iPhone game saves a family's home

The Raleigh News and Observer ^ | 2/26/09 | Locomotive Breath

[Locomotive Breath]

iPhone game saves a family's home

Matt Ehlers - Staff Writer

WAKE FOREST -- With unexpected medical bills piling up and his employer suspending its bonus program, Ethan Nicholas and his family faced a financial crisis. So he struck a deal with his wife, Nicole: If she took on more responsibility in caring for their two young boys, he would devote the hours before and after his regular job to building a video game for the Apple iPhone.

[Locomotive Breath]

ping

[poindexter]

On Jan. 6, he made about $2,000 on the iShoot game. On Jan. 11, he gave his two week's notice to Sun.

Big mistake.

[Domandred]

Apparently not. That was the first check. He’s up $700,000 according to the article.

[sadamico]

I'm surprised that the Views and Disturber would print a story of an American success story. I mean, where is the part where he needs a government handout?

Good for him. I hope his business succeeds.

[KarlInOhio]

On Jan. 6, he made about $2,000 on the iShoot game. On Jan. 11, he gave his two week's notice to Sun.

Yeah, tossing aside a paying job isn't very smart even if you have a nice income stream coming in, especially if he doesn't know if $2,000 is a fluke or will be a common daily income. Staying would be a lot harder after making $37,000 on one day.

I was going to get snarky about the game until I saw it was iShoot which is the only game I've bought for my iPod so far. It is a fun little time waster.

[HIDEK6]

For her dedication during the building phase, they used some of the money to buy her a new laptop.

She probably needs a new ironing board, too.

[Todd_Gray]

The article implies that he didn’t incorporate a company for selling software until recently. That 700K could be personal income. Hopefully he had all that taken care of before hand.

I’ve seen his story before on other sites. He seems like a good guy. Hope it works out for him.

[martin_fierro]

[Dahoser]

Isn't this story exactly what America is about, freedom and opportunity? It's a story that has been repeated millions of times over the years.

But now we have powers in Washington who are doing everything they can to kill the free enterprise system that provides these opportunities. And not content with that, they're also after our freedoms.

[sten]

he has pulled in more then $700k so far.

of course, since he lives in CA and is self employed...
fed: 35%
social security + matching: 15%
CA state: ~10%
(not sure if there is any local city tax)
—
total tax: 60%

he gets to take home ~$280k

once 0bama expires the GWBush tax cuts(5%) and the Reagan tax cuts(10%)... he’ll be paying a least 75% tax.

at which point, he would take home $175k

personally, i would advise him to learn from the H1-bs and offshore his company. why give that money to 0bama and help support his effort to socialize the US while burning down Reagan’s America?

[thecabal]

You gotta love the whiny liberal in the comments section bitching about this guy being “the rich”.

[Locomotive Breath]

He’s in Wake Forest, NC.

[Locomotive Breath]

At the article, read the snarky comment from the guy who thinks he deserves some of the profit.

[Locomotive Breath]

I’ll bet the income making games for the iPhone is more secure than a “full time” job at Sun.

[KarlInOhio]

social security + matching: 15%

The full SS tax of 15.3% only applies (for now) to the first $100,000 or so. After that he only pays 2.9% for Medicare taxes. Obama and gang want to remove the SS cap, which would give even more incentive to incorporate, pay himself a reasonable (i.e. as small as he can get away with) salary and take the rest in dividends.

[sten]

oops. i read the article and saw ‘wake forest’ and thought northern CA for some reason

adjust my numbers by the difference in state tax. CA is 10%, NC is what, 8.25% over $120k? not that much of a difference.

[PGR88]

Don’t expect to keep it, dude

1) you’re “rich” now
2) the IRS knows who you are.

[KarlInOhio]

Don’t expect to keep it, dude

1) you’re “rich” now
2) the IRS knows who you are.

I expect that Apple would hit him with a 1099 for his revenue from the application store, so the IRS knows about him anyway.

[sten]

removing the SS cap is to be expected in short order

in the end, paying 60-80% taxes is just insane. if you are making your money on the internet, and have no retail store front in any country, why not base your business offshore? take a nice salary, some dividends (15% tax for now)... and leave the rest there. build up the supply of cash offshore that will guarantee your income for years to come.

in this example, lets say he took a $75k/yr salary plus $75k dividends. his taxes would be something like 55% on the salary ($41.5k) and 15% on the dividends ($11.25k). he’d pocket ~$97.25k per year and have enough for about 5 years of salary.

that’d be a nice little bonus to a full-time programmers gig (in NC i believe his numbers would be $80-120k)