06/25/2013
Here
is a copy of some really good advice posted on Quora.com. While I may not agree
with all of it 100%, it is a really good take from a person who has been where
we hope to be soon.
"What advice would you give a new 32-year-old multimillionaire that you wish you had known at that age?"
Asking the much older multimillionaires, obviously. Only interested in answers from people who have real experience, not armchair philosophizing from people who aren't actually multimillionaires, please.
Move slowly and thoughtfully.
Assume this is the last big money you will ever make. Big stock options hits (I'll assume this is the source) usually happen zero times in a career, and in rare cases, they will happen once.
If you had one, then assume this is it. Very low chance you'll do it again, and if you do, it may take years. This is not a predictable way to make money. You know the expression, "The first 20 million is always the hardest?" That is total crap: it should be "The first 20 million is usually the only."
Thus assume the money must last forever.
Really do the math about what your lifetime expenses will be across things like raising children, handling sick parents, schools, insurance, taxes, market swings, buying a house, health care. Even a few million dollars does not go very far at all.
Do nothing with the money for six months. Fast decisions are almost always bad decisions. Keep the money in cash or conservative instruments. Spend some time thinking about what you want to do with your life, doing lots of math about how much money you need to save, and be patient...the money isn't going anywhere. (Well, unless you do something stupid....)
Get a good financial advisor, estate planner, and accountant. Meet with them early on to help you get started thinking about estate planning and managing your portfolio. But again, more slowly. Get to know them and gather information, but don't be in a hurry to make big decisions.
Create a plan focused on wealth preservation. You know when people say, " you could lose it all tomorrow?" Actually, no, you can't, not unless you do something stupid. Work with a great advisor who will help you put together a balanced, diversified portfolio based on a conservative risk profile.
Take care of the fundamentals first. Do you have enough savings to retire on or at least have flexibility in your job choices? (Regardless, continue maxing out your 401Ks and IRAs). Check. OK now do you have schools and kids and parents and all future expenses taken care of? Check. OK, now did you buy or rent a primary residence that you are happy with? Great. Now, anything left? If yes, then go ahead and have some fun with it, but remember the advice above to rent, not buy, and be conservative.
Assume average returns. The days of 8% annual appreciation are over, if they ever existed. Don't assume that your investments are going to beat the market or that there will be some miraculous market turnaround. Work with your planners around conservative assumptions.
Resist the urge to "put the money into play." This is a misunderstanding out there that rich people "play the market." No, they don't. They find a good manager, pick good investments, then they touch it rarely (I can go weeks without checking my portfolio are rebalance about annually). They do not day trade or move money based on day-to-day market swings. I've never met a wealthy person who day trades. It is a sucker's game and only benefits the brokers.
Don't buy stupid stuff. Sports cars. Boats. Vacation houses. Unless they really represent a very small % of your net worth and unless you have really been honest about the lifetime cost of them, taking into account depreciation, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and the question of whether you are spending at a rate that will let the money last forever. "Don't buy anything you can rent" is a mantra that a lot of rich people maintain (which is how they stay rich).
Don't angel invest except with fun money. Even the best don't always make positive returns, and you are not the best. If you must, then assume every dollar you put into play is going to be lost, and you are just doing it for fun.
Diversify. Many folks who work in tech want to take their money and put it back into tech stocks. Bad idea: you don't have any special knowledge of the industry that would make it likely you can beat the market. And, it works against diversification, especially if you stay in tech and have money tied up into options in other companies. If you work in tech, the rest of your portfolio should be balanced away from tech given the exposure you have in your job.
Don't loan money to friends and family. This will kick off a vicious cycle that will not end well. It will change your relationships with both the people you lend the money to as well as the ones you didn't. If they can't get a bank to lend them money, they should not be borrowing the money, period. The only exception I can think of may be some life threatening situation where you are literally a last resort.
Buy experiences, not stuff. Take sabbaticals or breaks between jobs. Travel. See new places. You can travel fairly cheaply in most parts of the world. This is another reason not to spend money on possessions like vacation houses and boats that weigh you down.
Be yourself. Keep your current friends, hobbies, personality, spouse. Don't spend any time trying to figure out "how rich people act". With most rich people, you wouldn't even know they were rich when you met them (except for the d-bags who are trying to "act rich" and be players).
Don't overthink it. Don't think money will make you miserable (it is actually pretty great). And don't assume it will make you happy...assume you'll pretty much stay where you are. Don't obsess about if your friends will see you differently (if you don't act like it is a big deal, then they won't). There is no need to launch into some existential angst about what it all means. Appreciate it, enjoy it, and move on to more important stuff.
