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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?

#141

Post by peschkaj »

paul7986 wrote: post #101
thrwunderpaid wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cost of living in the US gets ridiculous. Healthcare is expensive and gets more expensive the more you make. As much as I make I'm probably one bad accident away from being wiped out financially When you add a family, child care is super expensive; think $350/week for two kids Not to say we aren't hyper-consuming gluttons, but I think that's only about one third of the picture

Don’t forget the govt takes over 40 percent when your making upper class to higher level salaries especially if your single. That 300k is really only 180k annually. So the govt takes the salary of a lower level upper class person for taxes. When u make the jump from 50k to a higher tax bracket, taxes will shock u!

Wat? My highest overall tax percentage was 32% when I made 300k as a single person.

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

#142

Post by LandR »

paul7986 wrote: post #101
thrwunderpaid wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cost of living in the US gets ridiculous. Healthcare is expensive and gets more expensive the more you make. As much as I make I'm probably one bad accident away from being wiped out financially When you add a family, child care is super expensive; think $350/week for two kids Not to say we aren't hyper-consuming gluttons, but I think that's only about one third of the picture

Don’t forget the govt takes over 40 percent when your making upper class to higher level salaries especially if your single. That 300k is really only 180k annually. So the govt takes the salary of a lower level upper class person for taxes. When u make the jump from 50k to a higher tax bracket, taxes will shock u!

In the UK we are taxed at 40% for incomes above, I think, £45k.

Then above £150k, I believe it's taxed at 45%

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

#143

Post by aantix »

fjsolwmv wrote: post #99
aantix wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn’t there be a distinction made between public and private company equity? 150k of Facebook stock seems much more desirable vs 150k of Uber stock because at least with Facebook stock you could liquidate it on the public market? Or am I missing something? Paysa puts Uber at #1 for compensation, but their stock isn't liquidatable like a public company. Doesn't make sense. https://www.paysa.com/company-rank

Ask anyone you know who works at those companies. They will confirm that paysa's data is absurdly wrong. Their "median" is the minimum at my company.

What's the company?

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

#145

Post by dx034 »

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…

Isn't most important where you're happy? From what I saw, plans to work a decade for a high salary and then do something you enjoy usually don't work out. As long as you earn enough to pay for everything you need (incl. hobbies and pension), comp should be secondary. It's more important to enjoy your work and the area you live in.

In the end, money is mostly relative. It doesn't matter if you don't earn $100k if hardly anyone makes that kind of money. In SV you will have trouble buying a house if you're on a $100k salary, in most parts of Europe that won't be an issue.

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

#146

Post by bauer »

exogeny wrote: post #94

CPO for 400+ person, post Series-D private company. Salary and bonus, about $350k. Maybe $400k or slightly higher if I'm counting options. Report to the CEO. I live in Brooklyn, office is in Manhattan. Got here by my current company acquiring mine; I've been here a little under three years and have resisted starting another company because I like my current one so much and frankly, I've got a lot of impact. I have a…

Mind clarifying what CPO means in your case?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPO

Could take a guess from several of those.

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

#147

Post by throwaway2016a »

thrwunderpaid wrote: post #48
devilmoon wrote: post #27

Question from someone not living in the US: How come you guys have such high salaries compared to ROW? Is the cost of life that much higher than other countries, or is your income simply taxed less / companies have generally more money to spend on employees? I am currently working in one of the highest paying (if not the highest) consultancy firms in my country, and my salary is probably lower than your minimum wage.…

Cost of living in the US gets ridiculous. Healthcare is expensive and gets more expensive the more you make. As much as I make I'm probably one bad accident away from being wiped out financially When you add a family, child care is super expensive; think $350/week for two kids Not to say we aren't hyper-consuming gluttons, but I think that's only about one third of the picture

$350 for two kids? I pay $350 a week for one kid to go to daycare. And that's in New Hampshire not in a city like Boston of SF.

And that's not counting food, clothing, and other necessary child expenses.

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

#148

Post by devilmoon »

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'm honestly thinking about not settling down until I'm in my higher 30s and instead move where I'd get the best salary/company hop for raises and set aside a nice amount, then I can move back to the EU, think about committing to relationships and live with a salary lower than what I'd like

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

#149

Post by bsvalley »

For the most part you'd live in a place like NYC or the Bay Area to come up with these kind of salaries. So let's assume you live in the Bay Area (California). New Federal income tax is 35% for that salary range then add 13% coming from beautiful and sunny California. We're at a 48 % tax rate. Let's round that up to 50% to simplify our maths. Congratulations - you are now making $150k/year! From 300 down to 150 just like that.

Housing in the Bay Area... rent is minimum $2500 for a 1 bedroom. If you want to buy that one bedroom instead, let's make it cheap and let's pretend it's only $800k for a 1 bedroom in San Francisco. You come up with 20% down ($160k) cash and get a mortgage for the remaining $640k. Assuming you've been eating potatoes for a few years to save $160k. We're looking at a monthly payment of about $3500 at today's rate. That's roughly $40k per year to live in a tiny 1 bdr. You are now down to $110k/year from $150k.

Property tax + home owner insurance + bills, etc. We're looking at %1 per year property tax so that's $8k then about $2k for home owner insurance we're now at $10k just to have the right to "own" a place. We're at $100k per year now without food, bills, etc. This is about $8300 net per month. You live in a 1bd apartment, you owe $600k to a bank, you work your butt off everyday and the only way for you to afford something bigger than bicycle is to either save money for a few months or to get a loan.

You're getting paid $300k/year you can't even buy a normal car. You have to get a loan. $8000 net per months is still a lot, but in today's life you ain't rich.

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

#150

Post by LandR »

friedman23 wrote: post #133
devilmoon wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what would rent+bills cost in SF, for example?

Rent + bills cost around $3700 for me for a 1 bedroom apartment a 15 minute walk from work but I also get paid $147k salary. I make the maximum contribution to my 401k every month, so after rent, payroll, retirement, health insurance, and taxes I take home around $3500 a month. This doesn't include my stock bonus, free breakfast lunch an dinner which I do take advantage of, and other small perks that add up to thousa…

That's crazy, my MORTGAGE is £455 a month, my factors are ~£160, then the rest of the bills is about ~£200-£300ish

So my living costs each month is around £900 ($1200)

I have a large apartment, living room is about 600sq feet and I have 2 big bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, gated entrace to the complex, a handy man, a concierge, my own private parking space as I'm in a big city...

$3700 a month is ludicrous. I'd want to live in a castle for that.

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