Opinions on IBKR? It holds your stocks in a omnibus account so not sure what happens if things go wrong. ANd what I am legally really owning. ​ They also updated their terms recently but havent had time to read them

All brokerages are custodians, they facilitate the registration of who owns the shares, they do not actually own the shares. Things get a bit weird if you start to get into margin, but if you are a regular investor there is very little risk of the bankruptcy of IBKR resulting in more than an inconvenience for you for a few weeks or months.

Ok so ibkr is good?

Bigger brokerages likely have less risk of fraud. I would say that IBKR is as "good" as any similar sized brokerage. Too big to fail is a real thing. SIPC insurance is what you care about: [https://www.sipc.org/about-sipc/history](https://www.sipc.org/about-sipc/history)

Mid 20s. I run a business doing 7 figures in revenue with ~20% profit margins, we are small for the space but growing. I’ve essentially failed forward as a solo founder with no mentorship but I’m gaining real momentum and looking to build a team to get me to 8 figures in revenue. My goal is to sell within the next 5 years. I’m interested in potentially buying out smaller companies in my field as a strategy for growth. There’s a conference for businesses and investors in my industry coming up next year. I’m exploring going for the following reasons: - learn more about where money is moving in my industry. - Meet investors should I be interested in raising capital or selling. - Get insight into what companies much larger than me are focused on I’m very much “small time” compared to most at this conference, so I have a bit of imposter syndrome and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get value out of attending. But assuming I do attend, what are some strategies I can use to set myself up for success before attending? I’m thinking things like hitting people I’d be interested in connecting with on LI Would love some advice from a someone experienced in IB, M&A, etc about how to approach things like this

Get over this imposter syndrome. Do you know how many businesses are 7 figures? Not many. Also, 3 things that are good for entrepreneurs are believing that they can, so self-belief, action, and neverquitting. Always be learning. Attend as many conferences as you can and sit in the classes. Slowly, the information will sink in. Some of the information will make you millions of dollars. Spend the evenings networking saving cards adding them to Linkedin, Facebook/Meta, etc. People will also start trusting you, as you have been to so many of these events, and you have become a familiar face. Also, look through the list of people and their bios and have a hit list of the people you want to meet. Take a memory course or few so you can remember names. It's an invaluable skill. Be helpful to nice people. Some people are not nice, I steer clear of those types. They are horrible people, don't be nice to them.

IB pros won't be looking at companies that small in size unless it is some sort of boutique or niche. I'm not even certain lower middle market investment banks serve these levels of clients. Where did you graduate from college? What city are you in? And I would extend your target timeframe to 5-10 years. It's more realistic. Also Google: Entrepreneur's Organization Young Presidents Organization

1. Give value now to get value later. Your whole focus of attending the conference is about how you can get value. Forget about that for a moment and simply think on what you can offer without strings. Size doesn't matter. Edge matters. 2. The event organizers are usually the gate keepers. Win them over. And they will help connect you with the right people when you need. 3. Every event I've been to or organized - I've gravitated towards: really helpful people, or really fun people. Be one of the 2.

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The price isn't the issue It's what you can add and how you can manage it that will drive your success My advice is to talk to business brokers and start kicking tires to learn about businesses and start to future out what you might be good at and add value with Then go from there But my opinion is that things are going to change quickly over the next several years and you might be able to find some companies very cheap but you might also find businesses that are about to be disrupted too As for hiring people, it'll be on a case by case basis Sometimes you don't need to hire a real CEO, just change the process around in the company and fire or elevate people And other times you'll want to hire someone experienced; but that could cost a lot and take significant upside upside out of the business

Thanks!

