I quit the tech industry • Hacker News Board

Re: I quit the tech industry

#121

Post by bottled_poe » Wed, Jun 10, 2015, 1:02 PM UTC

jrochkind1 wrote: post #111

Of course a full-time job sucks. Most people need one anyway in order to pay the rent. If you have the luxury of getting away without it, of course why wouldn't you? I have the luxury of working a 4/5ths time (four days a week job). I'm still a programmer. At a university. That also allows me to work reasonable hours on that 4/5th time job, take personal days for personal business, etc. And most of what I write is op…

Your last sentence is certainly true, but the difference is being able to choose what is worth doing and being fully invested in the outcome.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#122

Post by brianwawok » Wed, Jun 10, 2015, 1:03 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #110

nugget wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Between (hidden) payroll taxes and state and federal income taxes a developer making 120k in San Francisco isn't too far below 53%.

It's only 40% in California at $120k. And 25% at the $35k level OP mentioned.

Which has always been one of the downsides of Cali life, your local tax bracket and your federal tax bracket are not on the same program.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#123

Post by pjc50 » Wed, Jun 10, 2015, 1:03 PM UTC

themartorana wrote: post #101

yc1010 wrote: post #11

I have been working for myself for last 8 years after completing my masters, in hindsight financially I did not do too badly (tho there was some great and ups and incredible downs!) and it is NICE working from home and watching your kid grow (tho there are quite a lot of distractions!!! says he who is procrastinating reading HN :D ) BUT if I was offered a job with guaranteed employment and steady wages and (gaaasp pe…

Good lord, 53% tax plus 23% VAT plus utilities tax plus monthly healthcare premiums plus...? I'm a bit of a socialist living in the U.S. - I believe in higher taxes on higher earnings and universal healthcare - but what in all that is holy do you get for your tax money??

I was hoping for a nice pie chart on http://www.budget.gov.ie/Budgets/2015/2015.aspx , but no. Can't seem to find one on the internet. If Ireland is similar enough to the UK, then a large chunk of it will be on pensions.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#124

Post by mootothemax » Wed, Jun 10, 2015, 1:04 PM UTC

toadi wrote: post #114

mootothemax wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to Poland - 19% flat income tax rate for companies - you can get flat by 400 euro / month in biggest cities and work remotely for foreign clients. To expand on this: one can operate as a sole trader company, and enjoy the 19% flat income tax rate. You can also register your company for VAT, and then claim back the VAT on company purchases. The only other cost is ~$270 / ~240 EUR / ~180 GBP per month in social insu…

Or not really Shengen. But as EU citizen I don't really care. Bulgaria has 10% flat rate. Cheap cost of living also.

Or not really Shengen. But as EU citizen I don't really care. Bulgaria has 10% flat rate. Cheap cost of living also.

You have to learn the Cyrillic alphabet on top of learning a Slavic language though! I tease, I tease.

Isn't Bulgaria due to join the Schengen area pretty soon? Inside the next couple of years, at least?

Re: I quit the tech industry

#125

Post by Mahn » Wed, Jun 10, 2015, 1:04 PM UTC

jahnu wrote: post #43

"I had stock options, and I cashed them all in last week. I net enough to pay off the mortgage, so I’m doing that, which will leave the entire household debt-free and cut our expenses drastically." I'm happy for you. Even a tiny bit jealous. But it does in the end make the whole post sound like a humblebrag to me.

But that's how all posts like these go, HN loves to upvote them for some reason but they all boil down to "I'm quitting because I have enough money to do it".

Re: I quit the tech industry

#126

Post by kohanz » Wed, Jun 10, 2015, 1:04 PM UTC

I’m just thoroughly exhausted. I have so much I want to do, yet I’m selling half of my waking hours every weekday to someone else, for the sake of cleaning up their legacy messes. By the end of the day I’m already worn out, and now I have to squeeze in whatever I wanted to do alongside relaxing and doing chores and maintaining this fleshsack. Weekends are nice, but become a mad dash to get fifty things done, meaning none of them get done.

