My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

Post by Sholmesy » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 9:41 PM UTC

vr46 wrote: post #372

Sholmesy wrote: post #92

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Maybe. We own our flat in Zone 1 (Soho, 48k down payment, 12k closing costs) after 5 years saving, mortgage is 2.29% ~ 1900 a month. Save about 2500 a month. The one thing I will say is that the "single tax" certainly exists in London, and I find my situation affordable because I have no kids, and my partner brings in an other £35k or so. If we wanted a 3 bedroom or something, forget about it. That's when it becomes…

We lived in NW1, W1H and SW1 for fifteen years and it was totally doable with two earners even starting on a perm salary of 35K, and as the income increased we stayed, but within three years of kids arriving, it was clear that we needed to make a choice. Stay with a two-bedroom in Zone 1 - and pollution etc - or jet to Zone 4 and triple our space. Five years later I think it's more feasible to stay in Zone 1 or 2 wit…

Post by anamax » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 9:49 PM UTC

borski wrote: post #433

anamax wrote: post #426

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> You are equating guilt with acknowledging privilege, and those aren’t the same. When someone says "check your privilege", they're saying that you've done something wrong and should feel guilty.

No, they aren’t. They are saying you should consider if and how your privilege helped you out, because sometimes that isn’t transferable to other people; someone black in a job interview may not have the same experience someone white does, and that’s okay, but it’s important to recognize if and how being white helped so that someone who isn’t white can account for that and adjust. It has nothing at all to do with gui…

Post by DarylZero » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 9:58 PM UTC

onos wrote: post #169

CodeGlitch wrote: post #105

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The modern "progressive" thought-process is to feel guilty about having a good education. I went to private school in the UK and the only thing I feel is infinite gratitude to my parents for forking-out the money to send me there (they were not rich, they were both teachers).

There is a lot of encouragement of guilt in the USA today. In general, shouldn’t we embrace a value system that encourages good behavior? Eg honor those who do relatively well in life, given the circumstances they are born into? The immediate leap to discredit the success of others through assertion of privilege seems like it would discourage doing well. A better solution imho would be to celebrate success but to als…

Post by Aeolun » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 10:11 PM UTC

fundad wrote: post #324

Aeolun wrote: post #315

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I loved living in NL (am Dutch), and would love to move back there, but financially it just doesn’t make sense. Found it really hard to explain to my wife that: Salary will decrease, cost of living will go up, income taxes will go up, VAT will also go up, QOL will stay roughly the same. The only thing that I think is significantly better (and cheaper!) is the education. Edit: And the beer.

QOL staying the same is quite attractive. Out of curiosity, how many millions of dollars-equivalent does it cost to buy heath insurance in retirement? Isn’t that more attractive than what you need in the states?

Post by giantg2 » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 10:12 PM UTC

gxespino wrote: post #450

giantg2 wrote: post #356

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"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…

"It's simply not possible for an average person like me to make that kind of money." Putting these sort of limitations on yourself, from my experience, will dampen the effort that you put in to achieve new levels, if you even try at all. That reduced effort will result in exactly what you predicted for yourself. So, begs the question, what sort of effort have you put in to increase your pay past the median dev salary…