Hacker News Reader

Comment by Rastonbury | Hacker News Reader

How is that silly monetarily? If extra work get's you even a 5% raise, that's $50k year pre-tax that will compound (with future pay bumps/stock grants). What is the equivalent amount of time to build a side project to that level? That said, if you spend extra time that does not translate into extra pay, it's essentially opportunity cost of a side income.

View on HN

Silly because the two types of income are not fungible in my mind. With a job, I am a mercenary of my time and the income will dry up immediately if I decide to stop (let’s set aside the long tail effect of investing the savings). With a successful side project, it becomes a very passive income, like many people mentioned below.

Ultimately I guess I am genuinely jealous of people clawing back their own time, while I am working incredibly hard with life passing me by, that’s it.

Dude, you're making a million / year. You could move right away to a cheaper area and do whatever you want. I'm pretty sure you do realize this, so...

I'm not sure if its realistic calculus to think you'll be easily able to make $1m passive income side project. Would you trade $1m a year for $100k passive?

It’s clearly tough to say without having a real opportunity in front of me, but if the passive income was diversified enough and with minimal time investment, I would most definitely trade my 60h/week job for a side project bringing a fraction of my current income (the exact fraction would be on a case by case).

I think I personally am at the point where time is a scarcer resource than money. Getting a lower paid job or consultancy is not an alternative either, both would still be too big of time commitments.

You're already earning 50k/year through dividends, if you can live with a lot less money then just quit and start some side project. Or just take a part time job and live for a while.

You’re doing well so I don’t think you are doing it wrong. But given that base, could you build a side project dedicating just a couple of hours per week to the effort? If/when it turns into a product, great. If not, you’ve not used up all of your free time making something. I’m obviously oversimplifying but curious if you think 2-3 hours of side-work per week is still a non-starter?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com