Comments on: NY Times and Silicon Valley: A Fresh Look?

By: thc

thc — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:46:54 +0000

We’re not much different than the Stegers in the NYT piece (we’re a couple of years younger, though). We’ve considered selling our 7-figure home and moving back to the Midwest but we kind of like it here–high costs and all. We keep working because we enjoy what we do AND it will take $8-10 million in retirement assets to have the lifestyle that we want.

By: Foobarista

Foobarista — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 09:08:10 +0000

One irony of the world of wealth: if you have the drive and skill to get to $5M or more, you probably aren’t all that interested in the money by itself. To get to that level, you have to be extremely skilled in what you do and the skill must be worth the income, or possibly you got very lucky. Silicon Valley has lots of both types.

The grind-it-out “millionaire next door” types exist as well, especially in the vast immigrant business community, but techpreneurs and hotshot VCs aren’t noted for their interest in a quiet life of prosperous anonymity.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:00:56 +0000

the operative quote in the article is “…you are a nobody”. does being a somebody really make life that much more interesting? then again, it really depends on how you define yourself and what being a “somebody” means. Live your life for yourself and your family, not for others.

By: the baglady

the baglady — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 09:30:09 +0000

What I take away from this is that these people are type A workaholics to begin with. They probably can’t relax even if they tried to. I read a lot of comments on other blogs that people are nauseated by these “whiny millionaires”, but I guess a lot of those people don’t live in San Mateo either.

By: MoneyNing

MoneyNing — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 22:42:46 +0000

To hopefully answer your question on why people don’t move. It’s the comfort of staying in the same place + the laziness of people trying something different. It’s a very different life living in North Carolina than in Silicon Valley and not everyone is willing to trade for that even if it means that they can live in a bigger house.

By: RateLadder

RateLadder — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:12:10 +0000

I think it is more about drive to create…

These people could retire and choose not too.

By: Brip Blap

Brip Blap — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 03:48:30 +0000

I am fairly sure that there is nowhere in the US where $5-$10 million is not sufficient to live off of. It may not be enough for an eight bedroom home in Manhattan, but it’s going to be enough that any reasonably normal spending person could live for the rest of their life without working for money again. That to me is not even a point of debate.

Now, if your definition of “living” includes “I must have a vacation home in Tahoe” then I retract everything I said. But the point about athletes, etc. is dead on. Some people just like to compete, and for some professionals money is the score. It’s not even about the purchasing power of their earnings, it’s simply knowing that they have the most. I know people like this, and while I couldn’t claim to respect their motivation I do understand it.

By: Foobarista

Foobarista — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 23:51:49 +0000

I was going to write a long reply, but the “anti-spam” thing ate my post when I forgot it!

Anyway, we’re probably one of those people: our net worth is about $1M (about $700K without RE), and going up by about $150K/year. Someone going by our net worth statement would guess we’re super-rich, but someone looking at our possessions would probably guess we’re lower middle class, living in a 1300 square foot duplex in Mountain View.

For us, the reason we don’t leave is the Valley is very interesting, full of brilliant people from all over the world, and is within day-trip driving distance of numerous beautiful places such as Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, and numerous places on the coast. Also, I was born here and some of my extended family is here.

The pressure that many feel, even if you’ve got decamillions, is because you really want to accomplish something, and you get caught up in the drive to do something new and cool. Also, many people would like to retire here, and not somewhere where one’s social life revolves around Friday high school football and Sunday church.

By: JadeEJF

JadeEJF — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 18:24:01 +0000

Hey- Have you looked into lendingclub.com yet? I was just reading an article about it yesterday (which had a link to an interview from you!) on NuWire and it made me curious if you'd tried it out yet. I'm signed up, but haven't loaned out, because I'm a little nervous about moving beyond Prosper. Thoughts?

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:08:31 +0000

As some mentioned, a million isn’t what it used to be, but $5-10 Million is still plenty of money – enough for most people to retire on if planned well.

Jon, I didn’t see it entirely as an article about greedy people, but I also know a lot of people have their friends and family here. Once you plant roots somewhere, it can be difficult to move. Do you want to take your children away from their friends? There’s a lot of value in that.

By: guinness416

guinness416 — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:56:18 +0000

I assume you must need a certain personality (which I surely don't have!) to get to that level of wealth & success. Plus at that level your job isn't just a job, it must be a passion to some degree? I'm not sure it's as simple as some may suggest to just turn that off. And it's all relative of course. As someone pointed out in an interesting metafilter thread on the subject, those of us who make more than $50k a year are in the top 1 per cent of earners in the world, but usually can't ratchet it down and move to cheaper climes either.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:53:29 +0000

A million bucks isn’t that much money anywhere, much less in silicon Valley. A typical middle-aged person worth over $1M probably has an income at least in the low 6 figures.

$1M doesn’t come close to replacing that income, particularly for a young person, and particularly for someone in Silicon Valley.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:45:10 +0000

Quite an interesting article about Silicon Valley multi-millionaires. They all want to be able to relax, but don’t want to move? That’s a rat race I don’t want to be a part of. If I had $5 million, I would be moving too. Invest, and then just work where ever I wanted. I noticed the classical “Keeping up with the Joneses” through the entire article. An article about greedy people, pure and simple.

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:38:47 +0000

Yeah but in the valley, is a million dollars really even that much money? I live in Alabama, and that’s some serious money. In AL, your $250,000 house and maybe $750,000 in various investments can support you and make life nice, but you’re still going to have to work a little to cover things. I’m sure in a place where housing is so much more and cost of living is higher, it’s not a lot of money in relation. Of course you’d know better than I do.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:34:23 +0000

Interesting post and NYT article. I think you are right that for many the amount of money you have is relative. Also, it is different to have $5M in silicon valley where the cost of living is very expensive.

I also think, that some people really enjoy there jobs and continue to work long hours because of this enjoyment.