Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success? • Hacker News Board

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#191

Post by petercooper » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 4:34 PM UTC

roel_v wrote: post #176

petercooper wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$100k isn't successful, it's the bare minimum as a professional. If you're an engineer, all that's required to earn that much is show up on time and be good at your job. The cold, hard truth is if you don't earn at least that much, you either suck at your job or suck at negotiating. This appears to be true of the Americans I know but this level of salary is.. uncommon amongst the Europeans (particularly the British)…

It's not that uncommon, it's in what people look at as 'salary'. In Europe, salary is not just what you get (net pay), it's not even your gross salary (as it is on your pay slip), it also includes the taxes your company pays on your salary, too; plus any pension benefits, health care/SS contributions (including those paid by the employer), etc. Once you count those, European 'salaries' come much closer to US equivale…

I can't speak for Europe as a whole but in the UK a "salary" refers to the amount of money earned pre-tax by the employee (and not including any taxes paid by the employer). All job ads are written that way and salaries are discussed and negotiated in this way. Perhaps continental Europe is different in this regard, as you suggest, however.

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#192

Post by tomkarlo » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 4:51 PM UTC

danssig wrote: post #151

nostrademons wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is so incredibly misleading. The problem with these cost-of-living adjusters is that they don't consider which goods are location-dependent and which aren't. So yes, your rent will probably be double in SF what it is in Houston. However, if you make $100K, rent is only a small portion of your income. And a dollar of savings in SF is just as good as a dollar of savings in Houston. The way COL-calculators should w…

This a million times over. I've tried to explain this so many times to my friends who insist on making sub $80k in backwater places citing cost of living "advantages". Uh, no. A BMW or iPhone will cost about the same in Tulsa as it does in New York City.

As much as I love New York, this isn't true, at least for the car. The base payment on the BMW will be the same (call it $600 if you buy) but your insurance will be higher in urban areas, you may pay as much as $300-400 a month for parking in Manhattan, and gas is probably higher as well.

So that car ends up being 20-30% more expensive in NY vs. a rural area, or even vs. say Los Angeles, where a parking space runs about $100 a month. This is why so few people living in Manhattan have cars - the net cost is well over $1,000 a month and you might as well just rent all the time.

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#193

Post by willyt » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 6:05 PM UTC

petercooper wrote: post #170

bruceboughton wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never thought I'd see living in Croydon discussed on HN. (I currently live in Croydon, very close to the station, for commuting into London)

I used to live in Warlingham so Croydon often comes to mind :-) You think that's weird though.. you try bumping into people from Lincolnshire on here (where I live now). It happens!

Well I wasn't earning anywhere near £60k when I moved away. But it's not an unreasonable salary for soho creatives or a random job in the 'city' with 5-10 years experience. I used to live in Clapton about 6 years ago just off the 'murder mile' it was a bit like living in 'the wire', but we were younger and didn't care. We shared a two bedroom basement flat between 3 people and the rent was about £900. The second bedroom didn't have any windows. I'm sure you can find rents below £1300 for two bedrooms if you go further out. But you pay in train fares and commute time, especially if your office isn't central. You need two incomes for sure, but when you have young kids all of the second income goes on childcare as both earners need to be out of the house 11hrs per day. That's why we recently gave it up and moved to the country. Is that why you're in Lincolnshire?

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#194

Post by dgroves » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 6:09 PM UTC

jberryman wrote: post #81

tastybites wrote: post #32

$100k isn't successful, it's the bare minimum as a professional. If you're an engineer, all that's required to earn that much is show up on time and be good at your job. The cold, hard truth is if you don't earn at least that much, you either suck at your job or suck at negotiating. Your bosses and many of your peers earn twice as much as that. Edit: IF you work in the corporate world. Clearly if you're a lifestyle-b…

> $100k isn't successful, it's the bare minimum as a professional. As a professional what? Man this place can be a fucking drag sometimes.

Whore, a professional whore - we are all whores; after all we are not girlfriends, we are in it for the money.

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#195

Post by phlux » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 6:16 PM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #145

timr wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"rent = $1000 studio or share" Uh huh. Now, do that when you're 35, with a wife and two kids. I think it's easy to forget that people in other parts of the country do things like raise families. Also, most people don't generally want to live with roommates past their 20s. It gets old. I know where you're coming from -- I live a fairly frugal lifestyle, and I'm doing fine while renting an apartment in SF with no wife…

If you're married with kids, presumably you have a second income. The great-grandparent poster did figure in $1000/month for childcare. That $6k/month becomes $12k/month if your wife makes as much. Anyway, my parents raised my sister and I on a single teacher's salary that was a lot less than $100K. Yes, kids do cost more than being a bachelor. However, a lot of the expenses I see batted around as justification for w…

>...Anyway, my parents raised my sister and I on a single teacher's salary that was a lot less than $100K

Sure, when? 15+ years ago?

Also, why would you assume that my SO also makes 100K? She doesnt, as a hair stylist - she makes very little comparatively.

What egregious expenses did I have in my post if anything? The ONLY luxury items I had in my list were a beer with friends and a bottle of wine.