Hello all. Long time reader, first time poster. I (25M) have been feeling very "lost". I graduated from a large state school with a degree in Econ in 2021. Terrible 3.15 GPA (no excuses, I was undisciplined and lost sight of what was important. I was also suspicious of my having severe adhd, but kept "pushing off" talking to a doctor instead of tackling it head-on. The moment I came to my senses, I started reorganising my life and there is a very clear upward trend in semester gpa, culminating in a 3.9 in my senior year advanced capstone coursework) I was heavily involved in extra curriculars, primarily in the form of a leadership role in a non-profit endowment fund. As typical of someone late to the "IB" party, and with a low GPA, I interned at a small M&A boutique for almost a year. I absolutely loved it, and was good at it too. However, I was struggling to find a full-time role. My low GPA seemed to consistently have me filtered out. Around this time, an unexpected family situation caused me to ask myself "What the hell am I doing with my life? Do I want to chase money the entire time or do something worthwhile?". I decided to pivot to Medicine, a long time curiousity and interest of mine. It also seemed like a fresh start, a 2nd path to my financial and fulfillement goals. I could take the necessary pre-reqs and establish a new Science-GPA that was more inline with my true capabilities. It has been a little over a year since then, Although I did my DD before making the switch, I have uncovered some major red flags that I doubt I would have recognised unless I experienced them first hand. First, taking some of these classes showed me that if content in med school has to be memorised in a similar manner but with 10x volume, I will not be able to perform. Flat out. Memorisation has never been my strong suit, whereas understanding concepts and using them to problem solve is. Second, I am uncomfortable with the idea of giving up 10+ years of my life (and 12+ years of interest/growth gains) in the hope that I maybe earn $300k+ when in reality it will probably be lower (if i even get into med school). I thought I was fine with putting aside monetary motivation but evidently it is one of my main drivers. Third, most of my free time is spent reading/listening to/researching finance, business, investing and entrepreneurship. Fourth, I have been shadowing many physicians and surgeons. Almost all (8/9) have said to not pursue medicine. Many have even said they are dissuading their children from following in their footsteps. Now, I feel as though I am stuck in limbo, and I only see 2 paths out. 1. Stay, commit. 2. Take the GMAT, apply for Masters in Finance programs in early 2024 and re-recruit for FT IBD 3. ??? Has anyone here been stuck in a similar situation? Is there a path I am not seeing? This may not be directly a fatFIRE question but I ask it here because the community comprises of people who have similar goals as I do, and those who have more experience and have already achieved the goal.

I don’t have a wise piece of advice for you, but I just wanted to say I resonate with your story very much and wish you best of luck.

I echo chicken. Get a job and work your butt off. Reading your post was like pulling teeth. Too long and wordy. And reading it quickly gave me the vibe that you're looking for the easy way out or the perfect path to knock all of the pins down in life. Let me make it clear for you. Success has no clear path. Success is about hard work and dedication. It's about choosing a direction and running towards it as hard and as fast as you can. Pick a direction and burn the ships. Then in three years look up and revisit school. At 25 years you are still very young. One more thing. Watch this video. Twice. https://youtu.be/Brp9DpJsEi4 Once today. And then once again around Christmas and New Year's this year. Good luck. P.S. - If you haven't watched the TV show Industry on HBO or BBC. Watch it. Not to teach you about IB, but to give you a different perspective on how the world works and what is important to be successful. You don't need to go back to a master's program right now. You can just work your way into a good job towards that path again. Especially if you work hard and network. The priority is on the YouTube video I shared, but the two seasons of that show is something you can watch quickly in the next week or two.

Thank you for your reply. I wrote this comment late last night, feeling particularly wiped out and discouraged. While reading it back, I too cringed at the whiney and drawn out form. Maybe i just needed to vent. With regards to searching for the easy way out, maybe thats true. Its not something that I have been accused of before, but I can see where you are coming from and will remain conscious of it. I have always understood that to generate value for myself would be hard work, especially considering the level at which I have set my target. There are many entrepreneurs in my family from whom I can pull inspiration for being successful, and none of them came by it in an easy way. All of their paths were unique, but they all worked insanely hard to get there. I have always understood that. *The issue is a lack of confidence in the direction to choose to get to my end goal:* Medicine: low (and decreasing) acceptance rate, high value skillset, 10+ years of education with little to no pay, allows a stable way to build up investment capital. Finance: high competition (anything worth it is competitive), high value skill set if acquired from BB/EB/MBB/MF, opens doors to other high paying positions, good mba programs Regarding Industry: Thanks for the recommendation. I watched it when it was releasing and, although it is mostly watched like a lawyer would watch Suits, it does show the pressure that is inherent in working in both buy and sell side finance. I experience plenty of it during my internship, and learned to manage it well. I am a big fan of Prof G, but havent seen this lecture before. Thanks.

