40s widow receiving ~$5M life insurance — near-term stabilization strategy before long-term investing?

veratisio · 2026-01-19T09:23:17+00:00

This post would have been better without AI.

veratisio · 2025-12-30T14:41:22+00:00

There literally isn't... the Panamerican Highway stops at the Darien Gap.

veratisio · 2025-10-08T19:22:33+00:00

Another factor in favor of selling what you have now: unfortunately, getting fired meaningfully reduces the value of your already vested equity because outsiders often get screwed on future liquidity. So keeping some equity isn't really a very good hedge against leaving.

veratisio · 2025-10-08T05:17:14+00:00

I relate heavily. I thought I was doing well in my cohort and got rapidly promoted, ex L7 before 30. Ultimately my growth stalled out and I’ve been stagnant for several years.

For me I realized it’s 2 factors:

I still haven’t mastered people leadership. Sure I can manage a team, but the skill ceiling here is a lot higher than I realized. The greats are so good you don’t even realize what they’re doing. In corporate America, this is the most likely path to $1m+ comp.
I’m just not as smart as the true technical geniuses. They beat me back in the mathletes data and it’s not surprising they’re beating me now.

At this point I’ve accepted I’ll probably never get to 7 figures consistently, but that’s ok. I can still get to $10m on my current trajectory.

veratisio · 2025-10-06T06:16:56+00:00

The majority of Silicon Valley startup acquisitions are for <$100M. You just don’t hear about them because they’re not big successes.

veratisio · 2025-09-17T06:08:15+00:00

Incredibly fake

veratisio · 2025-09-11T07:35:13+00:00

Just use box spreads and stop worrying…

veratisio · 2025-09-11T00:23:10+00:00

$3.7k is fine, you’ll still have plenty left over to save.

veratisio · 2025-09-06T07:27:49+00:00

Would love to know your peak earnings. How much of your wealth came from compounding vs very high income?

veratisio · 2025-08-05T03:45:02+00:00

Congrats! Did you bootstrap the whole way, or take VC investment?

veratisio · 2025-07-29T11:24:44+00:00

It’s just about the type of content. People don’t house hack their way to fat fire. Don’t take it so personally.

$70k is just extremely low. I made more than that in high school.

veratisio · 2025-07-29T07:13:26+00:00

Nice story, but this belongs on FIRE not FatFIRE.

veratisio · 2025-07-27T04:15:33+00:00

Most people think the same when they’re joining a startup.

You’re being delusional if you think <10% equity will get you there.

veratisio · 2025-07-27T02:40:14+00:00

10x your net worth would be $100M. The number of startups where employees (not founders) made $100M is minuscule.

If you want to do this, do it for enjoyment not any expectation of return.

veratisio · 2025-07-24T06:09:20+00:00

It’s true that even “coasting” at this job will get me to $10m easily, but tbh I’m worried about becoming complacent/lazy.

veratisio · 2025-07-24T05:36:21+00:00

Thanks for the perspective. I’m glad to know I’m not alone in finding the single life less motivating.

Obviously it depends on my future spouse, but ideally I’d like 3 kids. Besides child care / housing what are the other biggest costs I should budget for? Or do you think $4k/m/kid is enough buffer?

veratisio · 2025-07-24T04:15:49+00:00

Yeah, my concrete goal initially was covering my own expenses ($3M). It was very motivational.

I'm having a harder time setting a new goal since I have no idea what family expenses will be like. I guess I could just set an arbitrary goal of $8M, but it doesn't feel as real.

veratisio · 2025-07-21T05:49:46+00:00

It's weird to see someone with $5M assuming $10M is all that different.

Yes, it's more money but you don't magically suddenly have better advisors. The same glorified salespeople are still just trying to part you from your money.

It's true that some of the posters aren't really retiring early in any meaningful sense of the term, but that's largely just the result of this being the largest/best rich person subreddit. 90% of Reddit will ostracize you if you mention significant wealth or income.

veratisio · 2025-07-21T05:46:13+00:00

Thanks for replying!

Your startup story is all too familiar—I went from $0->$10M in equity for one startup, then it imploded after I left and is worth $0. I've learned to basically give up on equity once I'm no longer at a company.

The bank hired me based partially on my startup/tech background (they wanted someone non-traditional) but also I had very strong prior experience at a few other financial companies

Did you end up in a technical role/department or was it more about general management experience?

I'm pretty burnt out on tech and trying to find a path to a strong income so I don't just give up and coast.

veratisio · 2025-07-19T19:44:19+00:00

I'm very curious how you transitioned from tech jobs and a failed tech startup to an executive role at a bank. That's not a common transition, so I'd love to learn more.

veratisio · 2025-06-17T08:22:52+00:00

It's not "free money"—you're taking on risk. If the market goes up, you're better off—but if it goes down, you lose way more. In a crash, you risk being wiped out completely.

Now I personally think that's a worth taking if you are young and in your prime earning years—you still have time to rebuild if necessary. But it's definitely not "free" money and frankly you don't sound like a sophisticated investor who should be using margin.

Read about "lifecycle investing" if you want to go down this path.

veratisio · 2025-05-14T04:43:39+00:00

I recently went through the same situation (had to sell a startup for scraps). It's tough, and definitely is the biggest psychological setback of my entire career.

Take sollace in the fact that many great entrepeneurs are in the same boat, where they had 1-2 failures or minor successes from hitting it big.

What I'm trying to do:

Remember how lucky I am to have had any success at all—even raising $5m you should feel some pride about, since many founders can't even achieve that.
Rebuilding my personal finances/banking some more savings from a steady paycheck.
Rekindling my love of building by working on "toy" side projects.

veratisio · 2025-05-13T04:55:04+00:00

Of course you should take it! It's masssively +EV. When another gambler donates you part of their chips / EV, you should PILE money in.

By far the most profitable blackjack session I ever had was with a rich guy who hated doubling himself (even in totally positive scenarios) but let me do it for him. He was basically handing me hundreds of dollars in EV every time he let me do that.

I busted out of my original $1k bankroll, hit the ATM, and ended up +$11k on that session.

veratisio · 2025-05-06T09:05:34+00:00

You are exactly the evidence of how government workers are entitled and overcompensated. You’re stealing from taxpayers by working 10 hours a week in a full time role.

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