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Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

danielvassallo.com

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Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#191

Post by thorwasdfasdf »

catacombs wrote: post #190

> I joined Amazon as an entry level developer. Within 3.5 years I had been promoted twice to a senior engineer, and I was practically guaranteed another promotion to principal engineer this year if I had stayed. > My potential at the company was high, I was told. > My esteem within the company grew along the years and I was regarded an expert and a leader in my field. > People looked up to me and respected me. > I ma…

He thinks all these things are attributable to his own performance, and that all he has to do is get hired by another FAANG and things will be just the same. Later, he may well be hirable but this type of advancement doesn't happen without a serious amount of timing/Luck and those stock market gains aren't typical either.

I guess you could look at it as an act of generosity. the more people quit from those jobs, the more there is for everyone else. :)

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#192

Post by smileysteve »

hinkley wrote: post #174
smileysteve wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

~$100k/year if returns are based on 10%. Aka, what some people use for expected S&P returns to beat

If you're working out a budget to allow you to quit your day job you'd better have all of the numbers in post-tax dollars or you're gonna have a bad time.

We're taking about a pre-tax salary at 500k. Capital gains means no payroll taxes and discounted long term taxes too.

And 80k is still well over the average household income

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#193

Post by mindcrime »

Holy fuck, the cynicism and negativity here is totally out of control. What started as a very interesting post on the merits of extrinsic motivation vs intrinsic motivation has turned into "let's shit on somebody for pursuing their dream". This is pathetic.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#194

Post by smileysteve »

spyspy wrote: post #175
smileysteve wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

~$100k/year if returns are based on 10%. Aka, what some people use for expected S&P returns to beat

That's mostly capital gains. He won't earn that in steady dividends to live off of.

These are fungible. (We're already averaging out volatility)

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#195

Post by antisthenes »

startupdiscuss wrote: post #166
antisthenes wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You would not expect people to give that up. The question is why? I would absolutely expect people to give that up, as well as any senior economist student would tell you, the labor preference curve is backward-bending after you start making a certain amount of money. > He was so lucky and is giving it up! Aren't you curious why? Not in the slightest. There are multiple studies saying that happiness plateaus after…

> I would absolutely expect people to give that up, as well as any senior economist student would tell you, the labor preference curve is backward-bending after you start making a certain amount of money. Are you sure this is a good student? The bend in the curve demonstrates the preference for incremental wealth. So you might forego $500k to $600k. Going down to $0 takes you through the steepest part of the curve. (…

> I am not sure what you mean by "probably found his own plateau". Do you mean he found he didn't need as much money to live?

He figured out that living on $150k (stated elsewhere) and doing his own thing 24/7 gives him more utility and satisfaction than earning $500k and working at Amazon full time.

Neither one is particularly interesting, because it's already in dream territory for most people and if you gave them a choice of living on $150k and working on their own business (an enormous safety net), most people would be happy with those options.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#196

Post by fjp »

cpursley wrote: post #111
pureagave wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the bay area and almost everywhere on the west coast you are looking at over $1k/month in property taxes for that house with a "paid-off mortgage." In most states you never really "own" your home. You only own it while you pay tax every six months until you are dead.

There's more to the US (and the world) than the West Coast.

I think the commenter's point is yes you could cash out and move to nowheresville with a cheap house, but there's no point in playing that hypothetical game because it doesn't end (live in the ghetto! Your house is valued at $10k, aren't those low low property taxes sweet??)

They making the probably-fair assumption that these hypothetical people want to live at least close to where they're rooted their lives.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#197

Post by fjp »

DVassallo wrote: post #89
Someone1234 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you'd have $275k net. If you remove generous expenses, you have $200k a year in savings. In Seattle Washington? You'd have an extremely hard time making ends meet on $75K, it certainly isn't "generous." For example median home value in Seattle is $725K.

My expenses are about $150K a year. Fixed costs per month: * $5K mortgage * $1.2K health insurance * $300 life and disability insurance * $800 utilities * $2K home services: nanny, sitter, cleaner * $800 school / preschool and kids activities * $2K groceries, essentials, etc I have a family, two small kids (4 and 2), and live a comfortable life in Seattle. I could obviously adjust my standard of living, move somewher…

Wow how much nanny-ing are you getting for $2k a year?

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#198

Post by mindcrime »

hprotagonist wrote: post #3

I’m going all in on independence, and I’m going to try to make a living with my own bare hands starting from nothing. 500k/year in your last year is "nothing", huh? It really undercuts the entire thrust of the post, because you're starting with a nice big war chest and a hell of a safety net, not "nothing".

500k/year in your last year is "nothing",

Please. It was perfectly obvious from context that the "nothing" he was referring to was his "new thing". No product, no customers, no brand, no marketing, no customer discovery, etc... that's pretty much "nothing" in terms of starting a business.

It's not like he claimed to be broke, or a destitute, homeless, bum. If anything, I kinda feel like we should give the OP credit for being transparent in a way that most people aren't.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#199

Post by mindcrime »

antisthenes wrote: post #159
startupdiscuss wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're looking at it the wrong way (i think). The point is not that he is starving, or that he is desperate. The point of that number is what he gave up! The point is he gave up a job of 0.5 million, potentially 1 million in a few years. To top it off the job had reasonable hours, great people and he was getting positive feedback. You would not expect people to give that up. The question is why? Instead, you're point…

> You would not expect people to give that up. The question is why? I would absolutely expect people to give that up, as well as any senior economist student would tell you, the labor preference curve is backward-bending after you start making a certain amount of money. > He was so lucky and is giving it up! Aren't you curious why? Not in the slightest. There are multiple studies saying that happiness plateaus after…

I would absolutely expect people to give that up, as well as any senior economist student would tell you, the labor preference curve is backward-bending after you start making a certain amount of money.

But a plateau would just mean he quit advancing. This guy didn't stop on a plateau, he stepped off a cliff. That's a pretty big difference.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#200

Post by NKosmatos »

DVassallo wrote: post #18
mprev wrote: post #4

The tl;dr is that when someone is paying you $500k a year then the work itself might not be all that motivating. However, within time, the money isn't enough to motivate you either. You gotta wonder, though, what the rest of the world would think if they stumbled across this kind of blog post.

Author here. Agree. But I bet most of the audience here is already earning enough. Once you cover the basics, the returns of additional income diminish quickly. I chose to say how much I was earning just to emphasize that everything was really going well at my job, including compensation.

No offense, but there are people all over the world reading HN. We’re not all living in a country that can pay SW engineers such large salaries. Good for you and all the best, but please try to think of us living with 15k€ per year. The reason you’re getting a lot of negativity and envy is because we’re living in different environments and we can’t relate to what you’re describing. Anyhow, I hope your decision plays out and you finally find what you’re looking for, even if I don’t agree with you.
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