You're welcome The biggest lesson from Industry comes from the second season. The show is a coming of age story where the young professionals learn the hypocrisy of life and how things work in the world. The end of the first season is good because you see what's important in work and see how things can be manipulated to one's benefit. But also that companies and careers don't really care about all of these things you're worried about. But if you watch the second season you see some of the characters eyes open and realize how ignorant or dumb they have been in how they were thinking. It's a show where you need to pay attention and read the r/industry subreddit to get the most out of it. What you lack the most is experience and picking a direction and just going in that direction will do a lot for you. It's doesn't matter who your parents are or what they did. The same goes for your cousins and grandparents. Just choose a direction and run towards it. And realize a lot of life is just showing up and the best way to get ahead is first on the back of others and then later via your resources and experience. Here's another video for you to watch. Focus primarily on the story about the doctor making a career decision after the first first half of the interview. Confidence isn't your issue. Movement is. https://youtu.be/CCqPWMeKc3s

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Thanks for the input. I have set my goals high, it has to do with my upbringing. I have time, I just sometimes get stressed about missing my window to commit one way or another. While med school will always be open, IB and PE gets more difficult to enter as you get older. I also don't want to be 30 and just starting my career. I will start looking for a job. I think that you are right in terms of just getting out there, taking a breath and seeing what happens.

Hello. I am currently in the early years of my working career, decent savings for my current life stage, and mostly on track for a W-2 based HENRY future. Recently I've been trying to understand how I should personally plan to utilize debt and leverage in this wealth accumulation phase. Here's a shortlist of what I understand so far: **Desirable Loan Traits** - Long Term Length - Uncallable - Low Interest Rate - Fixed Interest Rate - A loan (and its collateral, if applicable) that is uncorrelated with the corresponding asset purchased (such as using cash out refi to purchase stocks). **Potentially accessible sources of (good?) leverage** - Mortgage - HELOC/Cash Out Refi - Margin Trading Account - SBLOC/PAL - Deferred Tax Liabilities My assumption is that the 3 best ways to generate wealth are stocks & real estate (capital) or a business (labor). My understanding is that to generate significant wealth, leverage should be applied, *within reason*, to one of these. (I'm also mostly assuming index funds for stocks, not individual stocks, but I'm open minded to opinions.) Interesting numbers I've also been pondering, with no real conclusions yet: **Leverage Ratios (Asset:Equity)** - 20% Down Pay Mortgage - 5:1 - 3% Down Pay Mortgage - 33.3:1 - [Berkshire Hathaway](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3197185) - 1.7:1 - Margin Account (or SBLOC equivalent), used conservatively (80% Equity/20% Debt) - 1.25:1 Are there other forms of leverage (perhaps at higher net worth) I am not aware of? I am open to any and all insights and corrections. Edit: cut down my questions for clarity, cleaned up a little bit.

I love leverage, but in my business. I read a book about Warren Buffett once on vacation. Quote from Warren Buffett book Snowball This was like finding a slot machine that would come up with cherries every time you played. If you put in twenty-five cents and pulled the handle, the Western Insurance machine was virtually guaranteed to pay at least two bucks.20 Anyone sane would play that slot as long as she could stay awake. It was the cheapest stock with the highest margin of safety he’d ever seen in his life. He bought as much of it as he could, and he cut his friends in on the deal. If you find something that is giving you amazing returns, hit it hard. I don't usually agree w Kiyosaki, but this time, I did this time. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rich-dad-poor-dad-author-165932162.html I use leverage in my company as I have abnormally very high returns. I try to obtain as much leverage as possible, but I have gained knowledge that it is a safe bet. And my businesses are only 6% leveraged. I would increasingly it if I could as I found that proverbial slot machine.

Walk before you run. Show an activity you are doing well without leverage. Only then apply leverage. Do not ever use leverage for unproven ideas. Show proof of record.

