How do you make 500K at Amazon, is that 200K base, 50K bonus and 250K in stock ?
Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
21–30 of 241 posts
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#22I’m going all in on independence, and I’m going to try to make a living with my own bare hands starting from nothing. 500k/year in your last year is "nothing", huh? It really undercuts the entire thrust of the post, because you're starting with a nice big war chest and a hell of a safety net, not "nothing".
You see a lot of that in some odd lifestyle bloggers and media folks.
They have a bunch of money, move upstate, talk about all these crafty / cosey things they do and how great a life choice they made and contrast it with a lot of bad things .... that are the only reason they can make the choices they can now.
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#23> The last couple of years, however, were quite different. I was leading the most important project in the history of my department, with many stakeholders and complex goals.
Well yeah dude - you started at 75K and now you make 500K - bigger salary = bigger obligations.
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#24> I made $75K in my first year and that gradually grew to $511K by my last year. Wow, I'm envious of this rate of internal raises. Is this consistent within Amazon's culture, or other SV companies? I've found (in the small-town Midwestern shops I frequent, not in the FAANG bubble) that I have to change employers to do better than a token 3-5% annual raise, even if my value to the company is increasing much more quick…
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Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#25I’m going all in on independence, and I’m going to try to make a living with my own bare hands starting from nothing. 500k/year in your last year is "nothing", huh? It really undercuts the entire thrust of the post, because you're starting with a nice big war chest and a hell of a safety net, not "nothing".
Yes, I saved a lot. About $1M in liquid assets. But I meant that I'll start with no income, no product, no business. I'll write another post about how I set up my safety net.
What kind of skill sets do you have to warrant Amazon paying you that much? What kind of skill sets do developers have at this level that differentiates them from everyone else?
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I saved a lot. About $1M in liquid assets. But I meant that I'll start with no income, no product, no business. I'll write another post about how I set up my safety net.
You don't need income with $1M. If you chuck that into an index tracker you can safely withdraw $40k a year...
Which isn't enough for a family of four, especially with health insurance. Ask me how I know. I'm hoping $2M will do it for me.
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#27The tl;dr is that when someone is paying you $500k a year then the work itself might not be all that motivating. However, within time, the money isn't enough to motivate you either. You gotta wonder, though, what the rest of the world would think if they stumbled across this kind of blog post.
Yea, probably a lot of people would ... for that kind of money. I guess it really depends on the person. Some crave money even if they are super rich. Some just want to have a happy life (no matter what money) - whatever that means for a person - focusing on a hobby, helping others, reading, etc.
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#28I’m going all in on independence, and I’m going to try to make a living with my own bare hands starting from nothing. 500k/year in your last year is "nothing", huh? It really undercuts the entire thrust of the post, because you're starting with a nice big war chest and a hell of a safety net, not "nothing".
Yes, I saved a lot. About $1M in liquid assets. But I meant that I'll start with no income, no product, no business. I'll write another post about how I set up my safety net.
Good for you! Honestly I don’t understand the criticism on one sentence of your post and it made sense to me.
“Now that I have some runway I’m going to build something from scratch”? Probably wouldn’t satisfy those that could only dream to make $500k and are frustrated you don’t appreciate it I guess.
I’m not making that much but your post makes sense and resonated with me.
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#29> When I first hit $100K income, I would take a peek at my W2 for a few days admiring the six digits, but then it wore off. When I hit $200K, $300K, $400K, and $500K, it was the same thing. I would be delusional to think that earning $1M, or $10M would suddenly make it different. >What is out there that I could do that would make me excited waking up every day for the next 45 years that could also earn me enough mone…
Lots of people used to taking home 275k aren't going to transition well to 40k which depending on where you live could feel like you are only slightly above poverty level.
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#30> When I first hit $100K income, I would take a peek at my W2 for a few days admiring the six digits, but then it wore off. When I hit $200K, $300K, $400K, and $500K, it was the same thing. I would be delusional to think that earning $1M, or $10M would suddenly make it different. >What is out there that I could do that would make me excited waking up every day for the next 45 years that could also earn me enough mone…
I get that everyone's priorities are different, but I'm always amazed that ultra high income earners don't do this (this being live well below means, invest the rest in index funds then go work on passion projects, hobbies, focus on family). Lifestyle inflation and projecting status is a pricey hedonistic treadmill that is ultimately unrewarding.