Tools
Buy vs. Career Calculator
Both paths on one screen with your numbers, downside included.
Keep the Career
$709,566
Cash plus 10 years of invested savings at 7%
Buy (Your Assumptions)
$4,895,330
Exit at 3x on year-10 SDE, net of remaining debt, plus distributed cash flow and leftover cash, all reinvested at 7%
Buy (Downside: -8%/yr)
$787,694
Same deal with the business shrinking every year
Ten-year horizon. Both paths assume the same salary and lifestyle, so the comparison isolates what differs: invested savings against business equity built through debt paydown, retained cash flow, and an exit at the same multiple you paid. Taxes, transaction costs, and the value of your time are simplified away on both sides; the downside column is why lenders and this site keep talking about margin of safety.
If the buy column wins on paper, the work starts at Stage 1 of the Roadmap and the 90-Day Syllabus; if the career column wins, that is also a perfectly good answer.
Everything here is educational information, not financial, legal, tax, or investment advice. Figures are estimates or cited third-party data; verify anything that matters against primary sources and your own advisors before acting on it.