Why 2013 May Be The Year You Quit Your Job
techcrunch.comThe piece opens with "People read TechCrunch because they want to create something..."
These people are most certainly Doing It Wrong.
It was a typo. They meant to say that "People read TechCrunch because they [don't] want to create something."
The article is mostly scaremongering, but the reason I posted it was mostly the 401k comments.
Any "old timers" (meaning those that put money away into 401k through out at least 2 recent market crashes, dotcom and the financial one) here willing to comment as to how their 401k fared? The biggest advantage I see(especially working for the company that does the matching) is that
a) Its a saving account that you cant take money out on a whim
b) Employee matching is free money
c) Youre not paying taxes untill youre ready to take it out and when you do take it out, your tax liability will be lower due to lower income
So you have all these financial advantages in 401k, the disadvantage is that you have to invest these funds wisely.
It all depends on what your investing your 401k in, but putting it in a stock index fund is a pretty good guard against inflation. Stocks will adjust accordingly to inflation, but putting the money in the bank certainly won't. Also, it is amusing to me that people freak out and stop investing when the market tanks. That's like only buying groceries when they aren't on sale! The best time to buy stocks is when they are down. If you invest consistently over boom and bust, you can insulate yourself pretty well against major swings. Of course, free advice from strangers on the Internet is worth what you pay.
A big advantage for most people is that it is an automatic savings plan. Although you have more options investing on your own, many people would either spend it or forget to invest it.
d) It facilitates dollar-cost averaging, and lengthy time horizons
Yes, you have to invest wisely, but most plans have an S&P 500 index fund for growth and a Bond fund for income (your allocation mix should be more growth when younger, more income when older).
Until late in 2012, I came out ahead far more by paying down my graduate student loan debt than I did by contributing to my 401(k). However, that is because my graduate student loans are statutorily fixed at 6.5% or higher, whereas market returns have been close to zero or negative.
Market returns have been volatile. S&P 500 for the past few years [1]:
2012 16.00% 2011 2.05% 2010 15.06% 2009 26.46% 2008 −37.00% 2007 5.49% 2006 15.79%
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26P_500#Total_annual_returns_...
Yep, missing a word in my original comment... my net market returns were close to zero or negative until late 2012.
And over here in a socialist northern european country record numbers of small companies are going bankrupt, going into business for yourself is seen as a crazy risk, everyone is looking for a reliable j-o-b type job, retirement plans are still a healthy choice, and the middle class is holding steady. Are we really in such an antithetical situation from the U.S., or is this article part fabrication?
Don't worry, it will happen in Europe soon too.
The only question is whether you start planning in advance, or if you want to be hurt.
I'm not expecting to see a single cent from the money the government is robbing me under the pretext of "retirement" to fund its massive ponzi scheme dependant on an always growing working population.
90% of new companies in America don't last 2 years, IIRC. Not That Different.
I have decided the year i quit day job is 2013, not after reading this article, but i have been planning it for the past 2 years.
2 years might seem like a lot of time but i started from absolute 0. Now i have few mobile apps in market through which i earn 50% of my sal every month.
Making lists really helps, but even if you loose the list your passion will find a way to get you back to the list.
Keeping this as wallpaper helps too http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/5536250_700b.jpg
Edit: And the only reason i want to quit is freedom
Good for you for hanging in there. 2 years is not long at all considering it takes the average person at least 6 to 8 years to get an education and build any kind of career.
When I made the decision to switch I planned 3 years but life got in the way and eventually it took me 5 years before I was there. People sometimes comment 5 years is a long time to achieve your goals and I always answer that doing something you don't enjoy for 40 years is a lot longer.
Every year is the right year to quit your job. The real questions are:
- do you have conviction in what you are doing?
- have you taken every step possible to advance the idea or development in your current position (noncompetes obviously restrict what can be done)?
- do you have sufficient money to survive six months if you aren't showing any revenue?
If so any time is the right time.
In my case 2013 may be the year I go back to a steady job.
Why is that? What happened?
I quit my previous job to freelance in an area I enjoy more. 2 years after that my savings have dropped considerably and I need to start thinking about getting a mortgage and help my parents as their financial situation is very risky even though they have always worked insanely hard. I hope to go back to what I do know but the urgency of positive cash flow is more pressing at the moment.
This article holds true for any year.
There have been a lot of middle-class-is-dead, be-your-own-boss type pieces recently, with only the macro trends mentioned changing.
Perhaps this appeals to the libertarian tendencies of many of us. I personally learned nothing new from this piece, and the factual inaccuracies in it make for a weaker case.