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My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

software.rajivprab.com

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Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#271

Post by _dark_matter_ »

thisistheend123 wrote: post #218

I have a noob question: If everyone thought and lived like this. Save everything, don't spend too much, don't have kids etc. Would it not lead us into a world where there is not enough economic activity and growth. And the money that you do have in that case would not be worth much anyway..

It's hard to say exactly what would happen. Generally it's hard in the short term, as businesses deal with decreased demand. Long term, it means the population is less susceptible to global downturns, and can more easily ride out personal income loss.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#272

Post by thegypsyking »

secondo wrote: post #217
bjornsing wrote: post #51

> 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.

> There are no stories like this one where I live (in Sweden). Absolutely none. Swedish tax rates on income makes this two to three times as difficult (approaches 60% plus 30% social paid by the employer this includes RSUs as well, plus 25% VAT) but it’s nonsense to claim this doesn’t happen. I am Swedish and have made significantly more in tech than the author. So has many of my friends. With that said, the only rea…

How did you make mor? i worked in Sweden and my compensation was 4x less than it is in America. Unless you got extremely lucky or were much more senior it’s impossible, case in which you would have made far far more in the us anyhow

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#273

Post by thegypsyking »

dsomers wrote: post #143
thesimon wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a different metric the Netherlands are slightly better than the US, but Germany is slightly worse. https://www.oecd.org/els/soc/1-5%20generations.png

And the majority of Europe is still ahead of the US, so what’s your point?

I moved from Europe to the US, and so have a lot of other people who aim to become rich. In europe most rich people inherit everything, mobility to upper class is basically non existent. Here it’s Very much possible

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#274

Post by rexreed »

deanmoriarty wrote: post #193

I do not understand why articles like these consistently score poorly on HN? Of course it’s all based on luck, but that doesn’t make it an uninteresting read. I admire the diligence of the author, and how well they played the lucky cards they were given. I am frequently in awe when reading technical articles on HN, with people advancing the state of the art in some technology. Those people also are incredibly lucky,…

The reason why I think these articles score poorly is because I think my reaction is like most reactions (not all, but most). I read the article, saw the salary table, did an eyeroll, and then skimmed the rest. The article can be summed up as "get a high paying job in a career that requires technical skills, save more than you spend, and invest what you save". Did I miss anything in that summarization?

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#275

Post by andreilys »

jb3689 wrote: post #262

> If you’re still a student or open to attending grad school, do everything you can to gain admission into a top-5 Master’s program I think you are over-estimating the impact of a "top 5" master's program vs an average master's program. I had a very similar trajectory to you and went to an average master's program. The major difference between you and me is that I never wanted to work for a Google, Amazon, or Hedge F…

Salary suffered because of my reluctance to even compete for those jobs.

The article talks about how to gain Financial Independence as a software engineer. Choosing to not work at FANG or unicorn co's, will severely limit your ability to achieve FI. Whether you like it or not, people do make judgements off of where you went to school.

I've had several managers at FANG talk about how they have a bias towards top 10 schools, one even admitted that the candidates don't seem that different but he still has this bias.

The biggest boost in your career earnings came from working at (1) financial companies and (2) working at FAANG. I don't think you have enough data to say that your area of focus is what to lead to this, and I personally think it is wrong.

You're welcome to look at the data on levels.fyi

It's pretty clear that at this point SWE's on average far-out earn HWE's. Not to mention the fact that there are a lot more open headcount for SWE's than for HWE's at the top-paying companies.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#276

Post by cheonic8492 »

jpatters wrote: post #84
yulaow wrote: post #47

The 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

And with no kids.

> And with no kids.

Solution: don’t have kids.

The financial, emotional, and time costs of kids are well-known beforehand.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#277

Post by erwincoumans »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #237
vjeux wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right, I should be more precise. If you earn more than $523,600 and are single, then your tax rate is not 50% but 37%, which is still meaningful amount that is often not considered when looking at those big numbers. https://www.manafld.com/blog/2021/2/26/rsus-no-sell-tax If you are in California, then your employer will not give you all your RSU but sell 40% and give you 60%. So you don’t have a big scary sur…

> If you earn more than $523,600 and are single, then your tax rate is not 50% but 37% The federal income tax rate only for income above $523k is 37%. Only for income above $523k. > If you are in California, then your employer will not give you all your RSU but sell 40% and give you 60%. So you don’t have a big scary surprise when it’s tax season. Withholding amounts seem irrelevant when discussing effective tax rate…

federal + income tax + social taxes will be closer to 45% in California, at that income level (approx. 30% federal tax, 10% state tax, 4% FICA)

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#278

Post by Aeolun »

rexreed wrote: post #274
deanmoriarty wrote: post #193

I do not understand why articles like these consistently score poorly on HN? Of course it’s all based on luck, but that doesn’t make it an uninteresting read. I admire the diligence of the author, and how well they played the lucky cards they were given. I am frequently in awe when reading technical articles on HN, with people advancing the state of the art in some technology. Those people also are incredibly lucky,…

The reason why I think these articles score poorly is because I think my reaction is like most reactions (not all, but most). I read the article, saw the salary table, did an eyeroll, and then skimmed the rest. The article can be summed up as "get a high paying job in a career that requires technical skills, save more than you spend, and invest what you save". Did I miss anything in that summarization?

> Did I miss anything in that summarization?

Have no children?

Not only because they eat money, but your priorities will do a complete 180.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#279

Post by rexreed »

Aeolun wrote: post #278
rexreed wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason why I think these articles score poorly is because I think my reaction is like most reactions (not all, but most). I read the article, saw the salary table, did an eyeroll, and then skimmed the rest. The article can be summed up as "get a high paying job in a career that requires technical skills, save more than you spend, and invest what you save". Did I miss anything in that summarization?

> Did I miss anything in that summarization? Have no children? Not only because they eat money, but your priorities will do a complete 180.

And also, the article says "don't buy a house". I put both of these into the principle of save more than you spend. Some of us consider those necessities in life, however, and we're willing to make the necessary tradeoffs.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#280

Post by thegypsyking »

thiht wrote: post #245

> even an average engineer with a five-figure salary can become a millionaire by her late 30s With my five figure salary in France the max I can invest is 1k/month, so with a 10% RoI I can expect around 200k by the time I’m 30. That’s nowhere near a million and doesn’t take the flat tax in consideration. Maybe 10% is considered low or not risky enough? > first salary in the low six-figure Yeah, that’s not gonna happe…

Exactly why I left Europe to work in the US, best decision ever
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