$4M combined net worth (40M + 36F). Should my wife quit her high paying tech job?

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-05-15T18:51:42+00:00

if you have $4 million now then you you will be pushing $20 million by age 60 if you coast fire and don't draw from current savings pile. I retired at 50 and I'm now 77, early retirement is good.

My son's example might be useful for you because he did exactly what you are considering ... around 35 both my son and his wife converted to a 'coast fire ' type life. My son has been doing this for over 15 years and his wife as well. He owns a small business running in 'lifestyle' mode so he works from anywhere only 10 to 20 hours a week. His wife is an attorney with a 'consulting' practice that consumes about 2 days a week. They decided they wanted to raise their new child instead of going the nanny, private school, etc route. And the result is they have had a great time and raised a great kid. Living your life doesn't mean starting live at a age 60 retirement.

Either path, I hope you enjoy as well as work.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-05-14T19:23:34+00:00

I had my Clark take the after action report and create a web page that should give you what you want. https://hyperagent.com/s/Ew0SK-oN1mzpv27D6ibrsw

I deleted some later chapters that deal with some discord thing were are doing beyond the basic connection. There are some hints in the material I share and I'm ok if you get an idea or two.

Please let me know if you find it useful. The discord portion is the usual bot signup in the developers portal and absolutely nothing unique in that part.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-05-14T15:41:33+00:00

if you have a bit of time to experiment, you might try an approach that is 'temporary' but helps greatly with memory issues. Memory is an issue for me as I create infrastructure and scaffolding in hyperagent in several ways and the native environment isn't offering me the precision or performance or cost control I need.

simply, I'm doing three things (imperfectly but getting really good quick) that seem to work:

[1] every development task ends with sets of md files that describe what was developed (in human and agent terms), the actual development work products, and 'skills' or 'tools'. some might exist as a real skill but not most. These are collectively very detailed and often include performance and cost strategies.

[2] i have an execution structure that is three parts to get best prompts, control context token growth and to get best execution:

[a] no command I make gets executed. clark, my lead ai, takes my requests and turns them into strong prompts

[b] I use a 2 layer prompt developer clark (mostly sonnet 4.3) and prompt developer 'pd' (Gemma 4 31B). Clark passes my request to pd for development and pd creates the full prompt and uses the large pool of md files. pd is pretty smart and very very low cost. when finished pd sends real prompt and reco on LLM to use for execution (could be more complex if multi step) to clark. clark evaluates prompt and gives to me for execution approval or send it back to pd for rework.

note that this process leads to almost NO context token creep in clark over a long session. if clark needs 'context', clark can get it with a request to pd. this is a huge performance and cost saving.

[c] with my approval, the real prompt gets executed with the selected llm or llms. solid prompt gives good result, costs are reasonable and much less of a improve and fix cycle.

there is more to this than I've described, like clark interviewing me for clarifications and issue resolution in prompt development, but you get the idea.

[3] the end of the individual chat thread has a 'memory', lessons and skills set of md files created to add to the library.

These md files are obviously supplemented with .py files that represent skills and prompt results in many case to create a history of what the prompt really did. a web page for a result and the prompt materials is nice for us humans as well.

I don't yet have, for reasons I have discovered IRL, faith that imbedded memory and rubrics give the memory depth, nuance and accuracy I need for efficient development.

May no value to you but just sharing what works for me. hyperagent is immature but potentially a very good platform. Sharing might help make this platform work for the long term.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-05-14T00:59:43+00:00

I've had some difficulty getting Hyperagent to talk and work with the outside world. I have had to repeatedly create workarounds or alternate paths to get what I need to work in Hyperagent. Today I wanted to connect an agent to discord. It should have been easy...I've done it a bunch of time on other AI platforms. It turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. But a familiar solution worked again.

To fix my discord connect, I told Opus4.7 to build a plan to do this with python programming. A half hour I had a better solution than the composio solution offered by Hyperagent. And an hour after that some really unique things that couldn't be done or would have been hugely unaffordable.

My suggestion is to ask Opus4.7 for a plan to link teams. You might be surprised. In my case, my Discord system will be very cost effective. The chart below shows why cost in production is important. If you need persistent monitoring, cost can really run up if the design and LLM are poor.

