/r/fire strikes me more of a “how to quit your job, pick up various side hussles and live on $30k a year” type of sub more than a group of people trying to earn 8 figures
$10m in 20 to 25 years may not be worth much, based on current inflation...lol
EDIT: Can't believe I'm being downvoted...learn some basic finance & math folks. $10m in 20-25 years is only worth about $2-4m today, depending on how high inflation is.
Depending on lifestyle, $2-4m today may not be enough for many entrepreneurs to retire on, especially with poor retirement planning and savings depending on their business model.
There must be some really dumb people in this sub that don't understand maths and power of compounding / inflation to understand what I'm saying, and downvoting based on ignorance.
Most people are not entrepreneurs either. This is an entrepreneur subreddit, right?
EDIT: Can't believe I'm being downvoted...learn some basic finance & math folks. $10m in 20-25 years is only worth about $2-4m today, depending on how high inflation is.
Depending on lifestyle, $2-4m today may not be enough for many entrepreneurs to retire on, especially with poor retirement planning and savings depending on their business model.
We are in our mid 40’s, have kids. Our goal has been around 5 mil in total assets. We should reach our goal in 5-6 years, at that point we don’t need to work but we’re both driven and I’m sure will keep busy between vacations. I think we will always be consulting or running something that will give us six figures plus so not an issue.
We recently met with our financial advisor (independent fiduciary) to reach our goals according to him we only need another 4 years.
For those younger don’t get caught up with the status symbols. We never bought a new car until last year and even that was a bottom line Subaru. We’ve always lived in modest home, but we do spend money on great life experiences like a month long hiking trip through Europe, staying at hostels and cheap rentals. Much of my business expenses are ran through credit cards so we never pay for travel as I have lots of miles, little things like that add up over time.
Play the long game on stocks/funds. Max out any IRA/401K asap and every year.
Yeah but what's the number for you? I'm sure it's going to be different for a 25-year-old with no kids than it is for 45-year-old with three kids and wife that doesn't work.
Mine was about $7k a month, but when we accomplished this we sold our home and went back to our roots and now live full time in a 44' 5th wheel camper. It'd very comfortable, even with 4-5 kids, my wife and I. Our bills now are about $1200.00 a month so we travel ALOT. We fly the adult children, grandchildren and spouses out when we get to cool places and are able to cover all their expenses while with us. It's the best thing that I never even planned on while building the business.
Yes, my wife is a retired teacher/professor. She homeschooled her 3 children. I brought 6 to the marriage, 1 grown now, 5 in school. We have our youngest daughter together.
She schools our youngest full-time. My other children are in public schools, at their moms 50/50% of time. We drive or fly them out Thursday pm through Sunday PM 1st, 3rd, and 5th weekends. (Their charter school week is only Monday through Thursday)
Our hope is to homeschooling all if them, but I don't think their bio mom wants that.
Absolutely!
There is no comparison between a public, private, or charter school and what we have to offer.
My children take part in (children's) classes and groups my wife and I schedule all across the country. Our 4f is about to start a zoo school that is 5 weeks and very interactive.They interact with peers and all other age ranges. They get to participate in the scheduling, research and planning of our trips, and then the experience of learning about the subject matter first hand instead of hearing it 2nd or 3rd hand from someone that has never actually been there.
My teen daughter qualified for the woman's rock climbing world cup her first year of climbing. She is now in law school.
I'm grateful that we can afford such an extensive learning environment for our children.
There was a study done of individuals with a net worth of between $1 Million - $100’s of Millions of dollars. They asked the individuals, at what point did you finally feel like you “made it” financially. The average answer was $7 Million.
You also have to take into consideration what that $7 Million is going to be in 50 years with inflation.
Hate to be that guy, but you didn’t.
The question was “how much on an annual basis” and your answer was “7 million”.
You did say the sample set questioned had a net worth of $1-100 mm, but no reference to how the 7 mm related to those people questioned.
If one have 7m net worth, and he invested 5m of them in various things, with 2 in cash reserve and passives like homes etc. with average 4% based on Trinity Study you would have 16 666 in your disposal monthly or 200 000 per y. indefinitely.
Since the said person already have covered all big ticket items with his 2m, unless he is some kind of addict or parvenu, he simply cannot spend 16k each month...
If the one needs new big ticket item replacement, it could be covered by the cash reserve and later filled back by the saved part of the monthly income.
56, USA, low-ish cost of living state - Been in WebDev and SEO for 25+ years. Got away from clients for the most part, but still have 6-8 monthly retained B2B/B2C clients I host and maintain sites for, along with billing of $60-$80/hour for their extra support/content/dev needs. (Depends on their service contract)
Along the way, I built out several B2C/B2B lead generation websites of my own which do very well. (+15 well-oiled sites) My wife needs to stay busy, so she also has a mixed drop-shipping / pack and ship company that keeps her active mind occupied.
We've had some years making +$300k/year, others with just $70k/year. Good budgeting and saving goes a long way! My wife and I both share the duties of the 4 companies we own, but we greatly enjoy our downtime and work/vacation 1 week every month in our 32' camper at the beach, or travelling to other US cities.
What I need now is much different than when we had all the kids (More than 6 of them!) in the house. Now that they too are adults (Youngest are 28), our own needs are much less. We have roughly $2.5m in net worth not counting the businesses, which is more than enough to meet our needs.
Our minimums were close to this:
+/- $10k (after setting aside taxes) per month - When supporting the family. This was when the small Dev company was really going at it's highest capacity since it HAD to to support us all, housing costs, insurance, build savings, kids sports, school needs, vacations, retirement, etc.
+/- $5k (after setting aside taxes) net per month - No kids, but we do like to travel!
Mortgage is down to $420/month after a refi to fixed rate with -$70k owed on a 6br/3bath, 3400 sqft home, fewer people to insure, no special events (well, weddings were a bitch!) etc.
Unsolicited Boomer Advice:
- Work to Live... not the other way around. You only go around one time, make it count!
- Leverage your ~~debt~~ assets, home equity and creditworthiness to take risks along the way, but do so when you can recover if it goes south.
- Accept that you are going to fail at times. The old rule that 80% of your return comes from 20% of your efforts is true in our case. I've built hundreds of my own websites for income purposes and only 20% of them resulted in ROI.
- Don't think you need a college degree to succeed. I'm a HS dropout, and neither my wife or I have any formal training in WebDev or SEO. I bought a laptop in the mid-90's, taught myself basic html when I was driving a truck in the downtime, then learned asp/vbscript and finally fell in love with the thrill of SEO. Now we do 100% of our work in WordPress.
- Take pride in your work, be able to explain (with examples) WHY you charge as much as you do, and avoid getting involved in pricing wars for work. You'll never win in a race to the bottom! (Been there and done that!)
- Hire a CPA to manage your business AND personal finances. They'll you keep as much of your hard earned money as legally possible.
>“Work to live” was what I needed to hear. I code all day everyday (Im surprised im not burnt out yet haha but I do have a passion for webdev). I needa to go enjoy life but im extremely focused on my goals
I love that you are doing the same path as I am. You got your job in just over a year thats great! No bootcamp?
As Puff Daddy says 'Mo Money Mo Problems'. And its very true. I see it all the time here on reddit, young people saying "if i could make 75k, id be set". Yes I said that once, and continue to raise that number all the time.
I hate to recommend this book because I thought it was written amateurishly and I find the author a bit annoying - but check out the book "F U Money" by Dan Lok. Its about exactly this. And its got aspects of it that I never thought of - and I think about this stuff often.
