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Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

danielvassallo.com

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Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#31

Post by DVassallo »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #16

> 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…

Author here. I got a big bump from $230K to $396K in 2016 when I got a competing offer and Amazon matched it so that I wouldn't leave. From then on, the growth from $400K to $500K happened because the AMZN stock nearly tripled in that time frame.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#33

Post by DSingularity »

DVassallo wrote: post #7
hprotagonist wrote: post #3

I’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.

You probably don’t want to post this stuff so directly on net..

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#34

Post by cm2012 »

Dayshine wrote: post #19
DVassallo wrote: post #7

Earlier 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...

Someone used to spending ~500k a year is not going to want the quality of life change of moving to 40k a year income. Their family would also not appreciate it.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#35

Post by Someone1234 »

Dayshine wrote: post #6

> 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…

> you'd have $275k net. If you remove generous expenses, you have $200k a year in savings.

In Seattle Washington? You'd have an extremely hard time making ends meet on $75K, it certainly isn't "generous." For example median home value in Seattle is $725K.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#36

Post by eertami »

spyspy wrote: post #10
hprotagonist wrote: post #3

I’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".

I've seen the same attitude a lot of times. "I was an investment banker for 10 years but then I moved to Colorado and became a ski bum and I couldn't be happier!" Like alright man live your life but stop acting like you discovered some dark secret that anyone can reproduce. You know you ain't out here paying student loans.

I guess "Millionaire decides to stop working" wasn't an enticing headline for the author.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#37

Post by mixmastamyk »

Dayshine wrote: post #19
DVassallo wrote: post #7

Earlier 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...

And have to live like a normal person, no high-rolling.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#38

Post by todd3834 »

tyler- wrote: post #25
DVassallo wrote: post #7

Earlier 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.

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?

Amazon’s stock has gone up a lot. Likely that has a lot to do with it but if this is all base salary that’s awesome.

Usually big stock grants go out to those who have shown themselves to be force multipliers. If you can make everyone around you more productive than you’re contributing in ways that make companies like to put golden handcuffs on you.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#39

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

todd3834 wrote: post #28
DVassallo wrote: post #7

Earlier 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.

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.

The problem is the wording. Author makes it sound like they'll be pulling themselves up by their bootstraps when they're really just standing on a giant pile of money (which they earned rather than inherited, to be fair). People have a very negative reaction to this because they see it way too often in the rhetoric of certain political groups.
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