Step 1: Move to Seattle and find a job there. Purchasing power there is 38% higher than NYC. We'll say that your salary stays at 150k, but you'll realistically feel like you have 38% more. (Source: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou... ) Step 2: Buy a house in Tacoma. Don't buy in Seattle; the market there is in a bubble. Tacoma is an up-and-coming suburb. Cost will be ~300k for a livable ho…
$400K for a 1700 sqft house with no yard and a one hour commute sounds terrible.
Ask HN: What steps can I take to earn $250K+?
41–50 of 58 posts
Re: Ask HN: What steps can I take to earn $250K+?
#42I have no idea about the east coast labor market, but in Bay Area $250k is what an I4-I5 gets payed at medium/large RSU granting companies. As a software developer at I4+ you have to - Be able to independently complete start-to-finish large features in reasonable time - Drive resolution of complex problems (fix any bugs with your code and medium bugs elsewhere) - Deliver high-quality work (low bug rate, low failure r…
$250K salary + RSUs? Or $250K total compensation? Because the latter isn't that great with the COL in the Bay area. Also, if the company isn't already public... then forget about the RSUs!
Companies that offer high base tend to be lackluster on bonus and equity.
RSUs, if offered, are tradable in almost all cases. Options are vapor 90% of the time.
COL in Bay Area is not that much higher compared to TX, WA or CO.
Re: Ask HN: What steps can I take to earn $250K+?
#43Start by looking around you and look at who is making 250k+. You'll see that they have control of a lot of resources relative to those that don't. They also have more responsibility than those that don't. Also, some bring in more cash to the company than those who don't. If they get paid 250k then they bring in at least that much in profits, directly or indirectly. So look for those jobs and aim for them. You'll need…
Well, you can also get a stable, steady gig that pays 125/hr on 40 hrs a week and that's your 250 right there.
Downsides: sick == no pay, no healthcare included (blame American laissez-faire free market health care).
Pros: you have money, you have a life.
One non-existent con - less job security as a consultant. That's nonsense by those who prefer you work 50 hour weeks as an FTE.
edit: one more pro is deductions if you're going through your corporation and a chance for a blanket 20% deduction (we find out from the IRS end of July whether it applies to pass-throughs like ours).
Re: Ask HN: What steps can I take to earn $250K+?
#44If you're already making $150k, get a remote job for $100k. Remote can be a bit more competitive to land, but there are some low paying companies out there who's hiring is comparatively loose. Ideally, your main job is low effort giving you time during your day for some moonlighting. Or get two remote jobs. Yes, I'm proposing working too jobs concurrently. Some people find this objectionable, but for salary positions…
Re: Ask HN: What steps can I take to earn $250K+?
#45I have no idea about the east coast labor market, but in Bay Area $250k is what an I4-I5 gets payed at medium/large RSU granting companies. As a software developer at I4+ you have to - Be able to independently complete start-to-finish large features in reasonable time - Drive resolution of complex problems (fix any bugs with your code and medium bugs elsewhere) - Deliver high-quality work (low bug rate, low failure r…
RSU is "restricted stock unit"? so basically you get equity worth 250k. But what is the actual take home pay amount?
For leadership, equity and bonus are from 100% to 300%.
For senior leadership you might as well have your base at $1 if you are into those kinds of stunts.
Re: Ask HN: What steps can I take to earn $250K+?
#46Well, since half the comments here are referring to California, I'll go ahead and make my off-topic location suggestion too.
Live in Austin or Kansas City or Las Vegas or Boulder or Salt Lake City.
I live in Salt Lake and you can easily buy a brand new 4k sq ft house with a I'm 28, have three kids and a house and an RV camper, my wife has never worked anything more than fun hobby jobs, we vacation to NY/LA as much as we want, and in general we live rather comfortably.
It's nice to tell yourself you earn $250k. But does 30% more pay make up for a 300% more expensive mortgage?
Re: Ask HN: What steps can I take to earn $250K+?
#47Seconding consulting. I'm in marketing but I went from 100k - $400k a year with the same hours.
Please tell your story. How did you 4x your income? Didn't know people in marketing make this much.
For example, one of my clients I grew from $0 Facebook spend to 6 figures Facebook spend. They're happy because it's profitable (printing money for them), I'm happy since I get 15% of ad spend. It doesn't take that many clients like that before you're making $30k+ a month.
Re: Ask HN: What steps can I take to earn $250K+?
#48Re: Ask HN: What steps can I take to earn $250K+?
#49If you're already making $150k, get a remote job for $100k. Remote can be a bit more competitive to land, but there are some low paying companies out there who's hiring is comparatively loose. Ideally, your main job is low effort giving you time during your day for some moonlighting. Or get two remote jobs. Yes, I'm proposing working too jobs concurrently. Some people find this objectionable, but for salary positions…
OP clearly meant $250k at a single company. It would be nice if we didn't respond to that request by trying to interpret it as some sort of shitty X-Y problem like StackExchange. OP is (probably) an adult. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt that they don't need a weird lecture about how they're leaving money on the table and should abuse remote employement in response.
On a more practical note, there are two problems with your recommendation. First and foremost, many (most?) companies have an employment agreement forbidding freelancing or full time work with another company. Intellectual property gets very tricky if an employee is working for a company with a substantially similar product or market. If you're found out, you'd likely be fired.
Second, you're asking us to check our assumptions but your assumptions are frankly ridiculous. "Low performing teams in low performing organizations rarely require 4 hours of effort per day"?! How are you quantifying this? It's not just about net hours, it's also about contiguous time. What if you have consistently conflicting meetings? Your plan is to be someone sufficiently capable to excel at two jobs simultaneously with 40 hours or fewer per week, but this is a more sane option than reaching $250k at one company? Really?
Re: Ask HN: What steps can I take to earn $250K+?
#50If you're already making $150k, get a remote job for $100k. Remote can be a bit more competitive to land, but there are some low paying companies out there who's hiring is comparatively loose. Ideally, your main job is low effort giving you time during your day for some moonlighting. Or get two remote jobs. Yes, I'm proposing working too jobs concurrently. Some people find this objectionable, but for salary positions…
The creativity coming out in this thread in order to sidestep the spirit of OP's question is remarkable. First we had comments talking about reframing the problem as one of cost of living, now the top comment is recommending working two jobs concurrently as a remote employee...what the hell. OP clearly meant $250k at a single company. It would be nice if we didn't respond to that request by trying to interpret it as…
The question was simply what steps should one take (in tech) to become valuable enough to earn a highly-substantial premium in earnings -- to cross the next threshold so to speak -- using approx $250K as a benchmark.
Responses about changing lifestyle, location, or ponderings on the meaning of wealth in our modern age are simply not responses to the question posed.