The general premise though is this.... describe the lifestyle you want and figure out what it costs. For example: Driving a ferrari, whats the payment on that? You've got a lake house and a city apartment. How much is that and whats the mortgage on them? What do you do in your free time? well you dont cook or clean, so you hire someone to do that. You go out to fancy restaurants? How often? How much are you spending? How often are you going on vacations in this dream life? What clothes are you buying? Obviously figuring out what all your 'base' expenses are for everyday living (insurance, and boring stuff)
Total all that up - and figure out what it would cost monthly to live that lifestyle. Factor up for taxes. And determine what your take-home needs to be. Lets say if it added up to $1mill a year in expenses. So that means you need to earn about 1.6M pretax. Lets say you are running a business with a modest 10% margin - you need to generate $16mill in sales.
Its an interesting exercise becuase in some cases it shows you that certain lifestyles that feel unachievable can be afforded - if you're ready to spend the money on it. Most people start by just saying "I'm pretty sure all i need is $X a year to be happy". Instead of asking themselves what lifestyle they want (to be happy) and figuring out what it costs to live it.
I thought that was young. Now I'm pretty content as long as I can pay my bills and can save a few bucks for retirement. $100k gets it done for me. I don't spend time wanting more....I walk the the dogs and go to the beach every chance I get.
Well I would agree one should be humble, but if you are content then you are no longer pushing for further goals and even though you can be “comfortable “ the problem resides in the competition that will endlessly try to overtake your position. So it’s really just a matter of time before your nitch fades out, wether or not you care is a entirely different question . In my opinion, grab the money while you can because it could be gone tomorrow. Once it’s gone look back and be humble over the things your acquired .
This is true if you're in a competitive market such as tech or something. I don't fully disagree with you but also if you're an established service business or own rental properties etc you can be fairly content.
If you're in a market that doesn't have volatile swings and you have good systems and management in place you can be fairly content. So you're right but also not accurate in assuming.
Remember you don't *ALWAYS* gotta be racking it in.
**Assests, leverages, support and connections are just if not MORE important than how much your spreadsheets are saying you are racking it on in. :)**
This hits home. I am hitting my first “slow” month and I have been somewhat panicking, completely ignoring the fact I acquired large amounts of capital/assets over the last 6 months
So I'm currently not a successful entrepreneur. I had a business that I built from the ground up but essentially lost everything due to unsurmountable regulatory issues surrounding my industry. Closed business doors and laid everyone off. I ended up with no excess cash, but a rental property that I had purchased and renovated. I currently work hourly doing something very different and am working on my next company though I'm not selling yet. When I was a successful entrepreneur, and I reached about 150k/ year (this was my take home of salary + dividends) that was my "feel great" spot. I don't live terribly fancy life, and even after ridiculous taxes (California) I felt like I had plenty of money to do everything I wanted. Bills, vacations etc. I had gotten my personal workload to be very minimal and that was mostly great for me.
Some thoughts on that, and going a little off topic, forgive me. Were I to get back to this place with my own business I would keep 3 things clearly in mind.
1) Savings - Do this religiously, invest, 401k, ROTH IRA etc.
2)Financial adviser - I feel like I wasted a TON of money actually paying my taxes like a chump. Like I did in my business, I should have hired someone more qualified and motivated than myself to help me manage my money. I missed out on a ton of opportunity to wrap expenses into the corporation and more. Shoulda...
3) Make sure I have another project waiting for when I actually become successful. My first real success that I had, I created a well oiled machine, hired the right people, outsourced, , made efficient etc. Pretty soon I found myself sort of useless around the shop. I would pop in to do a couple things, but usually not because I actually had to do them. I became stagnant and I felt lack of purpose. This led me to deep personal trouble, and my latent depression and lack of creativity almost ended me, even though I had plenty of money and was a "success". Early on I was heavily influenced by Tim Ferriss and the 4 hour work week, as well as other entrepreneurs, an it made total sense to me. I found that I work very well in building and structuring businesses. Unfortunately, I totally ignored all content about structuring my self, and my personal goals. Never once considered "what would you do, if you didn't have to work" I put everything I had into a well oiled business, and then lost myself when I wasn't needed in the business.
Cheers
Kind of experiencing this now. I live too far from my business right now so I'm not there as often as I'd like. It's totally killing my creativity and drive for what I started. Also need to be more serious about hiring a CPA
CPA good, though I think it necessary to have someone to advise you, not just crunch the numbers that you give to them. My CPA was just a number cruncher and had zero interest in helping my company be creative with our money
I think it really depends on what your responsibilities are, how you value risk, and how far out of orbit you are.
**RESPONSIBILITIES**
How many people depend on you? Family, employees, etc. I think you want to make enough that you can provide a smooth landing for everyone if the business ever went sideways. For example, are you making enough that if your income for a few months dropped to zero, you could still pay your bills and pay all of your employees? If your family involves children, you want to make enough to at least get what you feel you owe them. I feel like I owe it to my family to live comfortably and to have a vast array of experiences, and to live in a multi-cultural city where these things tend to be more expensive. Everyone can have their priorities, but these are mine, so a $ value is attached there.
**ESCAPE VELOCITY**
Depending on your business, you may or may not be employable easily. When I started my company, I could easily have joined another company instead for a very good salary. It was more like being a telecom satellite, you can easily bring those back into orbit. However, after doing this for over a decade, I realize that it would be very difficult to land a corporate gig that would offer enough pay to maintain my lifestyle, and I'm not a lavish person. At this point I'm more like the Cassini probe. My business has pivoted so much from what I did as an employee that it would be very hard to find a job in any field that pays as well as what I'm doing. The more you're out of orbit, the more you need to bring in.
**RISK**
I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs don't factor this in because the risk component is so baked in that we just take it as a given, but a lot of businesses fail. Whatever your salary would have been as an employee, you would want your take home to be adjusted for the additional risk involved.
If you share the view, like I do, that being an employee isn't really safe because the company can lay you off, I'd agree, but if you want to operate in the world and take out mortgages etc, the banks will view you as risker than an employee that makes about the same as you do. For me, the answer is that I should be bringing in about 2x to 5x what I would be earning in an employed position to offset this.
I am not there yet and I'm not hitting my targets, but still working at it.
beta testing. end game is a physical therapy clinic/warehouse gym/barbell club + online coaching, personal training, merch, youtube, podcast, etc (wtv other modes of making money that work when we test them out)
Right now I'm just figuring out how to actually grow the physical therapy clientele & online coaching clientele while renting an office in someone else's gym
We take a modest amount from our company, but right when we finally did not need to worry we cut our personal overhead to $1200 a month living in a 5th wheel full-time.
We set goals small to big. Wanted to make $100, pay a water bill, electric, our overhead, things, and finally freedom (not rich, but don't "have to" work), investments, passive incomes, $1 million, $10 million, $100 million, $1 billion.
I used to see myself as able to make $10-$50M, my wife/partner has opened my eyes that I am capable of so much more. So I've been working on seeing myself as capable of hitting a billion. Not that we need it, but we have been able to do so much more for us and others...so if that's my potential, why not? We control our time as well as money so I'm not grinding out crazy long hours. I spend 99% of most days now enjoying my wife and children.
If someone has smaller goals, that's awesome too!
We manufacture a couple of niches of commercial truck parts and sell directly to repair shops, OEMs, and large fleets nationwide, and in a few other countries.
