I am surprised no one has suggested the traditional and still very popular way which is marry someone wealthy.
^_^
Beside a startup, what are the other ways to significant wealth for a dev?
41–50 of 191 posts
Re: Beside a startup, what are the other ways to significant wealth for a dev?
#42Devs rarely make $1 million a year, startup or big company. Now if you are 10x better than the average Google/Facebook engineer and can prove it, I think you could negotiate that kind of compensation package as a principal engineer.
This is a special case, but its possible for developers who specialise in High Frequency Trading (HFT) algorithms to make that, in the case of getting into a bidding war between rival HFT investment banks.
https://adtmag.com/articles/2011/07/29/why-hft-programmers-e...
Re: Beside a startup, what are the other ways to significant wealth for a dev?
#43Get out of dev, put on a suit and tie, and go suck up doing finance on Wall Street.
Your probability of success is way higher.
Re: Beside a startup, what are the other ways to significant wealth for a dev?
#44A general rant, when someone asks about how to make reasonable wealth, significant wealth, or to get richer than you would be as a salaried worker I assume they are interested in getting into the 1% or higher bracket of earners.
Someone making 6 figures asking how to get more wealth probably doesn't care they are in the top 10%. They are looking up, not down. Saving half their salary isn't realistic for a single income family, and would even be tough for a dual income family.
They probably don't care to listen to the "money isn't everything" advice from the rich. Yes, everyone knows that money isn't everything, and everyone knows that money isn't everything when you've already got it. I have relatives making choices between feeding themselves or their pet for the day, money means a great deal up to a point, and then there is a big gap where it doesn't make much difference. Then after that gap is breached is starts to make a huge difference again.
Unfortunately, for the number of times this question is asked, the number of times I've asked it of myself, there are no silver bullets or proven paths. I have to stop ranting now it is late, I am tired. (^_^)b
Re: Beside a startup, what are the other ways to significant wealth for a dev?
#45A general rant, when someone asks about how to make reasonable wealth, significant wealth, or to get richer than you would be as a salaried worker I assume they are interested in getting into the 1% or higher bracket of earners. Someone making 6 figures asking how to get more wealth probably doesn't care they are in the top 10%. They are looking up, not down. Saving half their salary isn't realistic for a single inco…
You read my mind...
Re: Beside a startup, what are the other ways to significant wealth for a dev?
#46A general rant, when someone asks about how to make reasonable wealth, significant wealth, or to get richer than you would be as a salaried worker I assume they are interested in getting into the 1% or higher bracket of earners. Someone making 6 figures asking how to get more wealth probably doesn't care they are in the top 10%. They are looking up, not down. Saving half their salary isn't realistic for a single inco…
Depends, I make a reasonable amount of money. Enough to be happy and eat what I want, live where I want.
But I don't make enough money to build a spaceship. So I need more.
Re: Beside a startup, what are the other ways to significant wealth for a dev?
#47It really depends on skill and motivation. If your motivation is only money you are unlikely to succeed. Personally I am a big corp dev and making >600k/year on track to retire at 40. But you do not get there by trying for the salary. Try to be good, no exceptional, at what you do. Become valuable and you will be paid. But your motivation should be your craft and not money. I believe the same applies for startup foun…
what do you mean by good, not exceptional...?
Re: Beside a startup, what are the other ways to significant wealth for a dev?
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why does money motivation reduce your chances? I don't think being exceptional is enough, there are several open source projects created and maintained by exceptional devs, but they don't make >600k/year. Being exceptional working at anything but the right company won't make you money. Why do you thing "dev big corps" are better? What does that mean to you? I think of Microsoft, Google, IBM, Apple, but even after you…
Maybe it's late, but I thought he answered your Q1 and Q2.
It is late, I can't think super clear either, but I just read that he says money should not be the focus, but doesn't address why that is an issue.
As to why big dev corps are better he didn't give any reasons for his belief, no examples. Person y makes $1 million a year at company x, but they aquihired their startup to get there. If I started at big dev corp as a senior developer and made $100k, what path does it take to get $600k, which company offers those incentives? I really just want some more detail.
Re: Beside a startup, what are the other ways to significant wealth for a dev?
#49A general rant, when someone asks about how to make reasonable wealth, significant wealth, or to get richer than you would be as a salaried worker I assume they are interested in getting into the 1% or higher bracket of earners. Someone making 6 figures asking how to get more wealth probably doesn't care they are in the top 10%. They are looking up, not down. Saving half their salary isn't realistic for a single inco…
Depends, I make a reasonable amount of money. Enough to be happy and eat what I want, live where I want. But I don't make enough money to build a spaceship. So I need more.
Wow, just made me think about Elon Musk, he got one payout and is now making his own spaceships. I want that.
Re: Beside a startup, what are the other ways to significant wealth for a dev?
#50Here are a few ideas: - Selling enterprise software (you can make 10%-20% of an 8 or 9 figure deal) - Selling securities in some form or another (you make ~5% of deals worth potentially hundreds of millions of dollars) - high leverage consulting (solving very hard tech problems for lots of people. for example: I have a friend who helps a whole bunch of computer vision companies and makes a ton. Another friend is an S…
forgive my lack of imagination / education, what kind of enterprise software could a sole developer create that would land 8/9 figure contracts?