First Mini Exit and Retirement on $500k. Possible?

[Brian Fleig]

I've been struggling with business burnout and been thinking to sell it.

If I do, then I might get to $500k in savings.
I'm 31.

I have realized that I don't give a damn about Lambos, big mansions, boats, planes and living large.

Yup, that's what I'm thinking. To trade in the US you need at least $250,000 in your bank account. Robinhood allows you to trade stocks without having that much money. We'll see how this one ends.

With $320k you can sell cash secured Puts on amazon or a combination of other stocks for $3k+ per week

 

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[Success Soldier]

Hi there. I might be late but here is what I am thinking:

From the title of the topic you wrote FIRST MINI EXIT...from that words I believe that you want to get rid of stress or overwork from your company and take a breather!

Lets first define the retire part. For me personally retire means that you get out of the rat race....that you can stop working today and you will be good BUT since we are different even if we do retire we wont stop working because its just a game we are playing and we just got in to the winning zone!

So to answer is it 500k enough to retire? I would say it depends on where in the world you are at. I know the market in my country can get you retirement.

For 500k You could bought about 4 apartments and rent them out...each bringing you around 450 a month that would mean total of 1800. When you pay some taxes you are left with lets say 1300 a month. Well people who ACTUALLY do retire here and live of pension they get around 700-800 a month, so you would be good.

The other thing is you will most likely take a breather and start working/doing something else for money so yea I say that this is a good opportunity if you have decided you want out.

I would just make sure you know what your game plan is after you get that 500k. Where to invest for monthly income that even if you stop working now you would be good, because I think you wont stop working now

 

[dandy2902]

I've been struggling with business burnout and been thinking to sell it.

If I do, then I might get to $500k in savings.
I'm 31.

I have realized that I don't give a damn about Lambos, big mansions, boats, planes and living large.
I'm most likely the type of person to get more fun out of a good mountainbike and a kitty than a luxury car and a boat.
I'm now living in a big house and I don't even care. It's too big for me. Could as well live in small one.

All I care about is the sense of financial independence, safety and freedom.

When I write "retire" I don't mean not doing anything else ever again until I die. I would most likely start another business or freelance after a sabbatical. But I imagine that it would give me a relative peace of mind.

So I would love to hit the "SAVE GAME" button and make sure that I will never have to work menial soul-sucking jobs ever again. That's my biggest nightmare.

Obviously, it could be very hard to make a living out of that in Vancouver or NY, but I live in Latin America, where 2k USD a month makes you good above-average living.

I've been reading about dividend paying-stock and talking to some people. The consensus is that around 4-5% yearly withdrawal should be possible.
@MTF told me he's getting around 4.85%, but that's on American market.

That would give me around 2000 USD monthly, but that doesn't take possible taxes and broker fees into account. Also, I'm afraid of inflation and the ever rising prices in many countries.

On the other hand, other people have told me that it's not the best idea to invest in big American companies as of now, according to them, and could be better to invest in REITs, as they can be relatively low risks and with way bigger returns, or even dividend paying companies but from the developing markets such as Eastern Europe, because of the capital circulations (that are supposed to flow from developed countries to developing countries in 8 year cycles or so, I don't remember the exact numbers..).

So maybe I'm overlooking something and it could be possible to get more than 5% yearly return?

For now, I do realize that I need to study the topic waaaaay more. I'm following certain YT channels and buying books on that topic to educate myself more. I'm also thinking about real estate flips on the rising marketc, etc, in order to multiply my savings. But still:

Do you think that is even possible, considering that I'm single and live quite frugally?

TL/DR: If you were forced to retire on $500k by the age of 31, how would you do it? How would you invest it?

I think you should make part of your "500K" as a investment amount to invest in a particular project or earn interesting from banks. For the retire life, 500K undoubtedly not a good option

 

[PapaGang]

Empire Flippers or Centurica. Take some of your cash, buy a website generating mostly passive income at 3-5k/mo.

Done.

If you were to go this route, the web business you buy might take only around 5-10 hours / week to maintain, then isn't that basically perpetual retirement? You could have a nice little cashflow producing machine that brings you what you need without killing your nest egg. Just a thought.

 

[Raja]

Empire Flippers or Centurica. Take some of your cash, buy a website generating mostly passive income at 3-5k/mo.

Done.