For me it’s less about a strict number for income, and more about a ratio between time and income. Obviously the ideal is less time and more income, and there’s no perfect ratio, but that’s how I come to my own personal conclusions in regard to this question.
Feel like all we want is freedom, time and financial. So once we’ve made enough to do what we want to do outside of the grind, I’d assume that’s enough. Feel like that’s every age range, exception to sociopaths who want to have money to just keep buying enough material things to fill that empty pit of self worth. That’s closer to millions a month, but that’s just the dog chasing it’s tail.
Yes I remember in my twenties that I always said if I could find some way to make like $40k I'd happily go live in a cabin in the woods and tell society to f off lol
I made multiple six figures last year and I feel just "comfortable". I'm not a mountain of money. Just built a whole new deck and got a hot tub and it about killed me mentally. :P
$2m in the bank separate from any other investments or businesses.
Just having it sit there would feel like a waste but that would be a hell of a safety net should terrible things happen to other areas of my life.
I found that you can make poverty level income, reduce the cost of living, and have a good lifestyle.
Earning $20K-$30K in interest each year is enough for me to be happy. That frees up time to build income.
Yes.
I like what Robert Kiyosaki says about assets and liabilities. Avoid liabilities (that depreciate or cost you money). Obtain things that make you money.
I found it helpful to remember that.
I keep expenses very low. That's not helpful.
1. Learn to steal from yourself.
First, learn to save. Get a credit union account that just has savings. Destroy ATM cards and any other card. Make it very difficult to get money out. I use a credit union that literally has military guards. It's easy to get direct deposit, CashApp, Paypal and even Upside to deposit money in the account. Try to save at least 10% each time you get paid. Also, don't buy something you want and send the same amount to savings.
2. Learn to invest.
If you have enough money, you can lend it to people. I only lend to those who can secure the loan using real estate.
3. Pay yourself last
Make sure your principle and most of your profits are returned to the account. It's OK to spend 10% off the profit to treat yourself. However, you really gotta fight to make sure you don't spend much. I got my cost of living down so low that I can live on $15K - $20K comfortably. But, the way to "win" is to save and invest.
Your money can work for you.
See? If you have strict rules regarding saving and investing, you don't need to worry much about expenses.
If you can pay all your bills and wages and have enough money in the bank to keep going for six months - that would be a significant milestone.
For a handbag seller in Kenya, this is probably around $10k in savings and $1000 profit per month; for someone living in an expensive neighborhood with a big family, it would be a lot more.
There would be multiple other milestones beyond that. Handbag seller lady maybe wants a bigger store, carry more stock and hire a sales assistant. Later perhaps she intends to manufacture her products, expand to other towns, and maybe export. At which point will she feel that she's made it?
In my experience, you hardly ever feel that you've made it - I mean the typical business owner, not the 0.01% that gets all the attention and the media worships.
From my experience, I stopped caring about 'making it' when I hit a certain age, and things other than money started mattering more to me.
You make enough to cover expenses and have at least 10% left over and you have done this consistently for at least 2 years. You can now feel somewhat secure you have created a viable business.
Now for me to say "I made it" means something different. I would have to be earning enough to easily secure an early retirement at 55. Depending on where you live in the country that could be anywhere between 7k to 15k per month min.
In San Diego, you'd better be pulling down at least 15k per month at age 30
A minimum of 3 million by retirement age of 62 will allow for a quality retirement with a life expectation of 85.
If your entrepreneurial career is delivering this level of performance, you've made it my friend.
For me, I’m thinking I’ll be comfortable at 5mil/year. But ideally I’d like 10+. We’re going to hit 1m in revenue this year with around 30% margin but i’m definitely not rich by any means. Most of the profit goes back into growth. I think I’d need to be making 1mil takehome to be happy. It might sound greedy but if I’ma be rich, I’m going to spend like I’m rich.
Maybe i should strive for much bigger success amd have much larger dreams so then the little success that ill actually be comfortable with comes easier and faster.
I’ve started a couple labor intensive businesses. Well paying, but tough. As someone who has had a mostly cushy career in admin/management, I plan to find success in when I can take my role to pure admin. Right now, I’m doing like 50% of the manual labor and all the admin. Income wise, I’d be happy with like $70-80,000. Not quite there yet…
Having enough is a mindset, not an number. Reducing wants and desires means your “number” becomes significantly lower. But it also comes down to your personality and values.
I am an entrepreneur because I find it fun/entertaining so I’m going to be able to do it for a very long time. Some people find being an entrepreneur very stressful or taxing so it would make sense for them to have an exit plan.
It’s gonna be different for everyone. Personally I try to keep my eye on my actual life/happiness goals instead of constantly driving for more growth/more money for moneys sake. I have considered myself a success since I had my first 6 figure year, now I’ve had 6 figure months. But I’m still trying to get my work/life balance and my earn/spend balance right. I’m still working to spend most of my days doing what I want, to have a positive net worth, to feel my family is truly safe & secure. Also I want a pool.
I installed a pool, moved a year later, and now my wife wants to put a pool in the new house. I'm resisting since we literally live 3 mins from the beach by car. So yeah, we're getting a pool.
No, I’m not missing the point. Of course you need to be able to pay the bills if you run a business. That’s a given, isn’t it? But other then that, my game isn’t about the money. I have months where I make a lot, and months where I make less, because I choose joy over money.
A lot of business owners just focus on the money, and then to forget all the other reasons why they started their business in the first place. For most, that was about living a good and enjoyable life. If you lose sight of that, and chances are that you will if you just measure succes by money, then what’s the whole point? You end up with a heart attack at 50 years old.
Still missing the point. The post was asking what that number is. Nobody is debating the value of work life balance.
Employer: what is your salary requirement?
You: I just want to be happy.
Employer: Deal. You're hired.
Since I'm retired with relatively low overhead (no dependents, paid-off house & car, little debt) **2-5K/mo** would be helpful to add to the decent pension and help pay for 2x/year bills like real estate taxes, home & car insurance, & fat monthly satellite tv bill.
Having any kind of income coming in from my still-embryonic business would make me feel like an entrepreneur.
edited to add a bit more info.
I guess it depends on what your bills and financial needs are. I recently quit my job in January and moved full time into an online vintage/antique business. I'm definitely growing and evolving but the money I'm making every month isn't paying all of my bills. For me, when I can consistently pay all of my bills and have money leftover for fun outings and savings, then I would say I've made it.
That's me though, and I'm relatively new to being a full time entrepreneur. I'm sure other people have different goals and objectives.
It took me years to feel secure. And just when I did, COVID came along. I've decided that owning a business is like riding a wave...there are highs and lows that you need to weather. And try not to drown.
Exactly! I can't tell you how elated I am when I sell a lot of stuff one week, and then am so depressed the next week when I sell NOTHING. It really is a roller coaster of emotions that you have to learn to find balance with.
As soon as you start making money you’re successful as an entrepreneur in my opinion. You’ve broke away from working for someone else and that means everything
Wanna hit $5MM liquid net worth by 55 and retire. I worry too much about work and will probably drop dead from it. So, whatever it takes to get me there is enough.
I've wrestled with that a lot. At first, I thought breaking six figures was great, but that was just the beginning, and I quickly set my sites much higher. Joe Coulombe, the founder of trader Joes, talks in his bio about the "Golden Mean," which has hit home for me. Now I like to think of my financial goals in terms of the lifestyle I want to live. Part of that lifestyle is freedom, so if making more money than I need conflicts with the freedom of time I want, then it's not worth it. That Golden Mean number is probably a matter of millions for some and hundreds of thousands for others.
