Slashdot Mirror
Why Game Developers Go Rogue
cliffski writes "Jay Barnson interviews the new crop of indie game developers.
How could anybody abandon the steady paychecks, access to the best tools and engines, large teams of skilled colleagues and the glory of working on one of next holiday season's blockbusters for a chance to labor in relative obscurity on tiny, niche titles?
Steven Peeler was a senior programmer at Ritual Entertainment. For him, leaving and forming the one-man studio Soldak Entertainment came down to a desire for creative freedom. 'I really wanted to work on an RPG, and Ritual only made shooters,' he says. 'There were some annoying politics going on that was really frustrating, I disagreed with the direction the company was taking, I was really tired of pushy publishers and I just wanted to do my own thing.'"
If you think that a 401(k) is for idiots, then you obviously have no understanding of retirement planning. Yes, if someones makes gobs and gobs of money, they could just put it in safe and take it out as needed. Here, in the real world, we have something called income taxes, capital gains taxes, inflation, and an average market return of 8-12% a year (depending on what view you take). Plus, if you are lucky like me, you can get matching on a 401(k) /cheer
Retirement planning for the wise:
1. Save 20% of all your income. Put some of it in gold/silver, some of it in revolving CDs, some of it in DIVIDEND-BEARING investments (preferably ones that pay more than 8% dividend on share price).
2. Rent until ownership is really cheaper than rent (rarely is). When it is time to buy, BUY SMALL. Try to buy something you can realistically pay off in 10 years (doable in any market except maybe California). Get a boarder to rent the extra bedroom (or extra boarders) and use their rent to pay down your mortgage (I did this for all my life, even when I was married).
3. Don't use credit to buy depreciating assets ever (cars, toys, etc).
4. Get an extra job if you are not overburdened with your main job.
5. Reduce your external, controllable expenses until you can absorb them (cook yourself rather than eat out, thrift store clothing, etc).
There is no reason for a middle income earner to not have a net worth of 1/2 million by 35 in today's dollars. None. By 40 you can get to the million mark, easily.
401/Ks are for schnooks, plain and simple. Stocks that do not issue a realistic dividend are not profitable. Their prices go up due to government inflation of the money supply, so that 8-12% you speak of is lost to the drop in value of the fiat money you use. I've never seen people make money investing in the stock market for the long haul, once you factor in the currency's loss in value due to monetary inflation. Investments should pay profit dividends, those that don't aren't making a profit for the investor.
Insurance is also only cheap if you have a clean bill of health when you get it and have a fairly binding agreement. Many insurance companies also reserve rights to drop customers in some situations. This happened to my cousin, who at 26, had colon cancer. She made a full recovery and was dropped by her insurance company later -- with full legality (so my sister, aunt, uncle, uncle and bro-in-law who are lawyers told me).
Horrible. Rare. Anecdotal in most cases. I've planned for these issues with optional cancer riders, and preparation for it if it should happen to me. But the risk of it is small, yet I still plan better than 99% out there. Life happens, but you have to play the odds as much as you can.
Also, lest we forget most start up companies fail. Contracting is great when one has a gig, however even persons with great talent lay idle sometimes.
I've never been idle because I work in a variety of markets, and have supplemented my income with a variety of revenue streams using the money that you put in a 401/K; I invested in local businesses and subcontractors with start-up capital for a percentage of their income ("stock ownership"). Most of my investments have paid 30% on average after 2 years of no payment (per agreements). I've seen some have years making 50%, which wipe out those who went under (rare if I'm helping them).
Even if you are a badass at computer science, programming, etc unless you have a solid understanding of finance the odds are greatly against someone making solid money - also what about providing for a spouse & kids? I would feel pretty bad if I couldn't pay the bills because I planned poorly.
Don't get married until you have a plan for handling the cost. Don't have kids if you can't afford them. Problem solved.