The author was lucky to earn a huge amount of money.
99% of the people can't do anything with this advice because they don't have any savings to begin with.
I wonder if the author even understands how lucky he is.
My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer
41–50 of 583 posts
Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer
#42What can we European devs do to boost tech salaries in Europe?
I love my five weeks of paid holiday, 14 weeks of paid paternity leave, and free healthcare. but I would still prefer early retirement instead of working till 65.
Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer
#43So rough calculation here.. $100K first job which is around £74K in the UK… you aren’t likely to get anywhere near that as a grad masters or not here but after taxes and student loan payments (which are deducted from your income in the UK) and all other deductions you’ll end up with £42,908.26 per year, that’s $56K. And this is where this breaks down for people in tech outside of the US at least. In the UK the path w…
I started out at £21k and in 10 years haven’t reached the author’s starting salary! The real advice should be for everyone to relocate to the US
Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer
#44Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer
#45625k a year? Doing what exactly? Good for you, but I have never seen a spec with even a third of that salary. Or is it that it's only FAANG who's paying that big?
https://www.levels.fyi is a good resource for learning about this.
Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer
#46What's the term for these articles?
FIREPorn?
SecurityPorn?
All these dreams of safety make me feel sorry for people. To need so much money just not to be afraid.
Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer
#47The author of this blog post should change it adding "... in silicon valley and in a booming stock market"
Most of what he said doesn't apply outside of that specific bubble
Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer
#48How to be a millionaire:
Earn over $1/2 million a year.
Work for 2+ years.
The only lesson seems to be don't spend your money.
Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer
#49Italian, mainly java dev with 10 years of experience, I earn slightly 40k € year. 100k is very high in Italy.
Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer
#50This is good info. Bookmarking it in case I ever make those pay grades (unlikely). Also if the current bubble pops during my lifetime, that'll really reduce my ability to save...
Yeah, as a youngling in Europe I feel like I'm about to get the shitty end of the stick by the time I hit my 30s. 600k/year (inflation-adjusted) seems like a pipe dream...
I'm a software developer in the US and this is all a pipe dream to me too - I started in the (software) workforce a few years before this person but at close to half the salary. After my first year of employment my net worth was nowhere near positive, especially not five figures positive - I had a student loan burden that was more than my yearly salary. I didn't get into the positive net worth territory until around year ~5 in the workforce.
2009 was also a recession year where it was difficult to find an entry level job at all, at any salary. I went without (software) work for half a year when I was laid off at the end of 2008 and ended up having to relocate for employment.
I'm in my late 30s now and I'm well off by almost every measure (I max out all retirement accounts, I have a six figure brokerage account) - but I'm nowhere near a millionaire or financially independent. I'll need to work another decade best case scenario.
The biggest boost to my savings rate/financial position came from getting married and sharing income/bills with my husband.
If I did it over again I'd pay off my loans slower and put more in my retirement accounts earlier.