r/wealth

Finance related particularly?

Is a $600k Net Worth at 50 years old “okay” from a western perspective?

Edit: I will likely retire in Asia. I’m a teacher. No dependents.

I (36 years old) started working at a high tech startup 7 years ago in the field that I had just gotten a PhD in. I have been partially compensated with stock options. Fast forward to today, and we’re publicly traded and the share price is high. I have been mostly sitting on the shares aside from a big sale a few years ago that was life altering. My kids college funds are full enough and I put about $0.5M into various investment funds.

As of writing, I still have $600k and $800k in vested and unvested company shares, respectively. I think there’s a good chance that my company‘s share price increases by 5-10x. This will sound arrogant, but I’m confident in my analysis of our roadmap because I’m kinda an expert in this field (PhD + 7 years working in the field). Of course, there’s no guarantees but this is how I see things.

I am struggling to find a balanced approach to selling. I oscillate between “sell next time you can make a life changing amount of money” and “sell X shares whenever the price increases by Y.” The former approach ignores lots of potential gain in pursuit of a bigger payout, while the latter approach is structured and safer. I wanna be prepared for when our plans start turning into successes.

 

I started working with a guy from Germany in 2023
He hired me as a Facebook ads expert for his home improvement lead generation business
The deal was 1000 dollars per month plus 1 percent commission on revenuee

At that time the business was not doing great
He had a team of 6 people
2 tech guys
2 sales people
2 ad people

The company was making around 8k to 10k revenue per month
After ad spend salaries tools and other costs there was basically no real profit
Some months it was probably even losing money
My job was mainly to fix the paid ads side
The previous campaigns were not stable
Lead quality was not consistent
Cost per lead was not under control
And the sales team could not scale because the traffic was not predictable

After around 4 months my campaigns started working much better
I rebuilt the ad structure
Tested new angles
And helped the sales team get leads they could actually close

After around 6 months the business was making around 40k to 60k profit per month

Not revenue
Profit after all expeanses
Then we scaled hard

This was not some lucky ad that worked for one week
It became a proper system

After around 1.5 years the business was making around 130k to 150k profit per month on average
At that point I was making around 2000 to 2500 per month

Which already felt low but I kept going because I thought long term it would pay off
Because of the growth he told me he was open to investing in another business if I found a good idea

He said he could invest around 20k dollars and give me 20 percent
I researched a lot of businesses and found a product idea
We launched it

First month was testing
Second month we got close to break even
Third month I found the right ad angles and the ads started working properly
That month the new business made around 8k profit

Next month it made around 18k profit
Now that business makes around 25k to 29k net profit per month on average

The main reason it worked was the ad angles
Once we found the right message the product started selling

After that he started saying there are legal issues with commission and ownership type payments
He told me I should move to a fixed salary instead

He offered only 1000 per month
I pushed back and got it to 1500

I accepted because I trusted him and thought the bigger picture would be fair
But from the start of this year his behavior changed

He started making comments like
you are making a lot of money nowI changed your lif look where you were 3 years ago
It was not said in a nice way It felt like taunting

I ignored it because I did not want drama
But then my commission numbers also started changing

Every month there was some new calculation
Some new deduction
Some new reason why my payment was lower

No matter how much the business grew I was never paid more than around 3500
Even when the business was doing huge numbers
In march the lead generation business made around 321k profit in one month

Based on the original deal of 1 percent revenue commission my payout should have been much higher because profit was 321k so revenue was obviously more than that

But I was only paid around 3000
That made no sense to me
When the business was doing around 150k profit per month I was making around 2500
Now it did more than double that profit and I only made around 3000

Durineg this time I also trained 5 people from zero
I did not just run ads myself

I built the process so other people could follow it The team grew from 6 people to around 14 people

He now has 2 profitable revenue streams
The original lead generation business and the product business

Both were built and scaled while I was deeply involved in the ad strategy and growth
I did save some money

But I had no real backup outside this work
Eventually I asked him directly why the numbers keep changing
He got angry very fast
It felt like he was waiting for me to question him
In April he gave me one month notice and fired me

His reason was that working with me was getting too expensive
Now he came back and offered me 2000 per month to handle everything again

But honestly I do not want to work with him again
I feel usedI feel like I helped build the machine and when it started printing money I became a problem

I only have an employment contra
Some parts were written

Some parts were discussed over messages
Some things were verbal

I know I should not react emotionally
Part of me wants to expose him but I also know that can create legal trouble and maybe make me look bad

So I want to ask people here
What are my realistic options

Should I talk to a lawyer first
Should I try to claim unpaid commission

Should I negotiate a proper settlement
Should I ignore him and start my own thing

Or should I take the 2k offer for now while building my backup

What would you do in my posizion?