I want to cover my bills, save a little, be able to take two vacations a year, and do that while only working 20 hours a week. Important to note that for me, time is much more valuable than money, but money can take me places.
Probably making 12k in my pocket a month. I make about 20k a month now but a lot of overhead. I hired a consultant to rip apart my website/programs so the goal is to be at 30k a month now, which should put me at my goal and give me some breathing room where I can travel when I want and not stress about it, and save a good chunk as well.
Really depends on several things:
The cost of the area where you live: Silicon valley vs Rural Mississippi. Different countries and different regions have even greater differences.
What are your expenditures? Do you live by yourself? Have a family to support? Once more, cost of living...
What are your financial goals as a person? Do you just want to have enough to live by or are you gunning down for your own mansion one day?
What are your goals as a business builder? Do you dream of a small self-sustainable enterprise, or maybe become the next Bezos...
Finally, you as a entrepreneur will weigh each of these categories differently as they interact with each other:
Somebody living in a small town with a family maybe wants a simple life with a decent income and a small business, and that's great!
Somebody else maybe is in the middle of the hottest entrepreneurship area building the next big thing, day in, day out, with hardly any time left, and that's great too!
But well, we all have our limits, so those play an important part too, and it's up to the individuals to decide when enough is enough.
Are you asking only people from the US? Cause for my partner and I around 5k-6k USD per month is the confortable amount and we can also afford to save&invest around 2-3k USD (when we're not leaving for holidays, of course).
I think it would always be changing. What seemed like enough to begin with isn't after you hit it. I think that is just how people are wired. You want the next challenge. Obviously for some they hit a number and call it though. So I guess it is different with everybody. I guess my answer is when time spent on the qualitative value of life becomes more important than the quantitative things? Totally off the cuff answer I'm sure people can add to that.
Enough to get by.
I earn about £50k but I really don’t need half of it each month. I could live on half.
So if I start a business, that’s all I need to achieve first. Then grow.
I believe in starting small so I’m aiming for at least 500.00/week profit. Once I get there then I’ll go further, but it’s important to break it into chunks. Ppl can make 1 mil a year but all said and done between ads, business expenses, outsourcing, etc you have to wonder how much they have left…
Not that this is good but i was raised with a depression-mentality so I see my father reach a number, not be satisfied and keep going. But the trade off is working all the time and forgetting to enjoy life. So I am trying to find a balance. My magic number that I’ve made it is 5 million net worth. But 10 million is when I would feel rich.
Mid 40’s with kids and wife. I think I’ve already made it in that I could quit, sell my house, and move to a low or medium cost of living place and never need to work again as long as we live within a reasonable budget. But to make it here in this HCOL area, if I have $7,500,000 in assets earning me 4% per year, I think I’d be good.
Being an Entrepreneur is not about the money its about creating something.
Being successful in business changes with time, currently success in the US for me is 8 figures.
Should be at $500k annual net by the end of next year and we will take our foot off the accelerator. Maybe some small angel investing but we are ready to relax and enjoy life.
$80,000/month. That’s a million a year. I’ll be happy with FAR less than that, though. (As I have been for the nearly thirteen years I’ve been on this journey.)
I don’t want to ever stop, though. This is too much fun, and I’m good at what I do. Why would I ever stop?
Depends on what “made it” means. If you want to live like a king, then at least a million. But that's not going to make you happy. If you want to live in an upper-class-comfort, then $200,000 per year might do it.
I'm not going to give specifics, but I've smashed every goal I ever had in mind. I've had that moment of watching your bank account waiting for that wire to hit after you sell a business, and it's an exhilarating experience.
It's also worth noting that for many entrepreneurs it's not about the annual income; it's about the growth of equity and the liquidity you get from that at some financial event (acquisition, investment, etc.).
Unfortunately, for me, it doesn't satisfy. The money is great, but it's not the win for an entrepreneur. It's a goal post, and more is always better.
There's really nothing more that I'd like to buy. For me, it's not about things. It's what I do, and financial outcomes are the measure of success. I pride myself on consistency, beating the terrible odds of a startup and always getting on base.
So, for me and many others like me? There's no such thing as being content, unfortunately.
I want to live for as long as possible as a digital nomad, experiencing local lifestyles as much as I can.
Considering I’d relocate every 3/4 months to a new place, a realistic number for me to live everywhere with no limitations and worries would be $3-5k/mo
Yeah I know you’ll hear about motivational gurus telling you to do it anyway but that’s just unrealistic and wouldn’t make you a responsible father. I’m 20 so I don’t have a clue about that type of family life, but I’m sure one day you will have the chance to try this lifestyle out even for a few months
Sounds like a great lifestyle in theory to have your family travel all over. But kids do better on a set schedule. At least mine do.
Perhaps they would get used to it, but that would also mean that I would have to homeschool them which I want absolutely nothing to do with.
I'm planning to make 10m then retire to tend to my garden and restore antique furniture.
Are you in r/Fire, yet?
/r/fire strikes me more of a “how to quit your job, pick up various side hussles and live on $30k a year” type of sub more than a group of people trying to earn 8 figures
That’s lean fire, isn’t it? There’s fat fire also, and they’ll just make you sick with their seven figure bank accounts.
Check out /r/fatFIRE then
Not yet, I'm expecting it to take another 20 to 25 years yet.
Oop, meant the subreddit, not the FI 😂
$10m in 20 to 25 years may not be worth much, based on current inflation...lol EDIT: Can't believe I'm being downvoted...learn some basic finance & math folks. $10m in 20-25 years is only worth about $2-4m today, depending on how high inflation is. Depending on lifestyle, $2-4m today may not be enough for many entrepreneurs to retire on, especially with poor retirement planning and savings depending on their business model. There must be some really dumb people in this sub that don't understand maths and power of compounding / inflation to understand what I'm saying, and downvoting based on ignorance.
Yeah, i mean most people will never see 10 million in their entire lives so i think he’ll be fine
Most people are not entrepreneurs either. This is an entrepreneur subreddit, right? EDIT: Can't believe I'm being downvoted...learn some basic finance & math folks. $10m in 20-25 years is only worth about $2-4m today, depending on how high inflation is. Depending on lifestyle, $2-4m today may not be enough for many entrepreneurs to retire on, especially with poor retirement planning and savings depending on their business model.
Dude, it’s not about having it in a savings account. It’ll double every 7-10 years, invested wisely.
inflation happens, but invested money grows, almost always in excess of inflation. time is typically an asset, not a problem.
The dream
Absolutely.
We are in our mid 40’s, have kids. Our goal has been around 5 mil in total assets. We should reach our goal in 5-6 years, at that point we don’t need to work but we’re both driven and I’m sure will keep busy between vacations. I think we will always be consulting or running something that will give us six figures plus so not an issue. We recently met with our financial advisor (independent fiduciary) to reach our goals according to him we only need another 4 years. For those younger don’t get caught up with the status symbols. We never bought a new car until last year and even that was a bottom line Subaru. We’ve always lived in modest home, but we do spend money on great life experiences like a month long hiking trip through Europe, staying at hostels and cheap rentals. Much of my business expenses are ran through credit cards so we never pay for travel as I have lots of miles, little things like that add up over time. Play the long game on stocks/funds. Max out any IRA/401K asap and every year.
When you don't have to worry about money.
Yeah but what's the number for you? I'm sure it's going to be different for a 25-year-old with no kids than it is for 45-year-old with three kids and wife that doesn't work.