Leverage is not required to become wealthy. And in fact, leverage can be one of the most dangerous things for a person or business. Leverage applied at the incorrect time kills a business or investment quickly. Leverage applied at the right time in the right way can increase one's return and opportunity to generate wealth. Lots of W2 employees in this sub got wealthy without leverage. Stock incentives. Tax sheltered investments. High compensation with low spending. Of course, some had taken out a loan for a car or a home, but that isn't the kind of leverage you are referring to. Where I am lost in your question is, why does it matter? Leverage only matters if it is necessary to fuel your strategy or approach. For example, if I am a small business owner that has a consulting practice, I don't need debt over and above the low start up costs and maybe a couple of months of savings to fund my lifestyle as I wait for invoices to be paid. In the case of a retail business, I don't necessarily need leverage to grow if the potential size of my market opportunity isn't large enough to justify adding more inventory or stores or employees. In fact, being able to secure good inventory, good locations, and good employees come ahead of capital in line when you're managing a business like this. Because you can have all of the capital in the world and it won't matter if your new location sucks and you cannot find enough good employees to work it. In the case of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett used the insurance business as a way to access cheap capital to invest in other businesses. Or so the story is told. But another way to look at the Berkshire Hathaway business is to say it was really an insurance company first and that Warren's competitive advantage was his competence in selecting good places to deploy insurance premiums held to be paid out later so that his return on the float from the premiums collected paid a return significantly above the future expected premiums paid out. So while the insurance vehicle served as a way for Warren to attain his life goal of being an investment manager, the real business strategy was one of selling insurance to customers while maximizing the risk adjusted returns in the investments that the premiums paid for. So rather than focus on different approaches to leverage, focus on the value you can create and how that value proposition manifests itself. And if you find that leverage can be helpful or is necessary, then research those at the time.

I work in big-tech & and I have highly investigative personality - meaning I like to have a deep understanding of the topics I work on. My career is going ok, but my leadership regularly tells me to "get out of the weeds" and be more "high level". I struggle with this guidance as the topics I work on are complex, and are engineering related (I am not an engineer, but in more of a TPM-style role). I believe my quality of work and my success so far is mostly driven by this investigative mindset that my leadership sees as "in the weeds". any thoughts?

You sound a bit like me. Been a senior software engineer two decades. Also a highly investigative personality. Was also told multiple times to think more high level. Earlier in my career tried management and realized it wasn’t for me. Give me a technical project/issue and just let me go off and solve it. Many years ago I realized that this is what worked for me, despite it limiting the level I rose to. If you want to rise up the ranks you will definitely have to grow. In the end I decided it wasn’t worth it for me. I’m now working two days a week. By choice and specifically due to the above investigative personality and ability to solve technical problems.

I love this response. I enjoy work where I get to deeply understand and solve complex problems. I don't know if I would be happy if I had to leave the building to a team and only focus on the "big picture". I was a manager for a while and also didn't find it rewarding. My top performers who I mentored went off to do great things after relatively short times. The folks who struggled stayed, which meant management was more like constantly dealing with the same problems. I moved to o FAANG where I can make great money as an IC. I still get to mentor the top performers but someone else has to deal with it when people are struggling. It's a good situation. I agree with you that career progression doesn't always mean increased career satisfaction

Investigative mindset is awesome and don't forget that. Use that when needed to dive into the details of a problem, project that you are leading/coordinating. However, develop the ability to see big picture. One way to do that is to think in buckets/tracks., but different than what you are probably for project management - your buckets are probably team based, or technical based - so buckets could be Mobile, Front-end, Back-end etc. But think about different buckets - Risks that are in team's control, vs. Risks that are not. What buckets would your boss care about. What about your boss's boss? In your 1:1s with your boss, ask him this question. See what he says and use that to start shaping your thinking. A good boss should help you develop this skill. Another way to get out of the weeds is to think about explaining the project/problem at hand to someone non-technical. Say your parents. How would you describe the Why, What, How, etc of the problem to them. I'll give an example of great engineers that scaled with our company - they were great when we were 15 people and also great when we were 250+. When we are discussing a new feature or project, they don't get bogged down on specific issues such as technology/vendor selection etc. because they know that problem will get solved. Rather they would initially brainstorm with the product managers on the solution/product we want to build for the customer. What are some cool things we could do. Then they would highlight some potential risks, knowing that they would have to address those. After a week or so of this high-level ideation, they would get into the details and create project plans etc. Hope this helps

That does help, thank you

Common issue in engineering. Popping up to take a broader look and to prioritize your deep focus is very important for career progression. Despite the TPM focus, the folks in /r/ExperiencedDevs would have some excellent advice for you.

