I got my undergrad, got my masters at Ivy while working. Grinded for a while, performed really well. Promoted every couple of years. Now I’m at Walmart (low COL/family here) and in my 3 years I never promote despite objectively outperforming my peers and my academic qualifications. Despite my shitty attitude in this post, I always bring a positive attitude, make an effort to mentor newer designers, and work hard so it’s not a soft skill issue. I’m just so sick of this flywheel of great output and only getting pointless shoutouts, not another dime. I’m quitting in a month once my current project deploys because I don’t want to fuck my team over. How? In 1997 my dad was a huge Apple fanboy. He bought 45k worth of shares for me and it’s sat in an Edward Jones account where I’ve largely tried to ignore it and build my own wealth. It’s value is around 7.3M now. I’ve come to the conclusion that I can’t build my own wealth here and honestly why should I bother trying. My house is paid off and if I live within my means, I might be able to get by doing passion projects until I’m dead. Way cooler companies are out there I’m sure, but I don’t want to move to California (yes I’ve been, yes I still think it sucks, sue me) I wanted to thank the folks at Apple for making this possible. Though I’ve contributed nothing, I’ve always enjoyed your success. I’ll keep buying your shit in solidarity. This is my blind sign off. Good luck, and Godspeed.
Is 7.3M sufficient for FIRE? I don't know, just want to ask.
You’re welcome
Congratulations on your success, OP. Personally I would try looking for another job and see if you can’t into a higher paid design position with management track possibilities before retiring on Apple stock. It’s better to have the stock as a fallback than a necessity, especially with the way tech is going right now. Apple will be around for a while, but with a recession looming, I wouldn’t expect the stock to keep increasing the way it has. If you want to turn some of the stock liquid and retire, then have fun and enjoy retirement. Godspeed, OP. 🫡 Current TC: 90K Expected TC: 105K Expected Retirement Age: 35
Recession has been looming for two years. There is no recession.
I chuckled when I read “congratulations on your success”. More like “congratulations on having a dad that made a good bet & is generous enough to give it to you so that you’re set for life”. Great luck there, to be handed something like this. Don’t squander it, and don’t take it for granted.
Your dad had a visionary. Kudos.
I’d rest and vest as long as possible to buy any toys that I may want, like a 100k car, new house appliances etc. with just my salary while still throwing some into retirement then at 30 I’d just travel the world live in other countries like a king
this. being able to phone it in and not give a shit and spend your salary however you damn please without consequences, the dream.
I always say that the best precursor of success is being born in a family that is smart with money. Pour one for your dad, he is a g. My dad was also in a good position to not only retire early, but to build generational wealth. Instead he blew it on his relatives and fake friends who disappeared as soon as the money fountain dried out. That was a good life lesson for me.
Good for you. Since you have the freedom to pursue your passions let it rip! Excited to see where that leads you.
Awesome 👏 Enjoy your life 🥳
Please post again here if you lose it all and describe how! Have fun!
Lol
Lucky you. What are you planning to do after quitting?
My wife and I grow Jalapeño’s and Cayenne Peppers and make pepper jelly. I’ve been wanting to brand and sell the jelly locally at the farmers market, so I’ve been working on signing up for a stall there. I also do pro bono work for a local fly fishing business website, so I’ll put more energy into that. Think it would be funny to have a random fly fishing service have a corporate tier customer UX.
What’s a nosy pepper? One that gets jalapeño business. (I’ll see myself out.)