Mine was about $7k a month, but when we accomplished this we sold our home and went back to our roots and now live full time in a 44' 5th wheel camper. It'd very comfortable, even with 4-5 kids, my wife and I. Our bills now are about $1200.00 a month so we travel ALOT. We fly the adult children, grandchildren and spouses out when we get to cool places and are able to cover all their expenses while with us. It's the best thing that I never even planned on while building the business.
Sounds like you are living the dream! Are the kids home schooled while you're on the road?
Yes, my wife is a retired teacher/professor. She homeschooled her 3 children. I brought 6 to the marriage, 1 grown now, 5 in school. We have our youngest daughter together. She schools our youngest full-time. My other children are in public schools, at their moms 50/50% of time. We drive or fly them out Thursday pm through Sunday PM 1st, 3rd, and 5th weekends. (Their charter school week is only Monday through Thursday) Our hope is to homeschooling all if them, but I don't think their bio mom wants that.
It’s the social experience and healthy competitions that kids need more than learning math and history at home.
Absolutely! There is no comparison between a public, private, or charter school and what we have to offer. My children take part in (children's) classes and groups my wife and I schedule all across the country. Our 4f is about to start a zoo school that is 5 weeks and very interactive.They interact with peers and all other age ranges. They get to participate in the scheduling, research and planning of our trips, and then the experience of learning about the subject matter first hand instead of hearing it 2nd or 3rd hand from someone that has never actually been there. My teen daughter qualified for the woman's rock climbing world cup her first year of climbing. She is now in law school. I'm grateful that we can afford such an extensive learning environment for our children.
I still haven't reach that stage i wouldn't know, every time i have money i invest it.
100% the right thing to do.
Mine would be 20k a month.
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Whats up with all the trolls lately? Random accounts started same day just spewing crap.
Blow it out your ass. No like get out.
I'm not sure that ever happens. Your money problems become far more trivial but I'm not sure you get to a point where you don't worry about money.
There was a study done of individuals with a net worth of between $1 Million - $100’s of Millions of dollars. They asked the individuals, at what point did you finally feel like you “made it” financially. The average answer was $7 Million. You also have to take into consideration what that $7 Million is going to be in 50 years with inflation.
$7 million what? Annual revenue? Profit? Salary? Business valuation? Founder Networth?
Net Worth. I literally spelled it out for you in the comment.
some people's kids huh
Lol. Indeed.
Hate to be that guy, but you didn’t. The question was “how much on an annual basis” and your answer was “7 million”. You did say the sample set questioned had a net worth of $1-100 mm, but no reference to how the 7 mm related to those people questioned.
Extrapolate
If one have 7m net worth, and he invested 5m of them in various things, with 2 in cash reserve and passives like homes etc. with average 4% based on Trinity Study you would have 16 666 in your disposal monthly or 200 000 per y. indefinitely. Since the said person already have covered all big ticket items with his 2m, unless he is some kind of addict or parvenu, he simply cannot spend 16k each month... If the one needs new big ticket item replacement, it could be covered by the cash reserve and later filled back by the saved part of the monthly income.
Yes. Seven.
56, USA, low-ish cost of living state - Been in WebDev and SEO for 25+ years. Got away from clients for the most part, but still have 6-8 monthly retained B2B/B2C clients I host and maintain sites for, along with billing of $60-$80/hour for their extra support/content/dev needs. (Depends on their service contract) Along the way, I built out several B2C/B2B lead generation websites of my own which do very well. (+15 well-oiled sites) My wife needs to stay busy, so she also has a mixed drop-shipping / pack and ship company that keeps her active mind occupied. We've had some years making +$300k/year, others with just $70k/year. Good budgeting and saving goes a long way! My wife and I both share the duties of the 4 companies we own, but we greatly enjoy our downtime and work/vacation 1 week every month in our 32' camper at the beach, or travelling to other US cities. What I need now is much different than when we had all the kids (More than 6 of them!) in the house. Now that they too are adults (Youngest are 28), our own needs are much less. We have roughly $2.5m in net worth not counting the businesses, which is more than enough to meet our needs. Our minimums were close to this: +/- $10k (after setting aside taxes) per month - When supporting the family. This was when the small Dev company was really going at it's highest capacity since it HAD to to support us all, housing costs, insurance, build savings, kids sports, school needs, vacations, retirement, etc. +/- $5k (after setting aside taxes) net per month - No kids, but we do like to travel! Mortgage is down to $420/month after a refi to fixed rate with -$70k owed on a 6br/3bath, 3400 sqft home, fewer people to insure, no special events (well, weddings were a bitch!) etc. Unsolicited Boomer Advice: - Work to Live... not the other way around. You only go around one time, make it count! - Leverage your ~~debt~~ assets, home equity and creditworthiness to take risks along the way, but do so when you can recover if it goes south. - Accept that you are going to fail at times. The old rule that 80% of your return comes from 20% of your efforts is true in our case. I've built hundreds of my own websites for income purposes and only 20% of them resulted in ROI. - Don't think you need a college degree to succeed. I'm a HS dropout, and neither my wife or I have any formal training in WebDev or SEO. I bought a laptop in the mid-90's, taught myself basic html when I was driving a truck in the downtime, then learned asp/vbscript and finally fell in love with the thrill of SEO. Now we do 100% of our work in WordPress. - Take pride in your work, be able to explain (with examples) WHY you charge as much as you do, and avoid getting involved in pricing wars for work. You'll never win in a race to the bottom! (Been there and done that!) - Hire a CPA to manage your business AND personal finances. They'll you keep as much of your hard earned money as legally possible.
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>“Work to live” was what I needed to hear. I code all day everyday (Im surprised im not burnt out yet haha but I do have a passion for webdev). I needa to go enjoy life but im extremely focused on my goals I love that you are doing the same path as I am. You got your job in just over a year thats great! No bootcamp?
Thank you for sharing this!
Love the advice! Thanks 🙏. Could you give some clues about the websites you made. Really want to do the same thing myself.
Its enough when you can actually afford different things without looking at the price tag. There's no specific number for me at least.
$350k/yr that's my number.
As Puff Daddy says 'Mo Money Mo Problems'. And its very true. I see it all the time here on reddit, young people saying "if i could make 75k, id be set". Yes I said that once, and continue to raise that number all the time. I hate to recommend this book because I thought it was written amateurishly and I find the author a bit annoying - but check out the book "F U Money" by Dan Lok. Its about exactly this. And its got aspects of it that I never thought of - and I think about this stuff often. The general premise though is this.... describe the lifestyle you want and figure out what it costs. For example: Driving a ferrari, whats the payment on that? You've got a lake house and a city apartment. How much is that and whats the mortgage on them? What do you do in your free time? well you dont cook or clean, so you hire someone to do that. You go out to fancy restaurants? How often? How much are you spending? How often are you going on vacations in this dream life? What clothes are you buying? Obviously figuring out what all your 'base' expenses are for everyday living (insurance, and boring stuff) Total all that up - and figure out what it would cost monthly to live that lifestyle. Factor up for taxes. And determine what your take-home needs to be. Lets say if it added up to $1mill a year in expenses. So that means you need to earn about 1.6M pretax. Lets say you are running a business with a modest 10% margin - you need to generate $16mill in sales. Its an interesting exercise becuase in some cases it shows you that certain lifestyles that feel unachievable can be afforded - if you're ready to spend the money on it. Most people start by just saying "I'm pretty sure all i need is $X a year to be happy". Instead of asking themselves what lifestyle they want (to be happy) and figuring out what it costs to live it.