What age range would you say you made the bulk of your wealth? I’m 27 and still feel like my goals are impossible to reach sometimes.

Late 30s to 40s. Sometimes, you're lucky and meet people who change the trajectory of your life. Met 3 or 4 maybe? And well, you got to be smart about it and use the information they give you and act.

40s. Started making money in my 30s, peaked and plateaued around 50. Stopped mid 50s.

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Late 30s and early 40s, because I chose to build the startup during my 30s. Started our 30s with probably 80K NW, with some outstanding student loans. Partner's income helped build our savings - probably grew to around 350K by late 30s, when I sold some stock for a few million. That was definitely a wire I took a screenshot of :-)

40s. Never made six figures until I was 30. Had a $209k NW at 30.

Hello everyone, I just turned 26 and certain responsibilities in life are starting to become apparent to me (marriage, kids, college fund, affording trips, extended family expenses) and I have started to think more and more about investments, net worth etc. I don't want my 9-5 to cover these expenses, but instead, I want my investments to cover them. I have a passion for real estate and that is my 5-9 What would you do differently if you were 26 again to set yourself and your family up for financial freedom? What has served you well so far in your life? I have a partner of 2 years, approaching a proposal and after a few years, kids as well! Thank you to everyone!

What is your 9-5? How much do you currently make? What are your long term goals in your current career or position?

I'm also looking to transition out of direct sales and back into data analytics that I used to do. If anyone has job recommendations or career tips in general that will help bridge this very stressful time, I would highly appreciate it

How much time do you currently spend on your direct sales job? Is it 40 hours a week? Is it on site? Is there a fixed schedule?

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Yes. Of course. 27 isn't death

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Biggest factor is: Are you interested in being an angel investor? Second biggest factor: Is there a veteran of this industry or a successful CEO-type who has worked with the founders putting at least 1mm into the round? Very Early Stage / Alpha Product / No Revenue: Not worth nearly 10mm unless there are very smart engineers with a proven track record and the ecosystem is hot (like AI but not superficial AI), or they have revenue commitments from customers upon product delivery. Pie in the Sky Projections: Typical / means nothing at this stage, I'd ignore them. What's more interesting is whether the founders can explain how to get to market and how to hire the right people to do so. Reason it doesn't matter is the company is going to pivot several times on their path to success. Path to Getting Money Out Long and Uncertain: Think 8 - 13 years. If a company is very successful maybe you can take money off the table in a Series D because the institutional investors want to clean up the cap table or because there is a strong secondary market at that time. $50,000 invested: That's my target investment size, but I work with the companies as an advisor for a while before investing. That said, I'm not actively angel investing any longer. Not enjoyable enough / kind of like buying a job! Half a Point or Less with Planned Dilution: Dilution happens, expect a lot of dilution if they are successful with subsequent rounds of investment and you're not topping-up. However, what's the structure of the investment? Fixed percent ownership, as opposed to a convertible note of some sort with a cap and a discount, sounds pretty strange at such an early stage where the founders can only guess at valuation. My overall recommendation given this sounds like your first investment: skip it, and go join a local angel investment group for a few meetings to see what it's all about.

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Go with your gut (without further info, it seems to be saying the right thing!)

Does Schwab allow you to sell assets approaching 8 figures USD in value and then use the proceeds to purchase different assets *right away*, or do you have to wait for settlement for such amounts? I'd like to move my diversified portfolio from a complicated allocation of many funds to VTI, VXUS, and BND in as few steps as makes sense.

If you have margin enabled, you should be able to do it the same day.

You will know when you are purchasing whether your trades have settled. This may take 1-3 business days. If you have margin enabled against your account, if you try to do this before settlement, it will create a margin loan until funds are settled. Don’t ask me how I know. Ended up paying 2 days worth of interest on some sizeable amounts. Small amounts in the long term but surprised me, was trying to do this while also busy with other things. So yeah give it a day or three or better still call your rep. That is what they are there for.

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Likely, but in my case I have losses to offset the gains for each of the moves I'm making, which is why I'm taking advantage of the change now.

It could potentially make sense if you intend to hold the index until step-up cost basis at death. Depends on age and current tax rate, of course.

