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Ask HN: If you were a coder who successfully changed careers, what do you do now?

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Re: Ask HN: If you were a coder who successfully changed careers, what do you do now?

#61

Post by brookside »

anotheryou wrote: post #59
brookside wrote: post #27

This isn't a direct answer to the question, but if you are coding professionally (in the USA at least) it shouldn't be necessary to work for 3 decades. If you think you will burn out, optimize your life for getting off the treadmill early. reference: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim...

Thanks for the link. Do you live by it? may I ask how many years you are away from retirement by this calculation? How save are these 5%?

I'm no financial independence role mode. Generally I do try to keep my expenses down for the big items (no car, shared housing). Easy enough to save that way.

Re: Ask HN: If you were a coder who successfully changed careers, what do you do now?

#62

Post by EADGBE »

What bothers you about it? The 30 years part?

Start planning now, and you could theoretically cut that down to 10 or 15. Is it a better plan now?

Maybe you need to live frugally to enjoy the life you want after programming; and you possibly don't need the 30 years of work to get there.

I'm currently a developer with a partial degree in fine arts. All the experience and rank I gained through work and promotion.

Honestly, the plan is to do this for about 5 or 10 more years while my spouse and I build our real estate business; then just maintain those, while doing a lot more interesting stuff, like Fine Arts.

Re: Ask HN: If you were a coder who successfully changed careers, what do you do now?

#63

Post by leipert »

brookside wrote: post #27

This isn't a direct answer to the question, but if you are coding professionally (in the USA at least) it shouldn't be necessary to work for 3 decades. If you think you will burn out, optimize your life for getting off the treadmill early. reference: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim...

Well, the linked calculator seems bogus (at least for me here in Germany). It assumes that the income is AFTER taxes. Let put some numbers in:

Given I am a programmer in Germany And I earn 4000€ (above avg.) before taxes [1]

That means I will have around 29000€ after taxes and other social charges [2]

Now if I only spend the bare minimum (9000€) [3], I can save 20000€ per year.

Now I am able to retire after 9.5 Years according to calculator. This seems right, as if I still want to live off 9000€, but guess what: The living costs (even if I do stay single, live in the same small flat and never do any vacation) rise with the years.

Now you could argue, that a saving rate of 68% might be too much, but even if you decrease the saving to 10000€ per year, you are working around 25.2 years which is plenty of time to burn out...

[1]: https://www.gehaltsvergleich.com/gehalt/Programmierer-Progra...

[2]: https://imgur.com/a/IArku

[3]: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grundfreibetrag_(Deutschland)

Re: Ask HN: If you were a coder who successfully changed careers, what do you do now?

#64

Post by brookside »

leipert wrote: post #63
brookside wrote: post #27

This isn't a direct answer to the question, but if you are coding professionally (in the USA at least) it shouldn't be necessary to work for 3 decades. If you think you will burn out, optimize your life for getting off the treadmill early. reference: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim...

Well, the linked calculator seems bogus (at least for me here in Germany). It assumes that the income is AFTER taxes. Let put some numbers in: Given I am a programmer in Germany And I earn 4000€ (above avg.) before taxes [1] That means I will have around 29000€ after taxes and other social charges [2] Now if I only spend the bare minimum (9000€) [3], I can save 20000€ per year. Now I am able to retire after 9.5 Years…

Can I ask why do living costs increase with years? I believe the general trend is people having less expenses after they retire.

The calculation in the link takes into account inflation, so that (massive) aspect of increased expenses is included in the prediction.

Edit - If indeed you are planning to increase your living expenses after retiring (bigger living quarters, more expensive travel, etc) that would certainly lengthen the amount of time of work needed to achieve financial independence.

Re: Ask HN: If you were a coder who successfully changed careers, what do you do now?

#65

Post by reitanqild »

swayvil wrote: post #19
reitanqild wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But still on HN?

No man, that's a cheeto-induced hallucination

Don't get me wrong. I just found it weird as I thought if I personally wanted to quit tech I'd want to stop reading HN as well.

Re: Ask HN: If you were a coder who successfully changed careers, what do you do now?

#66

Post by askafriend »

swayvil wrote: post #9

I was a successful coder for a few years. VB and java. I watched myself and those around me rot, in body and mind. That is some fucked up morlock shit right there. These days I'm a handyman. Carpentry, plumbing, painting. Stuff like that. I still work on my own software projects. Art stuff.

Can you be more specific about what you mean when you say “I watched those around me rot”? Was it just a case of people not taking care of themselves?

Re: Ask HN: If you were a coder who successfully changed careers, what do you do now?

#67

Post by devopsproject »

aj_g wrote: post #37
devopsproject wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest "aha" moment for me was realizing that everyone out there busting their asses and burning out to "increase shareholder value" were making me rich.

What do you mean? That "increasing shareholder value" just increases the value of your investments and they're working for you?

Something like that. The link above has some more info but the key is that it only works because there are still tons of people not pursuing FIRE (Financial Independence / Retire Early) and you reap the rewards of their work while you have retired early.

Re: Ask HN: If you were a coder who successfully changed careers, what do you do now?

#68

Post by MattPalmer »

Around 2003 I was a chief technical architect at a startup. We had to secure access to the products and I realised I had no clue. I read Security Engineering by Ross Anderson and was hooked. Went on to do a Masters in Information Security while still coding, and gradually moved into the security field.

I still spend a lot of time with developers, currently doing a lot on integrating security with continuous deployment and agile projects.

I was talking with a developer recently, who said he loves coding, so that's why he does it for a living. I replied that I also love coding, and that's why I don't do it for a living!

Re: Ask HN: If you were a coder who successfully changed careers, what do you do now?

#69

Post by [deleted] »

askafriend wrote: post #66
swayvil wrote: post #9

I was a successful coder for a few years. VB and java. I watched myself and those around me rot, in body and mind. That is some fucked up morlock shit right there. These days I'm a handyman. Carpentry, plumbing, painting. Stuff like that. I still work on my own software projects. Art stuff.

Can you be more specific about what you mean when you say “I watched those around me rot”? Was it just a case of people not taking care of themselves?

[deleted]
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