The problem I think we are seeing here is that everyone who thinks that 100K is a lot of money is:

Not/has not been Married

Has no kids

Is under 35

Also, @JasonKester: "wearing monogrammed blazers to school"

You fail to understand that simply having a kid is going to cost you ~1500 in childcare expenses, assuming you dont have a stay at home SO to watch after the child.

Its not a status statement -- try looking up what freaking baby sitters/nannies cost for an infant, whom you cannot slap a monogrammed badge on their blazer and dump them off on the corner.

This is a common problem with YC/HN -- there are a lot of /lawn

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#196

Post by timr » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 6:24 PM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #145

timr wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"rent = $1000 studio or share" Uh huh. Now, do that when you're 35, with a wife and two kids. I think it's easy to forget that people in other parts of the country do things like raise families. Also, most people don't generally want to live with roommates past their 20s. It gets old. I know where you're coming from -- I live a fairly frugal lifestyle, and I'm doing fine while renting an apartment in SF with no wife…

If you're married with kids, presumably you have a second income. The great-grandparent poster did figure in $1000/month for childcare. That $6k/month becomes $12k/month if your wife makes as much. Anyway, my parents raised my sister and I on a single teacher's salary that was a lot less than $100K. Yes, kids do cost more than being a bachelor. However, a lot of the expenses I see batted around as justification for w…

"Anyway, my parents raised my sister and I on a single teacher's salary that was a lot less than $100K. Yes, kids do cost more than being a bachelor. However, a lot of the expenses I see batted around as justification for why you need $100K just to live today are utterly ridiculous. 90% of American households get by with much less than that."

Yes, they do. In other parts of the country.

What your parents did 20+ years ago has very little bearing on the cost of raising a family in San Francisco, today. It takes more than one spouse with a sub-$100k job. Again, $100k just isn't that much money in a place where rent on a decent one-bedroom starts at $2,000 a month.

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#197

Post by ww » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 7:06 PM UTC

quickpost wrote: post #188

ww wrote: post #108

Alternate between billing really high to fix really really screwed up projects and billing a bit lower but taking interesting projects that you can use to update your skillset. I've made 125kish a year contracting this way in the non-major, low cost-of-living cities. Plus these contracts typically last up to 5 years so you have better stability than contracts of 6 months. This is just one way, but its an easy way. I'…

How do you find these contracts? Especially, before you broke into the industry and created a large network of contacts?

I really never had a large network of contacts. I just used DICE and the like. My technique is just do as many interviews as possible when it's time. If I wasn't so lazy I would market myself better. I have a bunch of other rules but they are for when you are already on site. I can post those too if you want to know.

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#198

Post by SageRaven » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 7:12 PM UTC

natch wrote: post #138

SageRaven wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very true. My last two tax filings showed I [edit: grossed] less than $15,000 for the past 2 years, yet I generally have more discretionary income now than the years when I was making ~$50,000/yr. I also have a wife and two kids. I have no debt of any kind (house and car owned outright), am quite frugal, have two monthly bills (phone/internet and power), and three yearly bills (property tax, car registration,…

Then your case is special (maybe you are just, well, more mature in years than many of us, or maybe you had family help). Most people just starting out don't own their houses outright.

I'm almost forty. No family help.

What we did was buy progressively cheaper and smaller homes, as opposed to the general trend of buying up. That, combined with a couple of modest (no more than $20k profit) real estate sales of raw land we purchased, we were able to pay everything off a couple of years ago.

I decided a long time ago that working outside the home, and working full-time at all, was detrimental to our quality of life. As such, being financially "secure" meant not owing anything to anybody and having minimal living expenses. It took almost 15 years, but we eventually achieved our very humble goal.

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#199

Post by krschultz » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 7:18 PM UTC

tomkarlo wrote: post #192

danssig wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This a million times over. I've tried to explain this so many times to my friends who insist on making sub $80k in backwater places citing cost of living "advantages". Uh, no. A BMW or iPhone will cost about the same in Tulsa as it does in New York City.

As much as I love New York, this isn't true, at least for the car. The base payment on the BMW will be the same (call it $600 if you buy) but your insurance will be higher in urban areas, you may pay as much as $300-400 a month for parking in Manhattan, and gas is probably higher as well. So that car ends up being 20-30% more expensive in NY vs. a rural area, or even vs. say Los Angeles, where a parking space runs ab…

Actually, insurance is not the killer in Manhattan. Parking is. Insurance is a very flexible cost.

Although I always assumed that living in NYC, I wouldn't have a car. Take the car insurance, gas, and depreciation costs of the car and put it towards rent and call it even.

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#200

Post by cheez » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 7:23 PM UTC

JabavuAdams wrote: post #190

cheez wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Toronto and I would love to buy a place in downtown Toronto for sub-500K. The house I live in now is "valued" at $500K and is nowhere special, but it's awesome.

http://www.realtor.ca/map.aspx?&vs=VEResidential&bed... Interestingly, it looks like prices in my old neighbourhood are roughly the same, to 50k higher. However, in the new neighbourhood things are up 150k+ http://www.realtor.ca/map.aspx?&vs=VEResidential&bed...

sub-500K = $499K? I guess you are right, technically. Once you get past $490, they are duplexes.