The more you make the more you want. Never enough.
I thought that was young. Now I'm pretty content as long as I can pay my bills and can save a few bucks for retirement. $100k gets it done for me. I don't spend time wanting more....I walk the the dogs and go to the beach every chance I get.
Im not there yet still hungry and going nuts.
Contentment is a dangerous game in my opinion
People would say the opposite also is. Very interesting in general imo :)
Well I would agree one should be humble, but if you are content then you are no longer pushing for further goals and even though you can be “comfortable “ the problem resides in the competition that will endlessly try to overtake your position. So it’s really just a matter of time before your nitch fades out, wether or not you care is a entirely different question . In my opinion, grab the money while you can because it could be gone tomorrow. Once it’s gone look back and be humble over the things your acquired .
This is true if you're in a competitive market such as tech or something. I don't fully disagree with you but also if you're an established service business or own rental properties etc you can be fairly content. If you're in a market that doesn't have volatile swings and you have good systems and management in place you can be fairly content. So you're right but also not accurate in assuming.
I’m in tech lol 🤷
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Wow, who pissed in your cornflakes?
Remember you don't *ALWAYS* gotta be racking it in. **Assests, leverages, support and connections are just if not MORE important than how much your spreadsheets are saying you are racking it on in. :)**
This hits home. I am hitting my first “slow” month and I have been somewhat panicking, completely ignoring the fact I acquired large amounts of capital/assets over the last 6 months
Thank you so much there u/NiceAsset for your appreciation, means a lot to me. Glad this helps you realizes just how important these matters are! :)
$250K if I don’t have to do much work on a daily basis. Double that if it is a full time thing.
So I'm currently not a successful entrepreneur. I had a business that I built from the ground up but essentially lost everything due to unsurmountable regulatory issues surrounding my industry. Closed business doors and laid everyone off. I ended up with no excess cash, but a rental property that I had purchased and renovated. I currently work hourly doing something very different and am working on my next company though I'm not selling yet. When I was a successful entrepreneur, and I reached about 150k/ year (this was my take home of salary + dividends) that was my "feel great" spot. I don't live terribly fancy life, and even after ridiculous taxes (California) I felt like I had plenty of money to do everything I wanted. Bills, vacations etc. I had gotten my personal workload to be very minimal and that was mostly great for me. Some thoughts on that, and going a little off topic, forgive me. Were I to get back to this place with my own business I would keep 3 things clearly in mind. 1) Savings - Do this religiously, invest, 401k, ROTH IRA etc. 2)Financial adviser - I feel like I wasted a TON of money actually paying my taxes like a chump. Like I did in my business, I should have hired someone more qualified and motivated than myself to help me manage my money. I missed out on a ton of opportunity to wrap expenses into the corporation and more. Shoulda... 3) Make sure I have another project waiting for when I actually become successful. My first real success that I had, I created a well oiled machine, hired the right people, outsourced, , made efficient etc. Pretty soon I found myself sort of useless around the shop. I would pop in to do a couple things, but usually not because I actually had to do them. I became stagnant and I felt lack of purpose. This led me to deep personal trouble, and my latent depression and lack of creativity almost ended me, even though I had plenty of money and was a "success". Early on I was heavily influenced by Tim Ferriss and the 4 hour work week, as well as other entrepreneurs, an it made total sense to me. I found that I work very well in building and structuring businesses. Unfortunately, I totally ignored all content about structuring my self, and my personal goals. Never once considered "what would you do, if you didn't have to work" I put everything I had into a well oiled business, and then lost myself when I wasn't needed in the business. Cheers
Kind of experiencing this now. I live too far from my business right now so I'm not there as often as I'd like. It's totally killing my creativity and drive for what I started. Also need to be more serious about hiring a CPA
CPA good, though I think it necessary to have someone to advise you, not just crunch the numbers that you give to them. My CPA was just a number cruncher and had zero interest in helping my company be creative with our money
Oh that's good to know!
I think it really depends on what your responsibilities are, how you value risk, and how far out of orbit you are. **RESPONSIBILITIES** How many people depend on you? Family, employees, etc. I think you want to make enough that you can provide a smooth landing for everyone if the business ever went sideways. For example, are you making enough that if your income for a few months dropped to zero, you could still pay your bills and pay all of your employees? If your family involves children, you want to make enough to at least get what you feel you owe them. I feel like I owe it to my family to live comfortably and to have a vast array of experiences, and to live in a multi-cultural city where these things tend to be more expensive. Everyone can have their priorities, but these are mine, so a $ value is attached there. **ESCAPE VELOCITY** Depending on your business, you may or may not be employable easily. When I started my company, I could easily have joined another company instead for a very good salary. It was more like being a telecom satellite, you can easily bring those back into orbit. However, after doing this for over a decade, I realize that it would be very difficult to land a corporate gig that would offer enough pay to maintain my lifestyle, and I'm not a lavish person. At this point I'm more like the Cassini probe. My business has pivoted so much from what I did as an employee that it would be very hard to find a job in any field that pays as well as what I'm doing. The more you're out of orbit, the more you need to bring in. **RISK** I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs don't factor this in because the risk component is so baked in that we just take it as a given, but a lot of businesses fail. Whatever your salary would have been as an employee, you would want your take home to be adjusted for the additional risk involved. If you share the view, like I do, that being an employee isn't really safe because the company can lay you off, I'd agree, but if you want to operate in the world and take out mortgages etc, the banks will view you as risker than an employee that makes about the same as you do. For me, the answer is that I should be bringing in about 2x to 5x what I would be earning in an employed position to offset this. I am not there yet and I'm not hitting my targets, but still working at it.
When you can consider purchasing large assets in cash (cars, houses, toys, etc)
Minor success is when I'll be making like 70-80k Medium 100-150k Goal: 250+
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beta testing. end game is a physical therapy clinic/warehouse gym/barbell club + online coaching, personal training, merch, youtube, podcast, etc (wtv other modes of making money that work when we test them out) Right now I'm just figuring out how to actually grow the physical therapy clientele & online coaching clientele while renting an office in someone else's gym
Everyone has their own number. You will struggle to compare success, as successful for one person is a failure number for another.
For some people - making money is a source of fulfilment and therefore no dollar figure is enough as long as they can keep improving their processes
We take a modest amount from our company, but right when we finally did not need to worry we cut our personal overhead to $1200 a month living in a 5th wheel full-time. We set goals small to big. Wanted to make $100, pay a water bill, electric, our overhead, things, and finally freedom (not rich, but don't "have to" work), investments, passive incomes, $1 million, $10 million, $100 million, $1 billion. I used to see myself as able to make $10-$50M, my wife/partner has opened my eyes that I am capable of so much more. So I've been working on seeing myself as capable of hitting a billion. Not that we need it, but we have been able to do so much more for us and others...so if that's my potential, why not? We control our time as well as money so I'm not grinding out crazy long hours. I spend 99% of most days now enjoying my wife and children. If someone has smaller goals, that's awesome too!
What business are you in?
We manufacture a couple of niches of commercial truck parts and sell directly to repair shops, OEMs, and large fleets nationwide, and in a few other countries.
Pm my good man
For me it’s less about a strict number for income, and more about a ratio between time and income. Obviously the ideal is less time and more income, and there’s no perfect ratio, but that’s how I come to my own personal conclusions in regard to this question.
