to work for a living though (^_^)
[dead] SharpeDidntFoul
Want to also know my social security number and credit card number? How about my bank password and a copy of my house key? Anything you want, internet stranger.
ketanmaheshwari
Got about 22.4 million USD accounting for everything OP asked.
subrat_rout
Is it from stocks, IPOs or any exit? Curious!
ketanmaheshwari
Stocks + Frugal Life + Magic of compounding over 14 years.
cm2012
I'm 30. I have about 100k in credit card debts and 200k left on my mortgage. So negative -300k lol.

I make over 300k a year though so I'm catching up on paying this off.

gabrielsroka
You have a mortgage. If your property is worth more than $0 you should add it to your net worth.

Potentially the same with your credit card debt. For example if you bought 100 guitars worth $1,000 each, you might have $100,000 in debt, but also $100,000 in assets, assuming somebody would pay you what you paid for them.

Of course, if you spent the $100,000 on restaurants and vacations, they are not likely to be worth anything to anybody other than you.

Not judging here. Just demonstrating the power of buying assets.

cm2012
Maybe the mortgage is a little better than a wash then. I've paid off like 75k of 275,000. I would at most call that 75000 of assets, def not 275k.
swimminginlove
21yo and $2k

Commented so you don’t feel bad about being the only non-millionaire on this site.

approxim8ion
About the same, just a couple of years older.
the_only_law
22 and probably a negative net worth so there's that. And I've been working for 4-5 years :shrug:.
giantg2
I feel like most people under 30 on this site and not in SV are not a millionaires.

Although it does seem there are tons of very wealthy people on here. I mean, I see one comment with 20ish million and another with 100 million. I'll never see that in my life.

cercatrova
It is HN, part of YC after all, so you'd expect to see a higher percentage than most who have large amounts of wealth through startup related exits, like me. On other fora, probably not.
giantg2
I know that makes sense. I guess I just never realized how many people exist who have that sort of wealth. I know income and wealth are separate things, but making over $75k puts one in the top 25% of US earners.
ixacto
Only $186135.22 at 32/m/techland #poverty right?. Going to check back in 5years after the startup exit ;).
giantg2
Not enough. I hate my job and would retire in a heartbeat if I had the money to.
max_
Just about $100
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aayush4vedi
24yo, $5.5k Full Time Developer job, starting into the SideHustler world. Commenting here for my future (millionaire) self :3
dusted
I'm 35, somewhat frugal, always driven old cars, never buying new clothes and such, all furniture gotten for free (facebook has these "giving away" groups), even my stereo and TV were free. Only thing I spend money on is a new computer once every 4-5 years (but then I build a nice one).

I own the house I live in, I bought it with my savings, no loan, meaning the house was cheap to begin with, saved a good amount of money by not taking a loan.

I have around $30k in the bank and around $80k in real estate.

I work as a codemonkey, normal yearly salary for my country, about $80k/year.

jklein11
What country do you live in?
dusted
I live in Denmark, houses in small villages and country-side are very cheap.
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[dead] numismatex
$0. I had everything stolen by my ex-gf and her friends. It was all liquid, in the form of gemstones and collectibles in Las Vegas. The cops there are useless. I'd just clawed my way out of poverty over the course of three years and was about to sell everything, fund a 529 for my five year old daughter and start a small business. I'd managed to buy and resell until I had a little over $100,000 in merchandise to sell. I had everything put away and secured in containers and didn't check on it for months while working when she wasn't due to health issues. Our dumbass neighbor got her hooked on fentanyl and that was it. Everything gone.
san_dimitri
I am 35. I moved to the Bay Area in 2010 with a bank balance of 10k which were basically my savings from my part time job in University. I started my first job and have been saving monthly since then. I don't own a house as it is too expensive. In the decade since, I met my future wife, married and had a child. I have close to 450K in savings + some stock. I am mostly frugal but spend for my wife and child.