And then add kids to the equation! I left my full-time job for part-time contracting (ahem consulting!) just over a year ago. I work about 60% of the hours that I previously did, make about 80% of what I did, and spend the rest of the time with the family and catching up on "life". Not sure if it's a longterm solution, but I'm enjoying watching my family grow.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#127

Post by mootothemax » Wed, Jun 10, 2015, 1:05 PM UTC

lsaferite wrote: post #100

mootothemax wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to Poland - 19% flat income tax rate for companies - you can get flat by 400 euro / month in biggest cities and work remotely for foreign clients. To expand on this: one can operate as a sole trader company, and enjoy the 19% flat income tax rate. You can also register your company for VAT, and then claim back the VAT on company purchases. The only other cost is ~$270 / ~240 EUR / ~180 GBP per month in social insu…

You know what sucks. As an American I'd still have to pay American income taxes. I cannot wrap my head around how we can say that's ok. Sure, there are ways to get around a portion of the taxes, but those involve things like never coming to the US for more than a set (short) amount of time.

You know what sucks. As an American I'd still have to pay American income taxes.

Agreed, it always feels scandalous to me whenever I hear this fact.

No idea how it works in practise. I known plenty of Americans who have settled in Poland for a good portion of their lives, so it must be possible to overcome the burden.

Maybe it's one of those things where, as long as you can afford to pay a good accountant (and you really should be able to afford it in Poland), they take the pain away for you?

Re: I quit the tech industry

#128

Post by pjc50 » Wed, Jun 10, 2015, 1:06 PM UTC

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #48

yc1010 wrote: post #11

I have been working for myself for last 8 years after completing my masters, in hindsight financially I did not do too badly (tho there was some great and ups and incredible downs!) and it is NICE working from home and watching your kid grow (tho there are quite a lot of distractions!!! says he who is procrastinating reading HN :D ) BUT if I was offered a job with guaranteed employment and steady wages and (gaaasp pe…

It is (was) great for Ireland, though. That's how they attracted tons of (large) tech companies to Ireland. It's the perfect match: low corporate tax, no incentive for people to go away and do their own startups, which means you can get paid less as there as less alternatives for you. Very smart play by Ireland. Then, the EU went back to them and told them they couldn't keep doing this, and very soon (is it 2016?) th…

And if you're Google, you built a large office and hired thousands of people, you're not going to leave anytime soon

Plenty of people have said that about other employers in the past and come into work one day to find the doors locked.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#129

Post by pjc50 » Wed, Jun 10, 2015, 1:08 PM UTC

lsaferite wrote: post #100

mootothemax wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to Poland - 19% flat income tax rate for companies - you can get flat by 400 euro / month in biggest cities and work remotely for foreign clients. To expand on this: one can operate as a sole trader company, and enjoy the 19% flat income tax rate. You can also register your company for VAT, and then claim back the VAT on company purchases. The only other cost is ~$270 / ~240 EUR / ~180 GBP per month in social insu…

You know what sucks. As an American I'd still have to pay American income taxes. I cannot wrap my head around how we can say that's ok. Sure, there are ways to get around a portion of the taxes, but those involve things like never coming to the US for more than a set (short) amount of time.

I'd still have to pay American income taxes

On personal income. It sounds like the UK's "IR35" loophole - if you leave the money in the company you don't have to pay tax on that. So you can accumulate capital in the company.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#130

Post by pjc50 » Wed, Jun 10, 2015, 1:09 PM UTC

fsloth wrote: post #64

seivan wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went through this. Not sure what toxic culture entails, but fucked up deadlines burned me out. Why do all software companies rush so hard.

" all software companies rush so hard." I suppose it depends on the business model the software is part of. If you want a pace that is compatible with proper engineering I would suggest looking into companies that deal with products whose lifetime is measured in decades such as CAD vendors or other highly technical software. All freshmen to software engineering have this weird idea that a piece of code can ship once…

just shipping as much code as much as possible is the best road to maximize productivity

Just like juggling is a matter of throwing as many balls in the air as fast as possible ("What do you mean they come down again?")