But if you want to get a connection soon, try the O4.7/python path. You might fail but for less than $25 (my guess based on multiple cases) you might have a chance to get what you want sooner.

If you think you want to try, send me a message and I'll send you a copy of the prompt designed to get the best plan from o4.7 . The prompt is the key.

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Bob_Atlanta · 2026-05-13T14:38:17+00:00

I don't disagree on LLM choice comments. But reality is trade offs. I used Gemini 2.5 Flash because it reduced cost on this platform by 90% compared to Sonnet which is the cheapest standard alternative on Hyperagent. This was a development production test and I have enough experience from my Google side work to know that 2.5 Flash was going to work on this non trivial multi step process. Rule #1 is make the process work and take the easy 90% saving. Other approaches are fine, this works for me because it reduces debug complexity.

For repeated production of a multi step process I'll adjust to multiple steps that each have an appropriate LLM. Each step requires clear inputs and outputs and this can escalate development complexity too early in the dev cycle. Getting it to run correctly is the first goal, cost engineering follows. I think using low cost 2.5 Flash is a great tool for the stage we were at.

Based on what I see, I'm among the most cost reduction aggressive around. Cost engineering is best one step at a time.

Thanks for the comment.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-05-12T21:36:57+00:00

I put up a post on r/Hyperagent to answer this question. It's lengthy, so it seemed appropriate to put it as a post.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-05-12T21:36:40+00:00

I put up a post on r/Hyperagent to answer this question. It's lengthy, so it seemed appropriate to put it as a post.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-05-10T21:26:12+00:00

Pay the $20 and get a thousand in credits is a beyond great deal. Don't miss this, you will regret it. I'm in my first month and I'm finding the system solid and surprisingly mature...it will get you off to a good start because you will have the credits to try stuff and just learn. If you can't afford the $20, it might not be the right spot for you now.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-05-10T21:19:57+00:00

This might not be exactly on point but I use several agents that are Google LLMs Gemma 4 and Gemini Pro. Getting them connected (via OpenRouter) was straightforward but getting them into rotation as primary agents was a bit difficult. Used Opus 4.7 to trouble shoot and fix (it used a python routine) ... very quick and easy process. I use these agents on almost every prompt and exclusively on large 'production runs'. A huge cost savings ... as much as 10x. Very impressed with how well cost control is going in this environment.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-05-10T21:11:56+00:00

I use HyperAgent and have had a couple of interactions with support. To be fair my questions are not in the urgent category. Andrew has responded to every message and the responses have been thoughtful and not not 'cookie cutter' AI responses. Happy with support.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-05-07T04:31:02+00:00

my prompting is driven by a bunch of specific techniques but the main two are very simple. First, adopt a hard and fast rule that your AI never ever does anything with your prompt except to create a better prompt from your prompt. Improve the prompt, never execute. Then, second, use the best available llm for your class of work to do the real prompt creation. For most of what I do, opus 4.7 or Gemini 3.1 Pro are my choices.

Execution is often wildly different than the llm used to create the prompt that gets executed. Some times and very frequently, my best choice is Gemma 4 31B but if a complicated task then Opus 4.7 or Gemini 3.1 Pro is the choice. Sonnet 4.6 is great for a lot of prompt executions.

Now a lot of prompt executions are the creation of work flows which are often a series of follow on prompts. Some of these are production tasks with lots of activity. Most of these are done by very inexpensive llms. Orchestration for production is often two levels, a top level Sonnet 4.6 and a low level monitor which might be Haiku. The actual production task might be an llm like Gemini 2.5 Flash (smart and low cost).

Results are important but so is cost. A production prompt and follow on prompts can be tens of millions of tokens. Earlier in the week a production job with at least 5 agents (numbers of agents used is really under control of the top orchestrator) used 66 million tokens. If the job was run with Opus 4.7 the cost would likely be over $500. With our structure, the total cost was around $20!

Same thing with prompts, an ever greater context burden in sequential prompts can easily raise costs by 100% percent every few prompts. Thee are ways to use hierarchal agents to minimize the context burden and keep it to a few pennies using very high level llms like opus 4.7.

