Is retirement a pipe dream for indie hackers?
If you're like me, you have dreams of hitting it big with a product one day, investing the windfall wisely, and living the rest of your days as a man of leisure.
But relying on that as a retirement plan is a recipe for being a broke, 80-year-old indie hacker struggling to make something that is still relevant. It doesn't paint a very pleasant picture. It almost makes employment seem desirable.
Are you guys worried about retirement? For those of you who are preparing for it, do you have any advice?
I don't even think that far...
Sure, I save up my SaaS income, invest in my 401k/ETFs/crypto, keep building my MRR on my startup hoping for an eventual 7-figure exit one day, etc., but I've also already been taking so much advantage of my solo founder lifestyle that someone might very well just call the cops on me. 😬
I work hard and long hours, by choice, but I also take significant time off when I want to to party and travel and date and try new things all the time.
Why can't you be a "man of leisure" now?
I've been a man of leisure most of my 20s -- I had a fucking blast -- and I still am in my 30s now. I've been taking profit on my happiness for my entire life, I'm not going to stop now just because I'm a founder, I've been crossing off so many items off my bucket list and places off my "to visit" list, that if I died now, I'd still be a very happy man.
So do what you must to prepare for a retirement.
But please, never postpone your bucket list.
Do it today, do it now, you might never even make it to retirement.
You never know how much time you have left.
PS I've written at length about my life philosophy in this post, if anyone is interested.
Totally agree - working while you're young so you can enjoy when you're old makes no sense. Sounds like you've gotta 401K so you're preparing, which seems like a good idea.
I think most people think of retirement in a black-or-white fashion:
You're either retired or you're not.
Honestly full retirement is unlikely to keep you happy either, you'd be bored out of your mind, even with personal projects and hobbies and family time. I firmly believe there's an ideal amount of "productive work time" that keeps us the happiest.
It's definitely not 40 hours/week, but it's also not 0 hours/week. It could be something like 10 hours/week. So indies can approximate the perks of retirement without hitting a 7-figure nest egg by simply building a lifestyle SaaS business that lets them work fewer hours per week.
Honestly it's a lot more realistic to build a $100k ARR SaaS as a solo founder, taking time off generously to enjoy life, than it is to have a 7-figure exit.
Think of it as "semi-retired" or "mostly-retired."
Once you're at this stage, you won't even obsess about retirement so much anymore. You already feel retired.
Do you still "have to" work? Yes.
But is it 40 hours/week? Definitely not.
Believe it or not, that alone makes a massive difference to how you perceive work.
I think my retirement doesn't involve doing 'nothing' all day. I don't want to quit building just because I'm old. Hopefully in the meantime I have collected enough projects that bring in passive income that I can just work on projects I love. But I don't see myself stop working at all.
Same here. But I don't want to HAVE to work.
That means you have about 30 years to get some projects up and running which bring you passive income :)
Try to get a regular income, either through a job or other services that allow you to set aside money for retirement so you can build up some savings.
This bad boi makes me much less worried: https://robwalling.com/2015/03/26/the-stairstep-approach-to-bootstrapping/
If you're familiar with the stair step approach, I still have not bought my time back yet. So I still work a 9 to 5 where I learn cool things that I can incorporate into my bootstrap projects and vice versa. I'll keep doing this until a project can cover my "lifestyle" (mortgage and food xD).
If you've already bought back your time, then it's just a matter of getting a good 401k and Roth IRA asap and park and forget :D I work at a huge Financial Services & Product company. I'm here if you have basic questions about retirement funds aka I write trading software, I'm not a broker nor financial advisor.
Love that, thanks for sharing! I hadn't heard of the Stairstep approach. I'll look into it!
I agree with your assessment that relying on a retirement strategy of "hitting it big with a product one day" is a high risk bet. Try to get some regular income either through a job or a service / consulting gig that pays your bills and allows you to put some money away for retirement (index funds, maybe real estate, nothing exotic) so you could have some nest egg built up just in case that big hit doesn't materialize.
Good advice!
My path is not for everyone and sometimes I regret wasting time, but it works.
Work for few companies and try to learn/experience as much as possible. Max 401k and start invest index funds early. Time is your friend in terms of investment.
By 35, I can live off my investments and start to do IH or whatever I like.
I do regret because I never really enjoyed my jobs, I was just good at it. So it felt like wasted years, but at least I get financial stability.
Pretty cool that you can live off your investments by 35!
I started out dirt broke so I never really have desire to spend much. It's like that rich-dad-poor-dad game: when you have low expectation, it's easier to hit the financial target.
By the way, working too hard and not taking care of health is another thing I regret (I don't regret much). It's funny that when we had nothing, we want to make money. When we have money, we wish we could have those time back...
I also divert a double-digit percentage of my income to an ETF account. I've also been investing in crypto (BTC/ETH) but with the recent events, it's hard to stay consistent...
One thing I've learned is the importance of an emergency fund. Especially when your portfolio is down (like in the last 2 months). I'm currently trying to build at least a year of "basic necessities"-type of emergency fund.
Another dilemma I have at the moment is whether I should invest in DIGITAL properties (website/SaaS businesses from sites like MicroAcquire). If anyone has any experience with this, feel free to share it.
Yeah, that seems like a good plan for indie hackers!
I divert a small percentage of my income to a savings account right now for retirement. I've been thinking setting up an IRA but haven't gotten around to it.
It's important to start preparing and investing... But it can be hard to do when you're trying to make ends meet!
It isn't hard, and it can be fun. I don't recommend putting all eggs in one basket, but setting up an account on TD Ameritrade is quite easy. Start with a familiar mix based on what you know. It will pique your interest over time.
Good advice!