If you were to go this route, the web business you buy might take only around 5-10 hours / week to maintain, then isn't that basically perpetual retirement? You could have a nice little cashflow producing machine that brings you what you need without killing your nest egg. Just a thought.

OP I think this is more sound approach

 

[MTF]

Empire Flippers or Centurica. Take some of your cash, buy a website generating mostly passive income at 3-5k/mo.

Done.

If you were to go this route, the web business you buy might take only around 5-10 hours / week to maintain, then isn't that basically perpetual retirement? You could have a nice little cashflow producing machine that brings you what you need without killing your nest egg. Just a thought.

His business is generating mostly passive income (we're in the same business, self-publishing). So this is like selling one passive business to buy another.

 

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[Singularity]

Something that has not been mentioned here so far that you could use to earn interest in your 500k passively while still staying liquid would be to interact with DEFI (Decentralized Finance).


You can pretty consistently have a return of 2.5-14% APY while still being liquid by holding onto USD with, I would say, relatively low risk. One approach is to convert your USD to USDC, DAI or USDT (these are stablecoins or tokenized representations of USD in the Ethereum blockchain). With your USDC you can then interact with one of the many DEFI services like Compound (Compound | Markets). Compound has currently $13 billion dollars locked into their smart contracts.

There are many other DEFI platforms out there that providing different returns but of course each one with their own risk profile.

You may also choose a CEFI (centralized) platform, such as Celsius, Nexo and Blockfi. These platforms generally give higher returns but in return, you give them control of your private keys (your funds). These are massive companies with many well-known investors. This approach though is riskier compared to you interacting with DEFI while controlling your private keys. Celsius for example, has been giving 10% returns on USDC for many months now. Celsius

There is a whole new world surrounding DEFi and it is constantly changing, but if you play it right, you can get 50k USD per year out of 500k while still being liquid and not having to worry about exchange rates.

 

[BooBoosHelix]

Invest in good traders on etoro like RobertMERC and it surely can be done! More like 30% year tbh

 

[BooBoosHelix]

Double post

 

[JasonR]

TL/DR: If you were forced to retire on $500k by the age of 31, how would you do it? How would you invest it?

It would depend on the business. If I thought I had a good chance of growing the business, I'd keep it. If I was burned out on it, I'd take 2-3 months (hire an employee to do so).

Could you retire on $500k in Thailand or Bali? Yes, you could. I was spending $1600/month on a private villa, staff included, all in in Bali (if you don't count travel). However, it'd be very limiting as you wouldn't have the income to travel, to change locations as you saw fit, etc.).

You're 31 - very young. You've got a ton of energy left. In my opinion, I'd rather have the $100k-200k/profit for year, for 5+ or 10+ years than a $500k one-time payout.

Also, those recommending to buy a web asset to make $3k-5k/month, it's not like you leave those alone and it'll just earn perpetually. If not worked on, they'll likely decline.

 

[Kassadi]

A very useful thread, and I think that everyone who is over 40 or so should already be thinking about how they will live when they have to leave work and retire. You need to think about this in advance, and accumulate a sufficient amount of money, otherwise you will have to live on a penny. In addition to this topic, I can recommend reading about benefits available to older people at What is Considered Low Income for Senior Citizens? | GoodLife. This applies to housing, medicine, insurance, and so on. Things like fixing your car, fixing your home, or getting medical attention for a serious illness can save you an incredible amount of money.

 

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[fastlane_dad]

TL/DR: If you were forced to retire on $500k by the age of 31, how would you do it? How would you invest it?

Great thread with lots of thoughts and ideas to experiment with. Anyone building a business at every point of the business game and combination of their age is faced with the question 'when is the right time to sell'. It is a tough and very personal question, many times with NO right and wrong.

Is there a follow up from the OP on what route was chosen? Would be curious to hear if the business was sold and how the first year worked out.

My personal interpretation when these threads come up - is that for whatever several reasons given and not the OP has deemed this to be the right time to sell, take a break and potentially turn course in their life.

Being 'so young' in early 30s the OP can / will decide in the future to go startup another business or work for someone else either willfully or 'as money runs out', depending on consumption. I personally know someone who 'semi-retired' in their 20s on 100K and has a good go at it living a stress free life for a few years before deciding to go back to work.

Granted that persons needs and consumption is VERY VERY low, and I would not be able to live that kind of life. From the side lines its been 'working' out for them and certain doors and opportunities open up that would not have been available if that person was working full time.

There are many ways to play this game!

Would love to hear an update!!!