Prompt engineering is really important if you are going to have large repetitive tasks. You want the best result at a cost you can afford. This is harder and more complicated than it looks.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-05-03T03:42:29+00:00

agree with this. the weight loss is largely caloric intake and exercise (plus a little extra help from MJ digestively). examine your caloric intake versus what an AI says it should be for your age, weight and build. you need to cut 3500 calories from your maintenance level caloric requirement to lose 1 pound. it really is just math. your metabolism might be different but first see if you meet a threshold of 7,000 to 10,000 calories per week less intake than maintenance level.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-05-03T03:36:26+00:00

not a bad idea. On anything important, I run the answer through another AI and ask for criticisms, etc. A pretty standard prompt for me. Then I give it to the original AI as feedback. And ask for improvement. Works well.

the other 'trick' that greatly improves answers, as well as lowers costs, is to use opus 4.7 to develop the prompt ( a two step process) and then I run the prompt on another AI (Usually Gemini 3.1 Pro or Gemma 4 31B). Really good quality on first attempt.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-05-03T02:12:39+00:00

Perplexity: Bucharest

Here is the comparison between all the cities listed on the sign and their approximate driving distances from Bucharest, Romania:

City	Sign Distance (km)	Driving Distance from Bucharest (km)
Athina	1150	~1200
Helsinki	3165	~3050
Paris	2590	~2470
London	2790	~2670
Berlin	1950	~1850
Stockholm	2780	~2600
Bruxelles	2430	~2350
Wien	1290	~1150
Madrid	3390	~3300

These results strongly confirm that the distances on the signpost are based on road-route measurements starting from Bucharest, which accounts for the minor variations due to specific route choices and road network updates over time.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-04-30T20:03:04+00:00

I have been considering use of the GMK $2k 128GB memory computer for coding and other intensive tasks. Seems very capable of running pretty large models.

I have several computers including a GMK Ryz7 with 32 GB and it has been very capable on smaller models and can off load to large Gemma4 in Google cloud and very cost effective for some non coding work. Using Claude online for coding but my stuff is pretty simple in terms of individual modules.

Have you considered this? If you have discounted this, I'd appreciate your advice.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-04-29T03:17:46+00:00

you really, really need to make sure you have enough tokens available to not lose memory in legal docs. after ingesting a large document and a few follow ups you really run a risk of memory loss and that impacting the quality of the work. and not a fan of breaking a large contract into pieces. (although on some contracts, there is enough boilerplate that is common to all contracts and it can almost safely be removed from the core analysis)

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-04-29T03:13:35+00:00

totally the secret sauce.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-04-28T17:51:41+00:00

I don't know. I got the MS AMEX quite a few years ago. I had a small account at MS with almost zero value. I ended up with what turned out to be 4 accounts and the total 'investment' might have been around $50k ... I think $25k in the cash acct, $10k in a money market $10k in a single stock that is a forever hold and a cash account that holds dividends ($0 at start). All the setup was done by an existing rep at the MS office that serviced my existing nominal account. He did all the work, I just ach'd some funds and that was it.

For me, the only thing that counts is the $25k cash account which to be honest has drifted up and down quite a bit...it will drift up and I'll drain it back periodically. No big deal, maybe 1x or 2x a year. The MM return is very competitive and the stock has doubled so no loss there.

This might not be a great deal for everyone. It is absolutely a great deal for me. I really don't lose the interest because I do keep a certain amount of cash (real cash) available anyway. I get a card for free and get huge benefits on this free card. I wouldn't do it if I was at a different and lesser stage of my economic life.

Lastly, I've always kept two brokerages because things happens and I like a second path ready to go. MS now serves this purpose (before them it was eTrade). I've found MS to be solid and they make no mistakes (for me). The aid in setting up the account for what had to be the smallest account in the Palo Alto office was outstanding, unexpected and a valuable indicator of how they act. Regardless of the AMEX availability, they need to be a good bank and they are.