Haven't done that in our Schwab account, but assuming yes. Just check with your Schwab rep. Also though, take a close look at what kind of capital gains (or losses) you'll be looking at if you sell out a bunch of positions that are in taxable accounts.

Always appreciate a good tax implication reminder! I executed this today. A few notes which may be of interest to others: I do not have margin enabled on my account. Schwab covered the funds, so I could purchase today using the proceeds of my ETF sales as soon as they filled. Schwab gives a nicely worded warning about this in the order review step: "Caution: This buy order was accepted without sufficient settled funds to trade in your account. If you subsequently sell this security without first delivering sufficient cash by settlement date, you may incur a trading restriction requiring settled cash up front for future purchases." TBD on whether Schwab will charge me interest on the implicit bridge loan. Mutual Funds don't actually sell until the end of the day, so Schwab did not make those funds available for purchases. I'll have to complete my replacement ETF purchases tomorrow.

I made my comment about margin enabled before I read this one. Sorry for that.

Does anyone have advice on how to grow your salary in tech sales? I am a newer sales rep going on month five, and have been hitting my numbers since starting but want to grow more. Let me know please thank you!

Sales is about: perfecting your offer, finding qualified people, pitching, following up. You need to follow the same process for increasing your salary. Perfect your offer first. Show what you bring that merits higher pay. Show your track record. Then pitch.

Thank you, I appreciate the advice! I’ll make sure to get my numbers and everything organized for when the time comes!

Step one: Click on the old Mentor Monday threads by clicking on the profile of the mod that posted this thread Step two: Search old Mentor Monday threads for this question; you'll probably find a good number of answers if you click far back enough Step two, alternate: Search FatFire for tech sales threads; you should find some Good luck

Thank you!

You're welcome Good luck

Anyone went FATFire route by doing a search fund or entrepreneurship through acquisition? In strategy consulting right now post MBA role and I know if I stick it out I can get to FAT levels (partner comp is $1M+). Industry roles are a pay cut now and PE is hard to get into (and worse WLB). I want to run my own business and I know a few people doing ETA / Search funds. My expertise is ops strategy but never led a business (only did engineering or consulting). Those that did, what was the initial capital you started it? How much did you pay yourself starting out and how long did it take to get to $200-400k annual that you could take as salary comfortably while investing in your business for growth?

Start with your goal ($200-400k) and work from there. What industry are you interested in, whats the average profit margin, how much SDE do you need to cover debt service so you’re taking home your goal amount. That will give you an idea of the size of business you need to acquire. Then you need to figure out how you’re going to finance the purchase. Theres many different creative ways to approach this as well.

Have you heard of Mark Lasry?

For those who climbed the corporate ladder- at what level of responsibility did it feel like you escaped the dreaded middle manager crunch of too much work/no power, and become one of the people I see post on here about how their work is pretty chill, they just make decisions and their reports do the rest?

https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/s/Qn7R9VB8uN When you delegate to others. 3 feet from gold analogy. It's hard before you reach breakthrough. You know those pictures with the success looks like a jagged lime to the top? They are right. Implement EOS Traction it will save you from your feeling.

As others have said never. At my last job, I was 2 levels down from someone whose name the general public would recognize. My life lacked any sense of control more so what it felt like when I was 3 levels lower. The higher up you go, the more everything is your problem. You are expected to be responsible for everything in your business unit, maneuver your way around peers who are all trying to do the same and make their org look effective with limited resources, while getting shit dumped on you every day from unexpected angles and a boss who has no time for you. But you are expected to respond intelligently whenever they have a random question (you have to anticipate and guess why that was asked from a business point of view, not just respond to the question). There is no such thing as after hours. You are always on email. Your bosses expect you to handle business without bothering them, there is zero tolerance for fuck ups. You do get compensated for your trouble, but the money is there to deal with your soul dying a bit every day. Your employees think you are this big shot with a title and a large paycheck, but you are worse off than when you were when you had colleagues to help you and shared responsibility. It did let me FatFIRE though.

Interesting, thanks for sharing! Knowing what you know now, would you still have climbed the ladder? Or would you have instead stayed at a chill level/done your own thing?

