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Actual is going open-source

actualbudget.com

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Re: Actual is going open-source

#111

Post by runako »

Goronmon wrote: post #98
runako wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$200k is increasingly a mid-career engineering salary in many parts of the US. Some quick examples taken from companies reported on levels.fyi, where pay around $200k was reported for people working outside the most expensive US cities plus Austin: - Lowe's (Charlotte): https://www.levels.fyi/company/Lowe-s/salaries/Software-Engi... - Equifax (Atlanta): https://www.levels.fyi/company/Equifax/salaries/Software-Eng...…

That ExxonMobile link has 3 of 20 salaries being an amount above $122k and only 1 at $200k. So, even in your cherry-picked examples one of the companies only has a single person making this "mid-career salary".

0 - These examples were chosen specifically to avoid software & Internet companies, to show that "real" companies that operate in "normal" parts of the country also pay in the $200k range. (These companies are also likely to have less representation on levels.fyi because people who spend any time on levels quickly start wondering why they aren't working for a tech company.) "Cherry-picking" would be highlighting all the FAAMNG workers who are remote and/or working in satellite offices. Google engineers in midtown Atlanta are paid well above any of these, but I specifically did not include those jobs because those in fact are elite.

1 - levels.fyi will not have a record of all the folks working at a given company.

2 - Somebody is indeed the highest-paid engineer at every firm, so that data point is relevant. (It could be you!)

3 - Fine, swap out ExxonMobil for Chevron in Houston and then realize they hire from the same talent pool and likely are in the same total comp range: https://www.levels.fyi/company/Chevron/salaries/Software-Eng...

4 - Take JP Morgan in Houston as a bonus: https://www.levels.fyi/company/JPMorgan-Chase/salaries/Softw...

5 - Yes, some tech people make a lot less than others. It is also true that $200k is still rapidly becoming a mid-career salary in major US cities beyond the expensive coasts. (No, you are not mid-career at age 28.)

Re: Actual is going open-source

#112

Post by Goronmon »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #100
mellosouls wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you can have a cushy tech job making 200K relatively easy Some of these claims seem to come from people living on a different planet to me. Yes you can make that, but only if you are in a tiny (and normally very privileged) set. The way it's breezily posted on this forum at times shows perhaps just a leeetle disconnect with the mainstream tech world

> Yes you can make that, but only if you are in a tiny (and normally very privileged) set If we're talking about people talented enough to actually build and ship their own apps independently, a $200K or more compensation package should be easy to come by remotely or in any medium size city. For the truly average developer, $200K is definitely not the norm according to any compensation data I've seen.

For the truly average developer, $200K is definitely not the norm according to any compensation data I've seen.

One issue in this community is its members being unable to understand what "average developer" actually means.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#113

Post by gunsch »

nerdjon wrote: post #89

I am curious, what do people use for budgeting? Mint seems like the most feature rich, but not only do I not want to support their parent company because of their Tax lobbying... but I don't trust them from a privacy standpoint (Considering its free). YNAB and Monarch both seem like really good options. But I have not looked into them much yet. I currently use Copilot (iOS only... really just iPhone, no iPad app). I…

I've enjoyed YNAB a lot for budgeting and been using it for the last 3 years now. Works very well with my spreadsheet brain.

It's got solid APIs if you want to do your own add-ons or integrations too. As an example, a friend of mine who's on the FIRE track has integrated his own layer on top of YNAB for tracking "paid off for life" categories, including budgeting for expected inflation, and allocated against retirement account balances.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#114

Post by runako »

usayimunderpaid wrote: post #95
runako wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$200k is increasingly a mid-career engineering salary in many parts of the US. Some quick examples taken from companies reported on levels.fyi, where pay around $200k was reported for people working outside the most expensive US cities plus Austin: - Lowe's (Charlotte): https://www.levels.fyi/company/Lowe-s/salaries/Software-Engi... - Equifax (Atlanta): https://www.levels.fyi/company/Equifax/salaries/Software-Eng...…

As a technical lead (one level above senior software developer in my current company), I make €96k in Germany. I had an interview with Klarna, and they offered me €85k (they actually started with 75 and went up to 85), and the interviewer nearly laughed at me when I asked for €110k. Different continent, different problems? :)

https://techpays.com looks really interesting for European compensation transparency. Tech folks should get paid a lot more, especially those outside the US.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#115

Post by jypepin »

usayimunderpaid wrote: post #95
runako wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$200k is increasingly a mid-career engineering salary in many parts of the US. Some quick examples taken from companies reported on levels.fyi, where pay around $200k was reported for people working outside the most expensive US cities plus Austin: - Lowe's (Charlotte): https://www.levels.fyi/company/Lowe-s/salaries/Software-Engi... - Equifax (Atlanta): https://www.levels.fyi/company/Equifax/salaries/Software-Eng...…

As a technical lead (one level above senior software developer in my current company), I make €96k in Germany. I had an interview with Klarna, and they offered me €85k (they actually started with 75 and went up to 85), and the interviewer nearly laughed at me when I asked for €110k. Different continent, different problems? :)

salaries in europe are much lower - but to be fair, I lived much better in amsterdam with 100k euro than SF with 150k

Re: Actual is going open-source

#116

Post by rglullis »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #100
mellosouls wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you can have a cushy tech job making 200K relatively easy Some of these claims seem to come from people living on a different planet to me. Yes you can make that, but only if you are in a tiny (and normally very privileged) set. The way it's breezily posted on this forum at times shows perhaps just a leeetle disconnect with the mainstream tech world

> Yes you can make that, but only if you are in a tiny (and normally very privileged) set If we're talking about people talented enough to actually build and ship their own apps independently, a $200K or more compensation package should be easy to come by remotely or in any medium size city. For the truly average developer, $200K is definitely not the norm according to any compensation data I've seen.