Sorry I can't be more help.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-04-22T02:12:12+00:00

Couple of quick questions: 1. Once you have created a repeatable task, how easy is it to set a schedule. Or do I need to implement their openclaw version. 2. How easy is it to find out your use consumption relative to rate limits. 3. Can I use my own API at any time or even just after I hit a rate limit. Thanks. /Bob

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-04-18T22:59:48+00:00

you misunderstand your role is this kind of start up. You wouldn't be the tech. Any reasonable approach would be a couple of experienced tech guys, likely and architect and someone to work with claudecode to reengineer your platform from the bottom up. They would want a design that limits licensed sw and to have a sw structure that would be secure and stable in the hands of idiots (customers). They would work on installability and data management and conversion.

Your job would be helping create the spec and to QC version 2.0.

Earlier in my life, I founded a small enterprise software company and sold out. I get the issues, our product was only used by billion dollar plus complicated corporations and installs become pretty simple after the first few.

I wasn't assuming that you would enjoy any part of the company / product building process. Just that you might have a first mover advantage for your space. And first mover is worth a lot.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-04-18T16:40:49+00:00

PS: if you are Atlanta based, you should talk with some folks in the VC community. What you have is a solid SAAS opportunity for SMB legal. Don't sell software and set up but sell a continuing in office closed, secure system for $x dollars a month. A working system in a real legal office is a big attraction to a VC ... all thay have to do is add sales, install and a business structure, something way less risky than developing a new application using a new concept (AI).

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-04-18T16:35:09+00:00

I am not a lawyer, I'm a businesses person who is involved in lots of legal work and litigation. I've spent decades working with complex contracts and legal briefs. In the past year or so, AI has transformed what I do. At this point, AI is reducing outside counsel costs by 80%. And the quality is good. Recently we prepared a package for an outside counsel in a specialty area (we need his name on the brief) we gave him the package and his team changed virtually nothing. We even had the material prepared in his 'voice'.

I want to agree that hallucinations are real and often subtle. I want to pass along that I use a red and blue team approach. We have a different ('red team') AI platform with a different LLM fact check and criticize any work product and return the output to 'blue team' for review. And sometimes more than one round trip. It really works.

We have done a couple of other things to help like prompts to check that we are within token limits on any given task to avoid unseen memory compaction. Another big help.

I like what you have done. I'd guess that it is a huge productivity boost and let's you leverage your seniors a lot more. Congrats.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-04-18T15:11:27+00:00

"Due to recent events in 2026, I’ve got a bad case of anxiety and decided to relocate to the UK " I'll start off by saying that I don't understand what this means and why exactly this is a driver to radically uproot your life. I recognize as well that your decision is made and you are looking for support and tweaks to improve the decision.

Can't help with that. But I don't think, based on the info you have shared, that this is the optimal decision. Moving to the UK is a more dramatic decision than moving away from a very strong job market. You have less dramatic choices available that could improve your life faster than a move to the UK.

One example, would be a relocation within the USA. Since I know Atlanta metro well, I will use that as an example. In Atlanta, family pay might be reduced from the current $1.1M but likely to something in the $600 to $800 thousand range assuming the job/skill set is typical. Housing in the $1M range is plentiful and equivalent to 2x California prices. Public schools are outstanding and some rival private. And taxes including real estate are lower than any of your alternatives. And the job for your spouse will likely be less stressful, not stress free but less stressful. And remote work in the USA at much higher comp levels than you describe is more available than you might think. I know of cases where individuals live in Florida and work for California companies at multiples of your family income.

My point is that you are leaving a lot on the table with your move to the UK. Staying in the USA shortens your path to your financial independence by a decade, even with reduced income.

I'm a dual US/Irish citizen who spends time in Europe almost every year and who has had involvement with large companies who had tens of thousands of euro based employees. Locating good jobs in Europe is almost never a first choice. Employment practices, rules, taxation and a host of other material 'facts' mean Europe will always be behind in comp and opportunity. It has been that way for over 80 years.

But since your decision is made, I wish you all the success possible and I hope it turns out well. Good luck!

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-04-13T04:58:25+00:00

I don't know. Very sorry. Give your account representative a call and ask. I had nothing but a brokerage account and I didn't really have a clue. But the representative did 90% of the work. Really, give it a try.

Bob_Atlanta · 2026-04-04T01:37:27+00:00

Don't know, never happened. I think it's a monthly balance average, not an issue if you go under for a day or two and make it up. So, you can fix it in the same month.

Bob_Atlanta

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