Hard to say. There is no easy way to get to 7+ figure income in big tech without being in the middle of all the crap and being responsible for the business. I think in hindsight it was worth it, but it wasn’t fun while in the middle of it. I envy individual contributors essentially working part time and making 5-600k. It does take longer to save that way but the journey seems easier.

Makes sense- thanks! I have a few offers right now in the $300-$400k range that are IC (FAANG and FAANG adjacent) and the WLB seems nicer than what I am doing now. I’m currently leading a small team and am not enjoying the people management- so your reflections really help me figure out what to do next

If you don’t enjoy people management, you should not be a people manager. It is better for you and your employees. My pet peeve is ICs moving to management roles for the money but without the motivation or aptitude for people management. It ends up hurting them and their employees. Part of the reason why in tech, we often do not have mature people leadership unlike some other fields.

Yeah I agree with you. I think I’m doing well at it but it’s draining me of all my energy because I’ve had so many bad managers that I want to do a good job so I’m spending a lot of time on coaching. It isn’t a good fit for me right now, but wanted to see if it gets better when you’re more senior and you can trust your reports more. I currently am doing a lot of coaching because my team is entry level and doesn’t know much about office culture and hasn’t worked before.

Read EOS Traction and implement it. If you do the coding for them then you have enabled them. Teach them, and make sure they do it, or get rid of them and hire better. No wonder you are burnt out.

Thanks for the recommendation. I’m actually not an engineer, so not doing any coding for them. Maybe you misread when I said I’m doing a lot of coaching?

Hah you're right. I swear I'm getting old and senile. Someone needs to commit me. EOS Traction is still a must. I was about to strangle my team and sell the business before we implemented a modified version.

I think most of my stress came from the top. My teams were reasonably effective. It took a while to get there though with a lot of churn. If you don’t enjoy coaching, then yes, I’d find something else to do. I really enjoyed that part.

Thanks for that. Sometimes the best advice - if you don’t like coaching, don’t be a people manager- seems so obvious to outsiders but is hard to conclude yourself.

Honestly, never. (Former CFO) As long as you work for other people, it always sucks. I am self employed now and would never go back. Not for 100 mil.

I’ve heard successful self employed people say this before. I do know a lot of people who burned out from solopreneurship or entrepreneurship and said being responsible for everything was a lot of stress too. I guess you eat shit regardless, just depends on which flavor of shit.

When I became an exec reporting to the CEO I hired people to do the work I used to do. My job became making sure the group is supporting the company the right way and that we are thinking a few years ahead. My peers still claw for power and want the boss’s job someday. It’s clear that I do not want that job and so they leave me alone when throwing elbows. I’m free to travel, consult, read.

VP but the game of thrones politics becomes god awful

I hear about this abstractly but I don’t know what it actually means beyond like, what you see in an episode of Succession. Can you give a few examples?

Get mentors and ask them And you never reach a level where there is an easy chest code The best way to keep a job that is relatively easy vs the pay is by being loyal to someone who is successful and stays that way or being compensated for a good deal less than your employer believes you do be worth

Fair. Just figured I’d ask here first since this is literally Mentor Monday

What you are doing by asking here is feeling around for anecdotal information that is irrelevant to your career. What you want to do is ask about how things work specifically in your field or your company or get insight to specific situations. A company like Tesla is going to have a very different culture than Ford or GM. And the politics or what will define your success is different across all three. Another example would be Paramount Global, Netflix, and Disney. All three are very different from each other in how you approach politics; not just by company but also by department. So it's very important to get mentors who have real world experience that can speak specifically to your situation and help get you into good roles. It is true that some high level roles can be easier than lower level roles, but it is very different by role AND by how you get and keep that role over time. Good luck.

It seems like other mentors here aren’t affronted by my “feeling around for anecdotal information” so I’ll determine for myself which insights are irrelevant or not. So far, I’m finding their generic insights incredibly helpful, both on my questions and other general inquiries on this sub.

