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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

#351

Post by uyt »

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…

Beware that many masters programs from top schools are degree mills and the undergrads who went there know this and actively loathe them (based on their experience sharing classes with them). At least for my particular school. I remember helping out with resume screening at a job fair and we would sort everyone who went to that masters program to the bottom of the pile. A handful of them turned out to be good candidates on second pass, but it sucks that they probably would've had a better chance just leaving off their masters.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#352

Post by marcellus23 »

whimsicalism wrote: post #333
marcellus23 wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think anyone said that. Lots of people _do_ think you should feel guilt for privilege. Pretending those people don’t exist isn’t helping the progressive movement. It’s important for progressives to acknowledge and counter the people who wave the progressive flag but espouse the opposite of progressive ideals.

I disagree. I see vastly more people claiming that privilege acknowledgement is tied in with guilt who oppose the notion of "privilege" than I see "lots of people" espousing the notion of privilege guilt who actually think we should talk about privilege. I don't personally believe in reparations as commonly framed, but saying that reparations ought to be paid is also not the same thing as saying people should feel gu…

Frankly, it’s not a strawman. Look on twitter and you’ll find plenty of evidence of that kind of thinking.

> but I find there is often a trend among the Right to highlight random views held by an extremely small minority of people (ie. a single tweeting American among 315 million Americans) and demand a disavowal of that rhetoric. I think this is in bad faith.

Agreed. Where I disagree is that the left doesn’t do this exact same thing, or that these views are held by “a single tweet” and not, say, entire online communities.

For the record, I generally agree with you, but to the same extent that avowal can go too far, it is very easy to go too far in assuming all ridiculous positions on our side are strawmen. A lot of people do think that way. Nothing wrong with acknowledging privilege — but you don’t need to feel personally guilty over things out of your control like your inherited wealth or your skin color. I think we can all agree on that.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#353

Post by AYBABTME »

giantg2 wrote: post #347
AYBABTME wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not hard to move up the quantiles if you put the effort. It doesn't require ivy league education, a rich family, or a particularly genius mind. The mean salary is useless in quantifying wether you, as an individual, have any agency in influencing your outcome. Your attitude toward it, however, has a lot to do with it. And surely starting with the assumption that it's impossible doesn't put the odds in your favor…

"It's not hard to move up the quantiles if you put the effort." The statistics paint a different picture - there are only so many jobs above the median. "In any case, 105k median income just goes to tell how big the opportunity is." You mean limited? Clearly this is multiples lower than the author. "The mean salary is useless in quantifying wether you, as an individual, have any agency in influencing your outcome." N…

I'm not going to change your mood but I hope someone else reading this interaction early in their career will come out of it with an optimistic mindset instead of a cynical one. It pays off better.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#354

Post by marcellus23 »

hhmc wrote: post #334
marcellus23 wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think anyone said that. Lots of people _do_ think you should feel guilt for privilege. Pretending those people don’t exist isn’t helping the progressive movement. It’s important for progressives to acknowledge and counter the people who wave the progressive flag but espouse the opposite of progressive ideals.

> Lots of people _do_ think you should feel guilt for privilege. Except I don't see anyone in this comment thread actully expousing that belief. I _do_ however see a lot of people strawmanning it.

This thread does not contain the entirety of discourse about privilege.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#355

Post by fundad »

foldr wrote: post #331
fundad wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s a reference to US leaders with European heritage use Swedish immigrants as exemplary prospects versus people from non-white nations.

The US doesn't have explicitly racist immigration laws. Being white might give you some kind of an advantage (even though it obviously shouldn't), but you'll still have to go through the same process as anyone else.

