[geeks] Lottery (was informal survey)

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Mon, Sep 10, 2001 at 04:18:45PM -0700, Peter L. Wargo wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Sep 2001, Ken Hansen wrote:
> 
> > explaining. A few years ago, I decided that $11M was my stop-working
> > number - once I hit $11 Million "in the bank" (not over-valued tech stock
> > ;^), I stop working and live "La Vita Woz" (live where I like, teach young
> 
> I figgured out that I need about $2M after taxes to retire for good.
> Enogh to buy a decent house in New Mexico, and stuff the rest into the
> appropriate investments, like tax-free munies and the like.  (5% on $1M is
> $50K a year, tax-free.  If my house were paid for, that would more than
> enough to live on.)  But, I won't turn down $20M post-taxes, either. :-)

I think that $2M is probably not enough.  Sure, $50k is fine now.  But
will it be fine in 20 years?  On the other hand, if you only need $40k
now, then you can send the other $10k back for compound interest, and that
will likely get you up to the amount of annual interest you need in 20
years.  

In Cryptonomicon they had a phrase for this, fsck you money.  I don't know
what it would need to be for me, but it would need to be fairly
considerable.  Large enough to buy some nice property, have a comfterble
annual income, plus enough extra for regular lab upgrades and
philanthropic works.  $10M might be enough, but if I actually started
being able to talk in millions for personal worth, one of the first things
I would do is run to a financial consultant, then double her numbers (I'm
a pessimist sometimes).

I probably would spend my time split between my own research and persuits,
and teaching highschool or college.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd