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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

#391

Post by mwattsun »

incognition wrote: post #380
mwattsun wrote: post #376

Let me add 1) get a prenup before marriage because there's a 50/50 chance you'll lose half in divorce (at least in California.) This is not very romantic so it's not something I ever considered, but it's recommended to wealthy persons by lawyers. 2) don't become an alcoholic or drug addict. If you think you might be developing a problem, own up to it, seek help and go to rehab if necessary. This includes gambling add…

Real tip is don’t have kids. Corollary to your number 1

I don't agree with this because you want to have kids if you are to have any chance of anyone caring about you when you are old. I guess some might be satisfied with people caring about the money you have when your old, potentially leaving some of it to them, but that's not my cup of tea.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#393

Post by VWWHFSfQ »

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…

I think the main take-away is that financial independence like this is possible in USA. Not so much in Europe or pretty much anywhere else.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#394

Post by Rebelgecko »

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…

This doesn't line up with my experience. I have the option of having anywhere from 22-37% of my RSUs withheld to pay taxes. The IRS only forces you into the 37% supplemental withholding rate if you make more than $1,000,000/year which alas is a problem I've never had.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#395

Post by allenu »

spoonjim wrote: post #386

The path to financial independence was getting to a $625k salary, nothing about saving.

Not only that, but riding the appreciation of AMZN and GOOG stock (or just tech in general) in the last couple of years. It appears from the graph that this person had a lot of investments in tech and that the recent bull run helped them tremendously. As someone, who has similar investments, I've seen it firsthand, but I don't think it's a trend that will last forever.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#396

Post by csa »

uyt wrote: post #351
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 candida…

> 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).

Thank you for mentioning this. So many people don’t realize that masters programs can be fairly worthless even from elite schools.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#397

Post by jl6 »

tiagobraw wrote: post #138

> but as someone without children this is a huge factor that influences almost every other decision he listed there: - living with roommates or renting a cheap apartment - not wanting to buy an apartment - having the time to do side hustles - even changing career paths is challenging when you have a family to take care of - saving the majority of his annual compensation I don’t want to say his advices are bad, just k…

Whenever anyone offers any advice on any subject at all, I find it essential to determine whether they have kids or not, because the with-kids solution set seems to be entirely different to the without-kids solution set.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#399

Post by notreallyserio »

borski wrote: post #359
cpursley wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wor…

> You are equating guilt with acknowledging privilege, and those aren’t the same.

This is one of those fundamental misunderstandings I see when discussing things with folks of a particular political persuasion. It's the same folks that belueve we shouldn't consider outcomes when evaluating processes. There's just something different about the way they think, I guess.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#400

Post by joshuamorton »

dogma1138 wrote: post #77
pftburger wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Their outgoings aren't particularly low. I guess early on they were, but that's "living with roommates". Their current col is very much in the "rents a two bedroom apartment and spends whatever they want on food" category, but they probably don't own a car.

My personal expenses are a tad lower than theirs, and I rent an apartment in San Francisco that I live in alone.

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