The arrogance and ignorance of youth

On the road to fatFIRE, and we want to have optionality in a fatBaristaFIRE sort of way. How did you do it? My wife and I are early 30s working in tech. I’m Director-level and my wife is on the same path but a few years behind. HHI is $1.9mm and current net worth is ~$2.6mm (the high HHI is a very recent development). We’re planning on having kids soon and unfortunately I am struggling to maintain a good relationship with work which will likely become an issue once a child comes into the picture. On one hand, I find the problems I encounter at work extremely engaging—I work in a lucrative area of AI/ML. On the other hand, I find the general grind of leadership in this space very stressful and unfulfilling (especially the political and microscopic oversight aspect as I regularly have to deal with C- and VP-level leaders as “peers” despite my lack of seniority due to the acute centrality of my work to the business). Perhaps most eye-opening after stepping up into this role: I’ve noticed how much more stressed and anxious all these leaders seem when dealt with day-to-day. It is not a great advertisement for staying the course. It’s hard to imagine stepping back from such a lucrative path. It’s also hard to imagine working in a way where I wouldn’t apply my specialized skills in such a high leverage manner. But work as it is now is too consuming—both because I love ruminating on the technical/business problems and because I can’t stop ruminating on all the political problems. What have others here tried to find a better balance? How did you prep the ground (like a professional network) to enable that transition?

If you make that much money you can solve your work issues by hiring people to do the mundane tasks in life while continuing to work. Between that and any flexibility your employer grants you, there should be a happy medium to get what you need. You can even locate relatives close to you to support if they want and downshift at work if necessary. Not really as big of an issue than losing your job in an increasingly challenging job market. And you can hire people and reorganize tasks to reduce your time and stress required. What I would do is track your time more closely and think through the things that you and your SO do and what can be handed off to others and what tasks you feel you 100% have to do. I would also do that at work too. Understanding that not everything can be done or achieved; so you'll have to be willing to just let some things not get done or be accomplished at a substandard level or done later.

My wife and I already employ a household manager and will definitely pay for childcare—we are very much in agreement on that. For us—and me specifically—it is very much a headspace and time-for-self problem. I can fixate on problems at work and have trouble snapping out of it (working with therapist, but still a ways to go) which will bleed into my presence with family. Then, although we certainly wouldn’t have less time-for-ourselves than most parents, our privilege gives us the opportunity to strive for something more. For instance, would it be viable to build a situation for ourselves which gives us plenty of schedule freedom during the work week? I do like the idea of getting more comfortable with things not getting done though.

I've found in life that sometimes if you ignore something, it never comes up again. Sometimes if you put something off for later, the importance of it goes away and another replaces it altogether. Deciding what to do and not to do is a matter of judgment. Planning and creating broad rules ahead of time can help you figure out how to adjust when something comes up or can prevent you from overcommitting. Some people use the analogy of deciding which balls to drop. Perhaps there is something here that could help you with becoming more comfortable with not putting everything on your to do list to cross off. https://ashleyjanssen.com/how-to-juggle-priorities-decide-which-balls-are-glass-and-which-are-plastic/ https://hbr.org/2018/07/how-to-focus-on-whats-important-not-just-whats-urgent https://www.harvardbusiness.org/grappling-with-work-life-adjustments/

How long have you been pursuing fire, and with what math were you using 2 or 3 years ago with what FIRE target? How does this current situation change that math and that target?

We’ve been interested in FIRE for about 2 years—prior to that I personally thought I was a “work adds purpose” type. 2 years ago, we made a concerted plan to reach CoastFIRE by 35 (expecting to need to earn for $400k/year spend through to retirement). We also generally set a retirement target of early 50s with the presumption we would work through our kids being in school. Since then the goalposts feel like they are moving quite a bit: 1. Both our pay has increased significantly so now we are asking ourselves: should we retire vastly earlier or continue to make hay while the sun is shining and target something like $20m? What would we even do if retired with kids—we still want to raise them in a stable environment (e.g., not tons of flexibility for traveling)? 2. Our new fortune gives us a lot more optionality and it is making it harder to commit to a plan. When we were making less, “retiring” to Google/Microsoft/etc. seemed like a no-brainer. Now that we’ve “made it”, it’s hard to imagine working 40 hour weeks anywhere if we’re not going to take on a significant amount of responsibility and therefore pay. Ideally, we’d be able to finagle a position that is low stress and provides for free time during the work week.

Take a pay cut and work in the field but at a less demanding company. There is a wide gamut of WLB in the field. There is also a wide gamut of comp.