Not talking about flashy stuff people buy to impress others.

I mean purchases that genuinely improved your day-to-day life enough where you thought “yeah, that was worth every dollar.”

For me it was probably:

living closer to work

better mattress

paying for convenience more often instead of always optimizing for cheapest possible option

Funny how some expensive things barely change your happiness at all, while random smaller upgrades make a huge difference long term.

Curious what it was for people here.

My family growing up was very poor. Well, we were in the US so I guess not completely poor, but we were poor relative to all of my childhood classmates. Couldn’t afford food so school paid, clothes from goodwill, taking out loans just to keep the lights on. Stuff like that.

Well I’d like to make it my goal to build wealth. But if I’m honest I just have no idea how to even approach that. I know some people where making money just seems to feel natural. A wealthy friend once told me “money is easy if you’re open to opportunities.” That’s certainly not the case for me, money has never felt easy in my life.

I think if you start with money, then money is easy. You can use your money to invest & grow your capital. But it you start with nothing, or in my case less than nothing (e.g. loan debt) money is very hard.

Well I’d like to figure this out but I don’t know what to do. Is just go to college get a job the answer to this? Be a working class guy my whole life for money to scrape by and barely afford rent?

I just feel disheartened by all of this and no idea what to do.

as the title said

I’m a software engineer who just started their career. I make $130k/year which isn’t bad.

I talk to some people who started in the early 2010s. Wow, they made so much money! Working for tech companies & having RSUs.

I worry those days of tech are behind us since those companies have already grown so much.

How can I position myself moving forward to set myself up for similar opportunities? I’m sure it will look different but I want to position myself as best as I can. I thought of starting a business but if I’m honest, I’m not very entrepreneurial. I wish I was. I’d probably be better to just be an employee but save & invest aggressively.

Hoping to hear from experienced Blockchain Devs on the career viability of enterprise blockchain (not crypto).

I think one of the most interesting things about wealth is that people often imagine it as a finish line where stress disappears completely.

But from what I’ve seen, wealth mostly changes the type of problems people deal with.

Financial stress might decrease, but other things become more noticeable: pressure to maintain success, trust issues, isolation, lifestyle expectations, or constantly comparing yourself to people who have even more.

Honestly becoming a personal assistant, secretary or even baby/pet sitter for some rich person sounds pretty dang good. How have you guys formed contact to someone wealthy? Or how did you guys meet?

For example someone with a net worth of 1,000,000 would have a tax floor of 10k no matter what.

1 billion = 10 million

The only exception in my opinion should be qualified retirement plans and a primary residence.

Hi I'm hoping someone who started their own business can help me out of this mindset. Or maybe have some advice on what I'm going through.

I know logically that you have to own your own business, it makes logical sense, the math makes sense, it's correct. I also know logically that if I keep working on it it might be emotionally hard short term but makes sense long term.

But emotionally, I can't seem to do it. I can't just quit my job and do it full time even though I know there is a chance it might work. Even though I don't have kids and I have a lot saved up and built something in what little energy I have after work (I commute 2-3 hrs daily) that made a little money (but no where near my salary), half of me wants to quit and pursue this full time but another half says that's stupid and if I quit and it doesn't work out I'll never be able to get back a decent job. But idk why, maybe I'm too scared too? Maybe I can't stand the social pressure of not having a job? Where I live people see entrepreneurs as failures until proven, mostly just messing around unemployed. My family went crazy at me, shouting and mocking me when I discussed the idea of quitting and doing a startup, so I don't really have people around me that understands.

Also the problem I worry about is that if I quit then I might get too stressed and anxious and not be able to think clearly and just panic about the future and start job searching instead of working on the product.

I guess I'm really struggling between three paths.

A: I keep the status quo, I keep my full-time job and long commute and work a couple of hours in the weekend if I'm not exhausted. I either work on the project or study/prepare for better jobs.

B: I quit and pursue the project full time.

C: I quit and pursue getting a better job full time.

I know most people will say A, but, I did that for almost three years already, I'm tired and the pace of progress might be too slow to get me anywhere... And it seems like even though I know my time is limited I'm still trying to pursue getting a better job and the startup simultaneously and I mean that's just not going to work right? Doing 3h each every week is not going to get me anywhere in a reasonable timeframe.

