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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

#541

Post by throwaway55421 »

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.

Sweden is funny. Their society is explicitly designed by the well off to convince the poors that all is well.

It's all very equal, just don't look behind the curtain. We all earn our 50000SEK here.

The CEO? Oh, just ignore him

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#542

Post by nickkell »

dogma1138 wrote: post #243
PUSH_AX wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IR35 hasn't really affected that path, you can find contracts that are outside of the legislation and as long as your working practices are also outside you're fine, there are also insurances now for these things.

A lot of companies don’t hire contractors under their own LTD anymore they only take those that come through an umbrella company that pays them under PAYE.

Is there a difference in pay that you’d get if you billed an umbrella company? Or are you liable to pay more tax?

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#543

Post by nickkell »

tluyben2 wrote: post #74
nickkell wrote: post #43

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 can do a lot of it without moving to the US or working as a small but niche consultancy outfit (I get 200+ euro/hour from and in the eu); wfh for a US company, as a company in a cheap EU country that has favorable tax for companies. Then optimize. For instance, a UK company can deduct a lot of things especially work from home, you just need to optimize for them. Works fine for programmers at least. I do not think…

That’s part of the issue, with consulting you’re forced to act and think like a company rather than an employee. It requires more research or hiring professional advisors. There’s potential tax benefits, but also corresponding legislation to ensure you and your clients aren’t dodging social security contributions. I’m sure once you have some experience it’s simple, but from the outside looking in, it seems slightly risky.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#544

Post by bjornsing »

franciscop wrote: post #509
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.

Downvoted because, if there are many stories like this in "poorer" Spain (my home country), I'm sure there's a non-trivial amount of stories like this in any other richer European country: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpainFIRE/

Sure, there are paths to financial independence in Sweden too, just not this one. I’d say most such stories probably involve starting a company and having others work for you. Some probably “succeed” by being extremely frugal. But nobody negotiates and job hops themselves to $600k a year.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#545

Post by tluyben2 »

nickkell wrote: post #543
tluyben2 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do a lot of it without moving to the US or working as a small but niche consultancy outfit (I get 200+ euro/hour from and in the eu); wfh for a US company, as a company in a cheap EU country that has favorable tax for companies. Then optimize. For instance, a UK company can deduct a lot of things especially work from home, you just need to optimize for them. Works fine for programmers at least. I do not think…

That’s part of the issue, with consulting you’re forced to act and think like a company rather than an employee. It requires more research or hiring professional advisors. There’s potential tax benefits, but also corresponding legislation to ensure you and your clients aren’t dodging social security contributions. I’m sure once you have some experience it’s simple, but from the outside looking in, it seems slightly r…

Well here in the EU you can have jobs with almost 0 risk but less than US money, or a bit of risk (which you would also have in the US; easy to fire people there I think?) and make US money with Healthcare etc intact even if you lose a client. No more stupid interviews (they are hiring a company, not a person; I never had to do one because of that) and you have a safety net in the EU whatever happens anyway... Maybe I should write something about it as I have been doing it for 30+ years.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#546

Post by vanusa »

borski wrote: post #534
anamax wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But it’s misuse shouldn’t change the meaning of its intent. The use is the intent. And it's used as a weapon. Notice when it's used, and when it isn't. (You'd never say it to a black or brown person. Did I have "privilege" when I lived in a labor camp?) > At least I hope it doesn’t, because I believe there is still value in empathy. There is value in empathy, but "check your privilege" isn't empathy. You know nothi…

I absolutely would, and have, said it to people of color when it applied. (Although, admittedly, I have never phrased it as “check your privilege” because of precisely this vitriolic response which defeats the purpose; I normally phrase it as a question about if any exists) I didn’t say anything about your privilege. Were I to, I would be asking. There is nothing here to be defensive about. I have no political goals…

"I absolutely have said it ... but actually I've never said it"?

"This is not a political discussion" when in fact it's about one of the most hot-button political topics ever devised?

I'm lost.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#547

Post by ant6n »

kamaal wrote: post #513
ant6n wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is 4% of the world.

The parent post to yours is actually true, being born in US indeed does wonders to ones access to opportunities, infrastructure, culture, soceity etc. The USA really makes it easy for people to win. It can be hard to notice it if you've been there all life(or at least most of it), but people like me who have spent our whole lives outside USA(Indian Citizen) and then stayed in the USA for a couple of years(for work) a…

I'd argue that the US awards its less priviliged citizens much less oportunity than most other industrialized countries. There's a lot of poverty in the US, and huge differences between rich, middle class, the poor and the really poor. Most are in denial about these problems, and think this situation is fine because they like to compare to developing countries with even bigger poverty issues (in this case India), forgetting that most industrialized countries actually treat their poor people better.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#548

Post by yunohn »

garmaine wrote: post #496
yunohn wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know loads of students with more debt, but indeed, it’s less than the USA. Not an acceptable amount regardless.

Really? That seems something that could be paid off pretty easily. Not like US student debt which is the size of house in value.

The median income in NL is barely 30k, and savings are very low. An average loan of 15k is quite expensive for most.

I think the worst part is that most of the loan is used to pay rent - so it’s essentially tax-payer funded wealth transfer to real estate.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#549

Post by azth »

CodeGlitch wrote: post #105
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.

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).

> The modern "progressive" thought-process is to feel guilty about having a good education.

This is what happens when there is a lack of religion and belief in God. In Islam, we know we're going to be asked about the blessings that were bestowed on us, no matter how small, so it's always in the back of our mind that we should be grateful to God, and to use those blessings in the ways of good, not evil.

Re: My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

#550

Post by andreilys »

kamaal wrote: post #519
andreilys wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's some other tactical advice which is self-evident if you spend any time working in tech but for outsiders it might not be clear. For example he talks about interviewing every 3 years, and keeping your interview skills sharp. Specifically he says Practicing your interview skills is the best financial investment you can make This IMO is the best way to grow your compensation, the way companies structure their co…

This strategy too has some limits, its not like you can keep interviewing forever. Most companies will flag you eventually if all you've done in your career is write a 100 line bash script and leave every six months, in fact if they are a serious shop they'll likely not want to touch you with a 10 foot pole. The next problem of course is ageism, you are likely to enter that issue as soon as you are in your late 30s.…

The goal is to have enough money to retire before you hit your late 30s ;)
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