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My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

software.rajivprab.com

81–90 of 583 posts

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#81
TLDR; Get a job in faang and keep interviewing and you will be financially independent.

I don't like this article at all, since it does not talk about the average software engineer. The author's current salary is 625k USD which would already make one financially independent regardless of any of the other decisions that they took in their life (eg. living with roommates to be frugal like they suggest)

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#82
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.

The point is that it's not much of a path when you start at $100k. If you're earning $100k with zero experience, your salary cap is likely to be pretty high.

With a starting salary that high I think you're very likely to easily achieve financial independence, barring a catastrophic fuck up.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

You then end up paying London rent… You won’t be able to afford to rent a luxury London flat on 100K or even 150K but a 2 bed in any decent area is £2-2.5K council tax and utilities would be another £200 p/m easily.

You are probably better off making £80K in Manchester as a senior dev than £100-110K in London. Newcastle has also a decent tech ecosystem tho it is very much focused around Sage.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

You then end up paying London rent… You won’t be able to afford to rent a luxury London flat on 100K or even 150K but a 2 bed in any decent area is £2-2.5K council tax and utilities would be another £200 p/m easily. You are probably better off making £80K in Manchester as a senior dev than £100-110K in London. Newcastle has also a decent tech ecosystem tho it is very much focused around Sage.

What companies pay £80k in Manc?

(Not denying it, genuinely curious which sector/companies etc)

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 c…

I highly doubt this is just about quality of his advice. Look at all these comments, and the salt.

Remove a zero from his salaries, and the response would have been very different.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Median is not the same as reachable.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#89
post #55

> Disclaimer: I acknowledge that I’ve been very privileged, especially in the educational opportunities I’ve had. This might sound reasonable from a US-centric perspective, but to me it reads like utter nonsense. The main privilege here is access to the US labor market and tax policy. There are no stories like this one where I live (in Sweden). Absolutely none.

Yeah I d say he s been dealt very bad cards, had no problem being independent growing up in Normandy, France. I think we're priviledged by not being in the US and that guy is at the top of a turd pile...

You read that info and figure he's the unlucky one?

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#90

To have 1 MM USD/EUR at the end of your thirties given an average 4 % yearly return on investment, you need to save around 4.000 USD/EUR per month starting at age 25. In Europe, if you earn around 100k EUR per year your free income will be around 5.000-6.000 EUR per month. Saving 4.000 EUR / month is doable with that but you'll have to live very frugally, not traveling much and you better not start a family unless yo…

Even before the covid bubble the expected return was more like 8-10% per year. 22 years of 1500 a month at 8% is over 1M
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