I've built and shipped my own apps independently. I have almost 20 years of professional experience in Web, some Machine Learning and Data Science. I also led teams distributed around the world. I also got into blockchain development in 2019 and now I am working on a slow-but-steadily-growing open source project [0] to make payments with crypto easier. I'm living in the hot "tech center of Europe" (Berlin) and I'm yet to see (much less receive) any offer above 90k€/year.

Let's make a deal: I will give you my CV and we can work through it to see what I need to improve. If you get me an $200k/year offer that lets me work remotely, I will give you 15% of it for as long as I work there.

[0]: https://hub20.io

Re: Actual is going open-source

#117

Post by skrobul »

alexandargyurov wrote: post #74

I have to fill out every transaction manually? No Open Banking integration? :/

There are few importers available which have been opensourced (look at the Actual's github org), I have only tried one during migration from greedy YNAB.

There is also an API which works quite well. I am using it to import transactions from Revolut. So no Open Banking yet, but afaik it's painful to get in the UK anyways

Re: Actual is going open-source

#118

Post by PragmaticPulp »

junon wrote: post #102
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes you can make that, but only if you are in a tiny (and normally very privileged) set If we're talking about people talented enough to actually build and ship their own apps independently, a $200K or more compensation package should be easy to come by remotely or in any medium size city. For the truly average developer, $200K is definitely not the norm according to any compensation data I've seen.

> If we're talking about people talented enough to actually build and ship their own apps independently, a $200K or more compensation package should be easy to come by remotely or in any medium size city. I've been able to build and ship my own apps for almost a decade now and have never received an offer close to that, even in SF. Maybe things have changed in the last 5 years, but whenever I see the 200k figure I al…

The software engineer hiring market is very trimodal:

There are companies that hire at average salaries. Usually targeting Radford database @ 50% or whatever numbers they think they can get away with paying.

The next cluster of companies pay well but not at FAANG levels. They pay somewhere around 80-90th percentile of salary data. They collect all of the best employees who either can't, won't, or don't want to get FAANG jobs.

Then the long tail of FAANG salaries occupies something like the 95th-99th percentile of salaries. These are the numbers you see on the levels.fyi homepage.

HN tends to over-emphasize the FAANG level salaries, but there are a lot of companies in the middle bucket that pay much better than average. You might have to network and work to find them, though. Staying at average or below-average companies too long can actually make your resume less attractive over time, so you have to put in some work to break out of the rut and into the higher paying companies.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#119

Post by klausa »

shankr wrote: post #105
rglullis wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, what part of the world are you on? Even in Berlin, with all the talks about it becoming a top destination for tech people, I'm yet to hear any 6-figures offer. Even the blockchain companies that were flush with cash were paying 90-95k€ to their top people, maybe a 10-20% performance bonus. Mind you, we are talking about Germany where the tax is ~42% of your income at this bracket if you are single. When I was…

yeah as another tech worker in Berlin, reading these salaries on consistent basis is kinda depressing. The 70-80K is like a starting tech salaries in larger part of US. Here in Berlin you have to toll for multiple years and then before you know you have hit the 90-100K ceiling. Just compare Berlin with any big American US city, Berliner's PPP is still quite low. This is after the salary "boom" in Berlin.

COVID and companies being more open to hire remotely has partially fixed that, I know of multiple people making 130kE+ in Berlin now, working remotely, with full benefits of being an employee of a German GmbH.

I can give you some details via DM if you want.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#120

Post by daenz »

gabereiser wrote: post #97
daenz wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My read on that is that it is total comp, so it includes bonuses/RSUs/options. If you're not negotiating for those things, what are you doing. Though $200k base salary is not a crazy salary for a staff/principle/high-level engineer. I don't think people realize how corrosive to mental health a $200k engineering job can be though. I was making very close to that as a base salary, and the amount of responsibilities I h…

The mental health aspect I think is often overlooked. When young engineers are eager to climb the ladder into senior/principal/distinguished positions (this was me, btw) they often overlook what it does to your mental health. The beginning seems great. Big problems, big solutions, everyone knows what’s their role in it and how to get it done. Over the years that view will fade. The certainty of success replaced by to…

I tried to re-negotiate a 4 day work week, but they weren't having it, so ended up walking. I know it is privileged to say, but sometimes no amount of money is worth giving up things that are important to you. For me, I was giving up my time and ignoring a project that I think is very important. When I came to my senses about how the money isn't worth giving that up, they had to yield, or I had to leave.
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