Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

software.rajivprab.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 583 posts

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#71

Post by zomglings »

> Ultimately for me, that’s what financial independence is all about, and why it is all worth it. It’s not about sitting on a beach and drinking your life away. It’s about having the freedom to pursue your life purpose, whatever it may be, and however impractical it may be.

This is just my personal opinion, but this is an ass backwards way of doing things and it gets me frothing at the mouth.

If it's your life purpose, DO it already. Live lean if you have to, become a cockroach if you must, but let that purpose ROAR out of you. Don't sit around accruing meaningless tokens, becoming an old fuck with all of the juice of life wrung out of you like some decrepit mop.

Sincerely, a decrepit mop.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#72

Post by Xenoamorphous »

mgaunard wrote: post #39
keewee7 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK has low software developer salaries. Especially when you take into consideration that it is a highly developed English-speaking country.

100k USD is 75k GBP. Many junior developer roles in London will pay 50k. Some finance ones will pay 75k or more. 600k USD / 450k GBP is also definitely reachable for a senior developer at team leader level or comparable.

450k as a team lead? I’ve never heard of that. In itjobswatch.co.uk highest median salary for London is around 200k.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#73

Post by astura »

apples_oranges wrote: post #28
yholio wrote: post #16

TLDR he rode the tech bubble, lived frugally and poured his savings into what happened to be a very favorable stock decade, which together with his tech stock options from employers made him a multimillionaire. Not to disrespect the effort that went into this, but let's make this very clear: this type of trajectory is only possible for a very limited few, in a particular moment in history. Everything seems to indicat…

Tech is not a bubble, software is transforming everything (/eating the world).

Software companies can both transform the world and simultaneously be an equity bubble.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#74

Post by tluyben2 »

nickkell wrote: post #43
dogma1138 wrote: post #40

So 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

You can do a lot of it without moving to the US or working as a small but niche consultancy outfit (I get 200+ euro/hour from and in the eu); wfh for a US company, as a company in a cheap EU country that has favorable tax for companies. Then optimize. For instance, a UK company can deduct a lot of things especially work from home, you just need to optimize for them. Works fine for programmers at least. I do not think people who 'work jobs' know how much they can optimize their position; which is comparable to the US in rights really in many EU countries.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#75

Post by inglor_cz »

jacknews wrote: post #48

How 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.

It is probably easier to be a millionaire if you do not feel the need to socialize with other millionaires, live where they live, do what they do, send your kids to the same exclusive schools etc.

Of course, without networking with other millionaires, becoming a millionaire is a bit harder...

On yet another hand, a millionaire living in the well-to-do coastal communities of California might actually still be financially insecure, while a not-yet-quite millionaire living in rural Montana may be secure for life.

I am instinctively drawn towards the rural Montana thing, but mainly because I am introverted anyway.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#76

Post by soufron »

soufron wrote: post #70

Mouahahahahahaahah. So the "path" to financial independance mainly involves getting a 100k/year from day one. I hope it will inspire and convince all these people who earn below the US median salary range of 47k/year. (and they range in all age categories, not 20 years old engineers). That guy is seriously delusional.

It would have been more interesting that he writes on how it was complicated for him to reach financial independence even when he earned 100k/year from day one and more than 600k/year 12 years later.

Just imagine how it's impossible for someone with 47k/year!

And that's the MEDIAN salary range in the US!

But apparently that thought escaped him, whatever.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#77

Post by dogma1138 »

pftburger wrote: post #38
dogma1138 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you’ll still lose nearly half your income to taxes and other deductions. Basically road to financial independence seems to be get paid half a million a year and live in a country with relatively low tax rate…

Seconded. Earning 600k a year should automatically disqualify you from talking about living frugally.

Yeah I don’t get how their outgoings are so low given where they must live… rent or buy it simply doesn’t fit even if they are renting a room and living of cup noodles based on rent in the Bay Area some of their outgoings are suspiciously low.

So I think getting a house gifted by your parents is also a requirement for their path.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#78

Post by ZephyrBlu »

avindroth wrote: post #59
tdrdt wrote: post #41

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.

This is why people don’t want to talk about money

There is little point in discussing money and using yourself as an example when you are extremely well off.

Congrats to OP for having a lot of money in the bank, but there is nothing special or unique about their advice. It's the usual invest your money, don't spend too much, try to get into a top company, etc.

Even for someone in a similar situation, there is very little here that I haven't seen repeated elsewhere countless times.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#79

Post by rad_gruchalski »

soufron wrote: post #70

Mouahahahahahaahah. So the "path" to financial independance mainly involves getting a 100k/year from day one. I hope it will inspire and convince all these people who earn below the US median salary range of 47k/year. (and they range in all age categories, not 20 years old engineers). That guy is seriously delusional.

Is he? In 2016 a US company from Atlanta I was doing work for was budgeting $95k+ for graduates with zero experience for junior positions in sdev.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#80

Post by Sholmesy »

nickkell wrote: post #43
dogma1138 wrote: post #40

So 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

You should reconsider your worth and attempt to re-negotiate pay.

I started out 6-7 years ago at £30k and am now at £100k + options (worthless). Have only ever worked at startups. You can 1.5x that easily at a big tech (some FAANG jobs exist in London).

Post reply on HN