Financial Independence and Entrepreneurship

If you spend $1000 per month to cover your expenses, you’ll need $300,000 ($1,000 * 12 * 25) invested in index funds to live off passive income.

To reach this situation within 10 years without debt, you’d need to make at least $42,000 per year.

As an entrepreneur, that would mean $3500 in monthly recurring revenues after taxes, so about $4375 if you add 25% in taxes. 

If you do Software-as-a-Service, you’d need 875 customers for a $5/month product, or 438 at $10 per month. To apply Dunbar’s number (150 customers), you’d need to price your product at $29 per month.

If you do freelancing, you’d need to work 175 hours at $25 per hour, which is a 44-hour workweek. 22 billable hours per week at $50 per hour, and 11 billable hours per week at $100 per hour.

Even though the numbers appear simple, they are far from easy to reach. But when we lay them out like that, we can understand that they are realistic and reasonable goals. 

Disclaimer: In France, the minimum wage is at $11.34 per hour, so I guess doing twice that as a tech solopreneur with a particular sought-after set of skills shouldn’t be a problem if you find the right niche. Depending on the size of your household, the living costs will probably need to be updated as well, but you get the idea. You might also need to add a safety net in your monthly budget, not just enough to cover your most basic needs.