I've always done most of these: it always worked out great when I did, and in the few cases, I didn't follow my own advice, I regretted it.
"What advice would you give a new 32-year-old multimillionaire that you wish you had known at that age?"
Asking the much older multimillionaires, obviously. Only interested in answers from people who have real experience, not armchair philosophizing from people who aren't actually multimillionaires, please.
Move slowly and thoughtfully.
Assume this is the last big money you will ever make. Big stock options hits (I'll assume this is the source) usually happen zero times in a career, and in rare cases, they will happen once.
If you had one, then assume this is it. Very low chance you'll do it again, and if you do, it may take years. This is not a predictable way to make money. You know the expression, "The first 20 million is always the hardest?" That is total crap: it should be "The first 20 million is usually the only."
Thus assume the money must last forever.
Really do the math about what your lifetime expenses will be across things like raising children, handling sick parents, schools, insurance, taxes, market swings, buying a house, health care. Even a few million dollars does not go very far at all.
Do nothing with the money for six months. Fast decisions are almost always bad decisions. Keep the money in cash or conservative instruments. Spend some time thinking about what you want to do with your life, doing lots of math about how much money you need to save, and be patient...the money isn't going anywhere. (Well, unless you do something stupid....)
Get a good financial advisor, estate planner, and accountant. Meet with them early on to help you get started thinking about estate planning and managing your portfolio. But again, more slowly. Get to know them and gather information, but don't be in a hurry to make big decisions.
Create a plan focused on wealth preservation. You know when people say, " you could lose it all tomorrow?" Actually, no, you can't, not unless you do something stupid. Work with a great advisor who will help you put together a balanced, diversified portfolio based on a conservative risk profile.
Take care of the fundamentals first. Do you have enough savings to retire on or at least have flexibility in your job choices? (Regardless, continue maxing out your 401Ks and IRAs). Check. OK now do you have schools and kids and parents and all future expenses taken care of? Check. OK, now did you buy or rent a primary residence that you are happy with? Great. Now, anything left? If yes, then go ahead and have some fun with it, but remember the advice above to rent, not buy, and be conservative.
Assume average returns. The days of 8% annual appreciation are over, if they ever existed. Don't assume that your investments are going to beat the market or that there will be some miraculous market turnaround. Work with your planners around conservative assumptions.
Resist the urge to "put the money into play." This is a misunderstanding out there that rich people "play the market." No, they don't. They find a good manager, pick good investments, then they touch it rarely (I can go weeks without checking my portfolio are rebalance about annually). They do not day trade or move money based on day-to-day market swings. I've never met a wealthy person who day trades. It is a sucker's game and only benefits the brokers.
Don't buy stupid stuff. Sports cars. Boats. Vacation houses. Unless they really represent a very small % of your net worth and unless you have really been honest about the lifetime cost of them, taking into account depreciation, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and the question of whether you are spending at a rate that will let the money last forever. "Don't buy anything you can rent" is a mantra that a lot of rich people maintain (which is how they stay rich).
Don't angel invest except with fun money. Even the best don't always make positive returns, and you are not the best. If you must, then assume every dollar you put into play is going to be lost, and you are just doing it for fun.
Diversify. Many folks who work in tech want to take their money and put it back into tech stocks. Bad idea: you don't have any special knowledge of the industry that would make it likely you can beat the market. And, it works against diversification, especially if you stay in tech and have money tied up into options in other companies. If you work in tech, the rest of your portfolio should be balanced away from tech given the exposure you have in your job.
Don't loan money to friends and family. This will kick off a vicious cycle that will not end well. It will change your relationships with both the people you lend the money to as well as the ones you didn't. If they can't get a bank to lend them money, they should not be borrowing the money, period. The only exception I can think of may be some life threatening situation where you are literally a last resort.
Buy experiences, not stuff. Take sabbaticals or breaks between jobs. Travel. See new places. You can travel fairly cheaply in most parts of the world. This is another reason not to spend money on possessions like vacation houses and boats that weigh you down.
Be yourself. Keep your current friends, hobbies, personality, spouse. Don't spend any time trying to figure out "how rich people act". With most rich people, you wouldn't even know they were rich when you met them (except for the d-bags who are trying to "act rich" and be players).
Don't overthink it. Don't think money will make you miserable (it is actually pretty great). And don't assume it will make you happy...assume you'll pretty much stay where you are. Don't obsess about if your friends will see you differently (if you don't act like it is a big deal, then they won't). There is no need to launch into some existential angst about what it all means. Appreciate it, enjoy it, and move on to more important stuff.
I've always done most of these: it always worked out great when I did, and in the few cases, I didn't follow my own advice, I regretted it.
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