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Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

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Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#271

Post by balls187 »

devilmoon wrote: post #256
balls187 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's actually something that pisses me off more than it should when I think about it. 1. all that glitters is not gold. 2. what life style does your salary afford you? I live in the greater Seattle Area. Engineering base salaries are ~130-160k range. Total comp, add $60-100k on top of that (bonus, +equity). SOme make more, some make less. All of us at that level live a pretty good lifestyle, but no one is really ba…

2. I can basically only pay for rent/bills, food and maybe a train ticket back home once a month to see family/friends, I'd say that's a pretty shitty life style - I am paying too much rent atm but even if I was able to shave a couple hundred euros off that it certainly wouldn't make me rich.

You work at one of the highest paying firms in your locale and you are slightly above making ends meet?

Do you at least love what you do (for a living?)

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#272

Post by RestlessMind »

jazzyk wrote: post #260
RestlessMind wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to quote stats about anti-depressants, please do so for other competing places as well. I do not have those stats, but stats about suicide rate[1] show that other supposedly better places with free healthcare, social bonds and no guns (Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Japan) have higher suicide rates than the US. Wading into social indicators is a tricky business without the full context of a place, so I will sp…

1. Suicides rates are influenced by other factors, such as weather (Finland, etc), societal norms (Japan), etc. 2. The US would move further up the suicide table if you classify deaths from overdosing as suicides. 3. If the US population had not had such an easy access to "happy pills" (mood enhancers), the suicide rate would have been higher. >A new job should be across the street for such a person There are a lot o…

> There are a lot of people coming and leaving S.V. on any single day.

And yet, bay area population went from 7.15M in 2010 to 7.75M in 2017 [1].

> ... don't project the mini-bubble you live ...

The thread is literally asking for personal anecdotes (Ask HN). Why should one not post about their positive experiences with SV in that case?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay_Area#Demogra...

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#273

Post by mercutio2 »

mercutio2 wrote: post #267
paul7986 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That 40% includes federal, state, social security and other taxes taken out.

You seem to be confusing marginal tax rate with effective tax rate. People making 300k in California will pay between 33% and 39% effective tax rate (depending on marital status), including State, Federal, and FICA. And that’s without simple tax sheltering techniques like pre-tax deduction for health care, contributing to a 401k, and deducting mortgage interest. https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator

Actually, that’s a terrible link. Before Trump’s tax increase targeting CA/NY, the SALT itemized deduction lowers the effective tax rate by a further 3% or so, and that calculator fails to include it.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#274

Post by kamaal »

reacharavindh wrote: post #109

Reading such a post on HN is only fanning my financial insecurity. I'm a Comp. Engineer in early 30, who used to draw approx. 130K (105 + 25K RSUs) from a major company in the south east USA. Moved to Europe(Denmark) for personal reasons, and have been essentially working for less than half that money I used to make. ($96K after taxes in US vs $48K after taxes in Denmark) - 10 years of experience. Before you ask, tha…

>>Any HNers reading my rant from outside USA, care to share your thoughts?

Indian. Working from Bangalore. In hindsight, I would say it was a bad move to leave the USA. But apart from all other reasons you have given for the move, only one thing matters- The green card wait.

But I would be interested in knowing your long term plans, if you wish to never return to India, then your savings outside India could take care of you in those economies. Life is easy outside, you get 401K and social security etc and things like that.

If your plan is to save up and retire in India, then my friend, start buying a home or real estate right now. With a 9% inflation here(Actually its higher, but won't go into that tangential debate now) anything you earn will all be dust by the time you arrive here. I have known people who show up from US with 2 - 3 crore rupees in savings hoping they will retire here and it barely covers their need for a home.

Also one thing I've learned is, if you are working in a first world country, then, you and a billionaire both get same standard of living. The same freeways, the same infrastructure etc. But if you retiring in India, money and savings matter a lot. Good money could mean good life, so early savings and investments matter in India. Optimize for salary all the time. Save and invest relentlessly.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#275

Post by kamaal »

justboxing wrote: post #219
reacharavindh wrote: post #109

Reading such a post on HN is only fanning my financial insecurity. I'm a Comp. Engineer in early 30, who used to draw approx. 130K (105 + 25K RSUs) from a major company in the south east USA. Moved to Europe(Denmark) for personal reasons, and have been essentially working for less than half that money I used to make. ($96K after taxes in US vs $48K after taxes in Denmark) - 10 years of experience. Before you ask, tha…

> I question whether I'm wasting my prime earning years (comp.Engineer) Gonna be brutally honest. I think you are. Fellow Indian here, also came on H1-B to US, survived 5 layoffs in 2 companies over a 10 month period in the .COM boom and bust. Many of my fellow engineers, waay smarter than me, were not so fortunate. Some went back to India, others found jobs in UK and rest of Europe. Your complains are what I hear fr…

>>I would say try to come back to US on an H1B or any other Visa.

As a fellow India, who returned from US.

I'd say decide on a permanent home and stay there. Its very hard to retire in places you don't know much about. Also decide on a house, as early as possible.