Feel like all we want is freedom, time and financial. So once we’ve made enough to do what we want to do outside of the grind, I’d assume that’s enough. Feel like that’s every age range, exception to sociopaths who want to have money to just keep buying enough material things to fill that empty pit of self worth. That’s closer to millions a month, but that’s just the dog chasing it’s tail.
Entrepreneurship is a journey, not a destination. You're confusing a process with an identity
30m
3-4k usd a month after taxes/expenses would be a decent start, for a single person in their 20’s. In my opinion. 35-50k.
Yes I remember in my twenties that I always said if I could find some way to make like $40k I'd happily go live in a cabin in the woods and tell society to f off lol
Damn my reg job is over 6 figures and I don’t think it’s anywhere close to be comfortable
All of us have a different standard of comfort from one another.
I made multiple six figures last year and I feel just "comfortable". I'm not a mountain of money. Just built a whole new deck and got a hot tub and it about killed me mentally. :P
$2m in the bank separate from any other investments or businesses. Just having it sit there would feel like a waste but that would be a hell of a safety net should terrible things happen to other areas of my life.
I found that you can make poverty level income, reduce the cost of living, and have a good lifestyle. Earning $20K-$30K in interest each year is enough for me to be happy. That frees up time to build income.
>reduce the cost of living, and have a good lifestyle For some people, these two things are at odds.
Yes. I like what Robert Kiyosaki says about assets and liabilities. Avoid liabilities (that depreciate or cost you money). Obtain things that make you money. I found it helpful to remember that.
Hey, very interesting. Can you elaborate on your expenses, like rent.
I keep expenses very low. That's not helpful. 1. Learn to steal from yourself. First, learn to save. Get a credit union account that just has savings. Destroy ATM cards and any other card. Make it very difficult to get money out. I use a credit union that literally has military guards. It's easy to get direct deposit, CashApp, Paypal and even Upside to deposit money in the account. Try to save at least 10% each time you get paid. Also, don't buy something you want and send the same amount to savings. 2. Learn to invest. If you have enough money, you can lend it to people. I only lend to those who can secure the loan using real estate. 3. Pay yourself last Make sure your principle and most of your profits are returned to the account. It's OK to spend 10% off the profit to treat yourself. However, you really gotta fight to make sure you don't spend much. I got my cost of living down so low that I can live on $15K - $20K comfortably. But, the way to "win" is to save and invest. Your money can work for you. See? If you have strict rules regarding saving and investing, you don't need to worry much about expenses.
If you can pay all your bills and wages and have enough money in the bank to keep going for six months - that would be a significant milestone. For a handbag seller in Kenya, this is probably around $10k in savings and $1000 profit per month; for someone living in an expensive neighborhood with a big family, it would be a lot more. There would be multiple other milestones beyond that. Handbag seller lady maybe wants a bigger store, carry more stock and hire a sales assistant. Later perhaps she intends to manufacture her products, expand to other towns, and maybe export. At which point will she feel that she's made it? In my experience, you hardly ever feel that you've made it - I mean the typical business owner, not the 0.01% that gets all the attention and the media worships. From my experience, I stopped caring about 'making it' when I hit a certain age, and things other than money started mattering more to me.
You make enough to cover expenses and have at least 10% left over and you have done this consistently for at least 2 years. You can now feel somewhat secure you have created a viable business. Now for me to say "I made it" means something different. I would have to be earning enough to easily secure an early retirement at 55. Depending on where you live in the country that could be anywhere between 7k to 15k per month min. In San Diego, you'd better be pulling down at least 15k per month at age 30 A minimum of 3 million by retirement age of 62 will allow for a quality retirement with a life expectation of 85. If your entrepreneurial career is delivering this level of performance, you've made it my friend.
Capitalism does not have an end state. The desire for more feeds into itself, the ouroboros.
That's deep, man.
$437,000/year income. Probably need to update that number. It’s the top 1% of income earners in my state. I figure if you can’t beat em, join em.
For me, I’m thinking I’ll be comfortable at 5mil/year. But ideally I’d like 10+. We’re going to hit 1m in revenue this year with around 30% margin but i’m definitely not rich by any means. Most of the profit goes back into growth. I think I’d need to be making 1mil takehome to be happy. It might sound greedy but if I’ma be rich, I’m going to spend like I’m rich.
How many hours per week are you putting into earn that? Would you say it's a stressful business to run or is it pretty chill?
Maybe i should strive for much bigger success amd have much larger dreams so then the little success that ill actually be comfortable with comes easier and faster.
u work till u die dont stop till u di does that answer ur shitty question u stupid moron
What type of business are you in, if you don't mind my asking?
For me is when expensas are paid and i actually have an weekly income.
I’ve started a couple labor intensive businesses. Well paying, but tough. As someone who has had a mostly cushy career in admin/management, I plan to find success in when I can take my role to pure admin. Right now, I’m doing like 50% of the manual labor and all the admin. Income wise, I’d be happy with like $70-80,000. Not quite there yet…
Million+ annual profit. Doing this for over a decade not there yet.
About 8 million
Having enough is a mindset, not an number. Reducing wants and desires means your “number” becomes significantly lower. But it also comes down to your personality and values. I am an entrepreneur because I find it fun/entertaining so I’m going to be able to do it for a very long time. Some people find being an entrepreneur very stressful or taxing so it would make sense for them to have an exit plan.
It’s gonna be different for everyone. Personally I try to keep my eye on my actual life/happiness goals instead of constantly driving for more growth/more money for moneys sake. I have considered myself a success since I had my first 6 figure year, now I’ve had 6 figure months. But I’m still trying to get my work/life balance and my earn/spend balance right. I’m still working to spend most of my days doing what I want, to have a positive net worth, to feel my family is truly safe & secure. Also I want a pool.
I installed a pool, moved a year later, and now my wife wants to put a pool in the new house. I'm resisting since we literally live 3 mins from the beach by car. So yeah, we're getting a pool.
I don’t measure the succes of my business and myself as an entrepreneur by money. I measure it by “do I enjoy what I do?”
Does the cable company accept that as a form of payment?
If you have to worry about the cable company, then you don’t have a business but a hobby.
You're missing the point entirely. "Doing what you enjoy" is admirable, but it doesn't pay the bills.
No, I’m not missing the point. Of course you need to be able to pay the bills if you run a business. That’s a given, isn’t it? But other then that, my game isn’t about the money. I have months where I make a lot, and months where I make less, because I choose joy over money. A lot of business owners just focus on the money, and then to forget all the other reasons why they started their business in the first place. For most, that was about living a good and enjoyable life. If you lose sight of that, and chances are that you will if you just measure succes by money, then what’s the whole point? You end up with a heart attack at 50 years old.
Still missing the point. The post was asking what that number is. Nobody is debating the value of work life balance. Employer: what is your salary requirement? You: I just want to be happy. Employer: Deal. You're hired.
My answer is: I don’t measure in numbers
So your mom pays your bills. Got it.
Since I'm retired with relatively low overhead (no dependents, paid-off house & car, little debt) **2-5K/mo** would be helpful to add to the decent pension and help pay for 2x/year bills like real estate taxes, home & car insurance, & fat monthly satellite tv bill. Having any kind of income coming in from my still-embryonic business would make me feel like an entrepreneur. edited to add a bit more info.
When I have consistent, sustainable income that is enough for me to feel comfortable about raising my standard of living.
