Everyone that worked at the startup I was employed at ultimately got “axed”. 20 million dollars in VC down the toilet and nothing to show for it. The VC’s weren’t even able to sell the IP after the company was dissolved.
Good example of the ‘efficiency’ of the free market!
The money I made playing the market during the tech boom was enough for me to pay off all my debt and live comfortably (along with UI) while I looked for a new job. I also was severely burned out after working 60-70 hour weeks for the previous two years, so it was nice to take a bit of a break.
I work in the public sector because it fits my lifestyle and personal goals. I’m not motivated by money. I would rather work forty hours a week, making a modest salary, knowing I’m making a positive difference vs. putting on a monkey suit and busting my ass selling snake oil. To each his own.
I’m not sure I ever passed moral judgment on the tech/telcom bubbles. It was both a positive and negative experience for me. I made bank on the upside. The startup experience was a nightmare, but I learned much and it helped me avoid the housing bubble (and profit from shorting it).
The main issue I had with the tech bubble is after it collapsed I had a tremendously hard time finding a tech job. And my father did lose a large amount of money from his Lucent stock (was employee at the time). It also led to a tremendous amount of malinvestment, total crap companies got millions and funding by scamming the VC’s and through vendor financing, while solid businesses (and good employees like me) were punished. There’s that moral hazard thing again.
Dollar cost averaging is bunk (and has been proven so). Its a scam perpetrated by the market makers, swing traders, and hedge funds to provide more liquidity in the market for them to siphon off. I stay in gold and move into sure things when I see them, like shorting the downside of a speculative bubble. There is no surer investment in my opinion.
I admit I’m somewhat stuck when it comes time to paying into my employers sponsored retirement savings plan however, as I don’t have a choice but to dollar cost average via the mutual funds offered. Yet another example how big money screws over the little guy. My current plan is to forego paying into it until the credit cycle bottoms out (which could be years for all I know).