People who are thinking they will live like nomads and later retire in India have no clue what they are talking about. India is growing by leaps and bounds, nothing that you save will be sufficient 20 years from now. You won't even be able to afford a home.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#276

Post by devilmoon »

balls187 wrote: post #271
devilmoon wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2. I can basically only pay for rent/bills, food and maybe a train ticket back home once a month to see family/friends, I'd say that's a pretty shitty life style - I am paying too much rent atm but even if I was able to shave a couple hundred euros off that it certainly wouldn't make me rich.

You work at one of the highest paying firms in your locale and you are slightly above making ends meet? Do you at least love what you do (for a living?)

Not really - consulting isn't my line of work it seems. I am lucky in a way because I got into an handpicked team that actually writes code and explores new tech, so I'm not wasting my time entirely here, but still, I am considering going back to uni to specialise and hopefully move out of the country for an higher salary as a more specialised worker rather than jack of all trades SE

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#277

Post by devilmoon »

chrisper wrote: post #238
devilmoon wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are you pulling the five weeks figure from? It's more like 20ish days, after that if your employer is ok with it you can "borrow" vacation and pay it back by not generating more vacation days while you work or pay when you quit your job. Retirement funds, I don't know about the rest of EU, but in my country are basically a scam - here you are forced to pay 10% of your gross salary per month into the fund and yo…

Where are you from? In my country a company would pay 100% of the salary for 12 months and then 80% for another 12 months in case of sickness.

IT, you get 100% for the first three days covered by the company, 50% from the 4th day till the 20th and 66,66% from the 21st to the 180th day covered by healthcare - incidentally 180 days is the maximum number you can be on sick leave in a year

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#278

Post by devilmoon »

kss238 wrote: post #265
LandR wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Scotland (Glasgow). THe place was £170k to buy and needed about £40k ish work done to it. The £40k came out of savings, £70k deposit and you end with a really cheap fixed mortgage on £100k that comes to £445 a month, in fact it's low enough that I overpay it some months by double to get the mortgage paid off quicker.

Glasgow is tiny compared to NYC, SF, LON, etc. In an equivalent sized city in the U.S. you could easily find a house for $200k.

it's probably not size but rather the "hotness" of the city, i.e. afaik Rome is the biggest city in Italy by far (maybe the biggest in EU as far as actual size is concerned) but cost of living is quite low compared to other EU capitals and even other cities in IT, Milan i.e.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#279

Post by throwaway300k »

ryandrake wrote: post #139
reacharavindh wrote: post #109

Reading such a post on HN is only fanning my financial insecurity. I'm a Comp. Engineer in early 30, who used to draw approx. 130K (105 + 25K RSUs) from a major company in the south east USA. Moved to Europe(Denmark) for personal reasons, and have been essentially working for less than half that money I used to make. ($96K after taxes in US vs $48K after taxes in Denmark) - 10 years of experience. Before you ask, tha…

These threads are mostly comedy and hot air. Don’t let them fan anything. Everyone here says they’re making $300k. It’s a trope that won’t die. They are either statistical outliers or exaggerating. Median for the Bay Area (which tends to be the highest in the country if not the world) is around $115k plus equity. I’m not going to trot out the links again, but these numbers are Googlable unlike all the anecdotes.

I just ran some hypothetical numbers on Amazon based on things people have posted on here about SDE salaries. Let's say you joined April 11, 2014 with a total comp of $200K, made up of $150K base, 400 RSUs @ $353 vesting on Amazon's standard vesting schedule (Y1:5%, Y2:15%, Y2.5:20%, Y3:20%, Y3.5:20%, Y4:20%), and a sign-on bonus that offsets the initial year vests.

At Amazon's stock appreciation, that dev would be earning $150K + (20% * 400 * $995 + 20% * 400 * 1427) = $344K this year assuming no change in salary over that time.

How realistic is this? See the H1B data[1] for base salary numbers or an Anatomy of an SDE2 offer[2] from 2013 showing similar calculations.

So, to answer the question. One route would be to join Amazon 4 years ago as an experienced SDE2+.

[1]: http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Amazon+Corporate+Llc&job=&c... [2]: http://www.nailyourjobinterview.com/the-anatomy-of-an-amazon...

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#280

Post by Blackstone4 »

chrisper wrote: post #236
Blackstone4 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all true. You can earn more in the US for doing the same job with the same hours and good benefits. Life in the US is better. I am speaking from experience. I have worked in London, Philadelphia and Boston. The biggest difference for me is family and friends being in the UK which affects my happiness. For me it's best to be close to loved ones.

Life in the US isn't automatically better. It depends on so many things.

That's true. I was lazily making a broad wide sweeping statement.

I'll qualify what I said. If you are in highly educated, able to work, and are in the right field (i.e. software), life for the majority of individuals who fall into this category is better in the US than many other countries. On the other hand if you're dirt poor, have no education, bad health.... you may be better off in Scandinavia or Western Europe.

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