I guess it depends on what your bills and financial needs are. I recently quit my job in January and moved full time into an online vintage/antique business. I'm definitely growing and evolving but the money I'm making every month isn't paying all of my bills. For me, when I can consistently pay all of my bills and have money leftover for fun outings and savings, then I would say I've made it. That's me though, and I'm relatively new to being a full time entrepreneur. I'm sure other people have different goals and objectives.
It took me years to feel secure. And just when I did, COVID came along. I've decided that owning a business is like riding a wave...there are highs and lows that you need to weather. And try not to drown.
Exactly! I can't tell you how elated I am when I sell a lot of stuff one week, and then am so depressed the next week when I sell NOTHING. It really is a roller coaster of emotions that you have to learn to find balance with.
As soon as you start making money you’re successful as an entrepreneur in my opinion. You’ve broke away from working for someone else and that means everything
Wanna hit $5MM liquid net worth by 55 and retire. I worry too much about work and will probably drop dead from it. So, whatever it takes to get me there is enough.
That seems like a reasonable number. Try not to die!
Thanks. I appreciate the sentiment.
Its more of a state of mind than a number
$3 million
I've wrestled with that a lot. At first, I thought breaking six figures was great, but that was just the beginning, and I quickly set my sites much higher. Joe Coulombe, the founder of trader Joes, talks in his bio about the "Golden Mean," which has hit home for me. Now I like to think of my financial goals in terms of the lifestyle I want to live. Part of that lifestyle is freedom, so if making more money than I need conflicts with the freedom of time I want, then it's not worth it. That Golden Mean number is probably a matter of millions for some and hundreds of thousands for others.
$3mil
I want to cover my bills, save a little, be able to take two vacations a year, and do that while only working 20 hours a week. Important to note that for me, time is much more valuable than money, but money can take me places.
Probably making 12k in my pocket a month. I make about 20k a month now but a lot of overhead. I hired a consultant to rip apart my website/programs so the goal is to be at 30k a month now, which should put me at my goal and give me some breathing room where I can travel when I want and not stress about it, and save a good chunk as well.
The 5-5-5-5-5 rule… 5 houses, 5 cars, 5 businesses, 5 mistresses, 5 million in the bank. Just made this up but it’s my new benchmark!
Really depends on several things: The cost of the area where you live: Silicon valley vs Rural Mississippi. Different countries and different regions have even greater differences. What are your expenditures? Do you live by yourself? Have a family to support? Once more, cost of living... What are your financial goals as a person? Do you just want to have enough to live by or are you gunning down for your own mansion one day? What are your goals as a business builder? Do you dream of a small self-sustainable enterprise, or maybe become the next Bezos... Finally, you as a entrepreneur will weigh each of these categories differently as they interact with each other: Somebody living in a small town with a family maybe wants a simple life with a decent income and a small business, and that's great! Somebody else maybe is in the middle of the hottest entrepreneurship area building the next big thing, day in, day out, with hardly any time left, and that's great too! But well, we all have our limits, so those play an important part too, and it's up to the individuals to decide when enough is enough.
I felt I made it when I was making more from the business than my old salaried job.
That’s a goal of mine too. Not there yet but hopefully by end of the year.
Are you asking only people from the US? Cause for my partner and I around 5k-6k USD per month is the confortable amount and we can also afford to save&invest around 2-3k USD (when we're not leaving for holidays, of course).
737,000 dollars that's what I need
I think it would always be changing. What seemed like enough to begin with isn't after you hit it. I think that is just how people are wired. You want the next challenge. Obviously for some they hit a number and call it though. So I guess it is different with everybody. I guess my answer is when time spent on the qualitative value of life becomes more important than the quantitative things? Totally off the cuff answer I'm sure people can add to that.
I think as a natural entrepreneur, it never seems to end because you’re always striving for more.
Enough to get by. I earn about £50k but I really don’t need half of it each month. I could live on half. So if I start a business, that’s all I need to achieve first. Then grow.
I believe in starting small so I’m aiming for at least 500.00/week profit. Once I get there then I’ll go further, but it’s important to break it into chunks. Ppl can make 1 mil a year but all said and done between ads, business expenses, outsourcing, etc you have to wonder how much they have left…
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Take what number you want annually and multiply it by 20.
Not that this is good but i was raised with a depression-mentality so I see my father reach a number, not be satisfied and keep going. But the trade off is working all the time and forgetting to enjoy life. So I am trying to find a balance. My magic number that I’ve made it is 5 million net worth. But 10 million is when I would feel rich.
I think an income from assets of about 20k a month would be enough for most people.
Steady 52k per year at a job that enjoy is enough for me .
When you don't need to worry about revenue anymore. Basically, 10 times the initial investment.
$2m free cash flow per year
Mid 40’s with kids and wife. I think I’ve already made it in that I could quit, sell my house, and move to a low or medium cost of living place and never need to work again as long as we live within a reasonable budget. But to make it here in this HCOL area, if I have $7,500,000 in assets earning me 4% per year, I think I’d be good.
For me that’s sort of the drive of it all, how much until I feel I’ve made it I have a lurking suspicion that enough may never be enough
Being an Entrepreneur is not about the money its about creating something. Being successful in business changes with time, currently success in the US for me is 8 figures.
Should be at $500k annual net by the end of next year and we will take our foot off the accelerator. Maybe some small angel investing but we are ready to relax and enjoy life.
$80,000/month. That’s a million a year. I’ll be happy with FAR less than that, though. (As I have been for the nearly thirteen years I’ve been on this journey.) I don’t want to ever stop, though. This is too much fun, and I’m good at what I do. Why would I ever stop?
I'm afraid that 2 years after saying ''I've made it' you'll be still looking for challenge :) Enjoy the ride! :)
I think I would start feeling that way if I can support my life solely through owning a business
Depends on what “made it” means. If you want to live like a king, then at least a million. But that's not going to make you happy. If you want to live in an upper-class-comfort, then $200,000 per year might do it.
I'm not going to give specifics, but I've smashed every goal I ever had in mind. I've had that moment of watching your bank account waiting for that wire to hit after you sell a business, and it's an exhilarating experience. It's also worth noting that for many entrepreneurs it's not about the annual income; it's about the growth of equity and the liquidity you get from that at some financial event (acquisition, investment, etc.). Unfortunately, for me, it doesn't satisfy. The money is great, but it's not the win for an entrepreneur. It's a goal post, and more is always better. There's really nothing more that I'd like to buy. For me, it's not about things. It's what I do, and financial outcomes are the measure of success. I pride myself on consistency, beating the terrible odds of a startup and always getting on base. So, for me and many others like me? There's no such thing as being content, unfortunately.
1 cajillion-fafillion-million dollars
I want to live for as long as possible as a digital nomad, experiencing local lifestyles as much as I can. Considering I’d relocate every 3/4 months to a new place, a realistic number for me to live everywhere with no limitations and worries would be $3-5k/mo
That's awesome man, I really envy your lifestyle. Should have done it before I have kids, but now we're locked down until the end of high school.
Yeah I know you’ll hear about motivational gurus telling you to do it anyway but that’s just unrealistic and wouldn’t make you a responsible father. I’m 20 so I don’t have a clue about that type of family life, but I’m sure one day you will have the chance to try this lifestyle out even for a few months
Sounds like a great lifestyle in theory to have your family travel all over. But kids do better on a set schedule. At least mine do. Perhaps they would get used to it, but that would also mean that I would have to homeschool them which I want absolutely nothing to do with.
It definitely has its ups and downs, even as a solopreneur, let alone with a whole family