I mean hypothetically if I was a robot that just works and had no emotional worries then B or C will make sense. So maybe my employee (I must always be employed=safe) mindset is holding me back.

Any advice or your thoughts would be appreciated thank you.

I am 25 with currently 200k in the stock market spilt between a Roth IRA, TSP and taxable accounts. For a long time I’ve had an interest into getting into a real estate to build consistent cash flow, also live for free or very cheaply by doing a house hack to start off with.

Some additional info about me I am an American veteran that has access to the VA loan ( zero down payment on a house) and I get roughly $2500 a month in tax free compensation. My ultimate goal is to move abroad and live a chill life. I am not mechanically inclined and have zero idea how to do house maintenance. I’m single with no kids.

Hi, 18M here trying to figure my way through the next years of my life.

I grew up in poverty with a single mother of 3, having to be extremely cautious of every penny spent. However, I have always had the ambition to live a life of financial freedom, being able to afford luxuries and a lifestyle where money truly is not an issue. The current goal is to be on 10k months within the 4 years.

I have recently made the decision I want to avoid university and build myself up through entrepreneurship. Despite having plans on many different ideas I would love to bring to life, I feel quite tempted to initially start on some business models I see on social media. These range from Amazon FBA to high ticket sales etc.

I understand the harsh reality is most of what I would see on the internet is just a hook for these influencers and gurus to sell a course but I do truly wonder if there is actual legitimacy and real money making potential for me to commit my time and effort into anything shown online.

For example, looking into Amazon FBA, the profit margins are becoming very narrow, it is extremely difficult to compete against big companies with a much larger cash flow, finding a good product is difficult and making it last long term is even harder and the list goes on.

Some guidance would be immensely appreciated. Anything from real models to commit to or even general advice is all encouraged and welcomed. I would also love to hear some of your personal stories of success and how the route there was made.

Thank you for taking the time to read!

“Ok, rich guy.”

No.

That number is so absurd your brain literally cannot process it normally.

Some visualizations:
• $1 million seconds = 11 days
• $1 billion seconds = 31 years
• $659 billion seconds = almost 21,000 YEARS

That means if you spent $1 every second nonstop since the ICE AGE, you still wouldn’t be done spending Elon’s money.

Another one:

If Elon put $659 billion into investments returning just 5% annually, he’d make:

• $33 BILLION per year
• $91 million per day
• $3.8 million per hour
• $63,000 per minute
• over $1,000 per SECOND
Imagine becoming richer than most people every single minute while asleep.

Another insane comparison:

If you earned:
• $100,000 PER DAY
• every single day
• and never spent anything
.. it would still take over 18,000 years to reach $659 billion.

Or this:

There are roughly 8 billion people on Earth.

Elon could theoretically give EVERY SINGLE PERSON on the planet around $80 each…

…and he would STILL have over $10 million left.

One man could basically send money to the entire human population and still remain insanely wealthy afterwards. Elon could spend $1 million EVERY SINGLE DAY for over 1,800 years before running out.

Entire empires could rise and collapse while the money was still there.

And Elon’s net worth can literally move by tens of billions in a single day depending on Tesla and SpaceX valuations.

A “bad day” for him can be larger than the lifetime wealth of thousands of millionaires combined.
$659 billion is approaching the GDP of entire developed countries.

One human being. Near country-scale wealth.

Human brains evolved to count berries and avoid lions. Not to comprehend numbers this stupid.

EDIT:
Yes, I know it’s mostly equity and not $659B in literal cash sitting in a bank account. The point is that even after taxes, liquidity issues and market impact, the scale of wealth is still completely absurd.

Owning massive chunks of Tesla and SpaceX is still an insane level of economic power and purchasing ability beyond what normal people can realistically comprehend.

For Gen Xers and millennials, inheriting a loved one's car often means weighing nostalgia against practicality.

Hi everybody, I'm new to this sub. I'm currently earning very low and not at all where I want to be. I want to learn new skills to expand my knowledge on wealth management and growth. I read through a lot of posts here and I admire a lot of you who built so much. I am very determined to have a similar path, to build wealth and willing to do anything to get there. It would sicken me to my blood and bone if I'm still in the same position by the next 6 months. I am willing to invest as much as I can of my time to learn and grow. I'm not from a rich background and wanted to be the first in my line to become something or build something. I would be very grateful if any of you can offer any advice regarding my path. Please.