Not explicitly; I agree. I meant that while it is a myth, it is a myth perpetuated by elected officials in the US and what they say when they hold power and especially the campaign promises they make to win power.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#356

Post by giantg2 »

dan-robertson wrote: post #346
giantg2 wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I do not understand why articles like these consistently score poorly on HN?" Because the article pisses me off. This is not something helpful to us average peasants. No shit you can become a multimillionaire if you're pulling in over half a million per year. Maybe some of the advice I'd good, but it would be worth more coming from someone who actually is average so we can see it as evidence. Otherwise it's some ric…

The implication of the article, that such compensation is reasonably possible to a moderately competent software developer working for big companies in the United States, seems pretty reasonable to me. Another thing one could note is the bump in compensation in recent years, which could be a combination of stock going up, more experience making the author a more valuable employee, or market rates for software enginee…

"I learnt that even an average engineer with a five-figure salary can become a millionaire by her late 30s, through financial discipline and investment planning."

Then why doe the article mention average as part of the target audience?

"The implication of the article, that such compensation is reasonably possible to a moderately competent software developer working for big companies in the United States, seems pretty reasonable to me."

I'm moderately compentent and work for a large company. Why do I make under $100k? It seems your perspective might be skewed as it is not common, as evidenced by the median dev salary of about $105k.

"None of the numbers strike me as particularly unusual for the author’s circumstances, so if they strike you as unusual (and you are able to work in the US), then it might be worth considering trying to get yourself into similar employment, if that’s what you’d want."

Again, I think there's a drastic perception issue here. These number are by definition unusual or rare given the median. It's simply not possible for an average person like me to make that kind of money.

"60% of the increase in net worth between 2020 and 2021 comes from investments rather than the ‘earning half a million dollars a year’ and those investments came from earning less than that (obviously such incomes still generally aren’t available to people who aren’t software engineers at big US tech companies, and it may be reasonable to complain that a path that >100k people follow is unreasonable but within this path I think it’s pretty reasonable)."

And again, the majority of the US devs fall at or below the median, putting them right around or under that $100k number.

So yeah, use "normal" people get a little pissed off with people telling us that it's not unusual to be making multiple times our salaries and we could easily achieve this too if only we were "moderately competent".

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#357

Post by giantg2 »

AYBABTME wrote: post #353
giantg2 wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's not hard to move up the quantiles if you put the effort." The statistics paint a different picture - there are only so many jobs above the median. "In any case, 105k median income just goes to tell how big the opportunity is." You mean limited? Clearly this is multiples lower than the author. "The mean salary is useless in quantifying wether you, as an individual, have any agency in influencing your outcome." N…

I'm not going to change your mood but I hope someone else reading this interaction early in their career will come out of it with an optimistic mindset instead of a cynical one. It pays off better.

I hope they are realistic. I was optimistic but was repeated crushed. It would be better they prepare for the disappointment and negative outcomes, because life is an endless parade of them.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#358

Post by MichaelRazum »

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.

Oh boy that is true. Honestly, everyone who is born in the US is kind of privileged compared to 99% of the world. Especially if you are willing to work hard.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#359

Post by borski »

cpursley wrote: post #296
malnourish wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are people asked to feel guilty specifically about the fact they received a good education?

For similar reasons they're supposed to feel guilty for being born into a particular race.

You are equating guilt with acknowledging privilege, and those aren’t the same. I feel privileged for having gone to MIT, and acknowledge that privilege. I feel privileged for having grown up Jewish and white-appearing, and acknowledge that.

I feel guilty for neither, and acknowledging that particular privilege takes nothing away from how hard I worked anyway. The son of two very poor Russian Jewish immigrants, I worked extremely hard to get to where I am. I also feel privileged for growing up in a loving and non-abusive family.

Lots of people don’t have those things, and I’m thankful I did. That’s not guilt.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#360

Post by pyrale »

vjeux wrote: post #232
lotsofpulp wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are going to include the tax rate on the capital gains, then you should include the capital gains in the amount in your bank account. You should also hire a CPA or at least spend some time reading about strategies to minimize taxes if you are paying close to an effective 50% income tax on $500k of income.

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…

Is it 37% marginal tax rate or 37% effective?

I calculated 42% effective on lifetime income, and I suppose the writer was not taxed at 42% on their 100k income from the first years, so the tax rate for later years must have been higher.

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