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On Quitting

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Re: On Quitting

#61

Post by johnward »

mathgeek wrote: post #16
YuriNiyazov wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you not save any money when you work? If you are not saving 10% - 15% of your paycheck into an account where the money is immediately accessible, you are living above your means.

You don't need to be single or a renter to save. You just need to make it a priority. I'm the sole breadwinner with a wife and two kids, and we pack away 20% out of every paycheck. We own our home and both cars. Do we live a garish lifestyle? Certainly not, but we travel a lot and adhere to our budget (thank goodness for remote jobs).

Not to be a dick but it sounds like you just make a lot of money. I'd consider owning a house and 2 cars to be pretty garish compared to the average middle class family. The luxury of being able to travel is something not many people have. Plus if you have ever had a parent help you with any significant expense you are much luckier than the majority of people. This sounds like one of those /r/personalfinance threads where the op finally paid off debt by cutting expenses, cooking at home, getting $200k windfall from a grandparent dying, etc.

Re: On Quitting

#62

Post by gregd »

purplelobster wrote: post #34
johnward wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL I live beyond my means. Welcome to America. Having 10-15% cushion to save is a luxury for a lot of people. Probably not most people on HN but still.

If you work in tech you should be able to save at least 30%. I save 60%, and I also live in the highest marginal tax rate country in the world. If you can't it probably means you live beyond your means.

Your numbers mean literally nothing to me. What do your expenses cost per month? Children? Food? Housing? Student loans? Car payment? What is your income tax rate? Sales tax rate? Insurance? Phone? Internet?

Re: On Quitting

#63

Post by kdamken »

YuriNiyazov wrote: post #5
gregd wrote: post #4

I have never been in a position to just up and quit a job without having something else lined up. Are you all trust fund kids?

Do you not save any money when you work? If you are not saving 10% - 15% of your paycheck into an account where the money is immediately accessible, you are living above your means.

Right? You should have at least a 6 month emergency fund, and if you're saving properly then you'll find it's not much of an issue. People love to complain about their money as they spend most of it on dumb things they don't really need.

Also - that percentage should be a minimum of 50%. More info on why here - http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-...

Re: On Quitting

#64

Post by YuriNiyazov »

gregd wrote: post #50
nkohari wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really have no idea why you're getting such bad feedback on your comment. It's kind of terrifying to see such negative responses to the idea that people should save money.

It's because of his assumption that if you aren't saving a specific amount (some arbitrary amount that made sense to OP), then you're living beyond your means.

I don't even know where to start with this comment. If you read any "how to plan your life financially" books which are not written for multi-millionaires, but the average "Working Greg", you will see that the agreed upon advice is that you are supposed to save about 25% of your after-tax earnings. I didn't make up 10%-15%, I intentionally lowered the amount from the standard advice because I knew that 25% would elicit responses like yours. Fine, forget the 10% - 15% number.

Let's see if you agree with the following:

If tomorrow you are fired from your job, and you can't afford to live on your state's unemployment aid for six months (that's not an arbitrary number, most states' unemployment period is 6 months) then you are living above your means.

Re: On Quitting

#66

Post by mhurron »

brianwawok wrote: post #40
mistermann wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We own our home and both cars. Whether that is possible depends a lot on where you live - from what I can tell, outside of a few major cities there are plenty of places in the US where you can buy a house for <$200k in the US, good luck with that anywhere in Canada.

But you choose where you live. I do not live in SF, despite the nice weather, because I am not willing to spend a million bucks for a basic house.

> But you choose where you live

Given that it takes money to move, no, you do not always have a choice in where to live.

Re: On Quitting

#67

Post by frou_dh »

gregd wrote: post #42
timjahn wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You and me both. We must be doing something wrong. :)

Right? I keep reading these stories of people who up and just quit jobs at dream companies, which I can totally understand. But what I'm absolutely gobsmacked about is, "then I took 13 months off and roamed the country". Da fuq? I've been working since I was in 9th grade and have NEVER had enough money saved up to take 3 weeks off, much less 13 months.

What exactly is it that you are feigning surprise over? That people on high salaries can save a significant sum of money? What's counterintuitive or surprising about this?

Re: On Quitting

#68

Post by xlm1717 »

elecengin wrote: post #32

A lot of the comments are very harsh. I think the underlying message is getting lost: Sometimes when you know something is wrong, it is easy to focus on all of the prerequisites and peripheral problems and never solve the big problem. This type of mistake is even easier with big problems where the difficulty gap between addressing the big problem and the related little problems is widest. Maybe just abruptly quitting…

Sounds like she has the resources to do so, given all the previous jobs she has had. I would imagine when she is ready to get back into the workforce she won't have trouble landing another job.

Re: On Quitting

#69

Post by GFischer »

purplelobster wrote: post #34
johnward wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL I live beyond my means. Welcome to America. Having 10-15% cushion to save is a luxury for a lot of people. Probably not most people on HN but still.

If you work in tech you should be able to save at least 30%. I save 60%, and I also live in the highest marginal tax rate country in the world. If you can't it probably means you live beyond your means.

I know people that live in the United Arab Emirates too (the country with the highest marginal tax rate), and besides housing, the rest of the stuff is ridiculously cheap, so it makes sense that if you have a high income you can save a lot.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?coun...

According to Numbeo, even if you live in Dubai you're way ahead of someone living in San Francisco, and even Montevideo, Uruguay (where I'm from)

Re: On Quitting

#70

Post by endemic »

adevine wrote: post #38
presidentender wrote: post #3

But was there anything in particular wrong? Was there anything Dropbox should have done differently to keep her? I realize that some places are wrong for some people, in ways that can't be fixed. I'm just curious whether it's possible to articulate how Dropbox was wrong for the author.

She mentioned that Dropbox grew 4x. So, while she didn't (and, I think, wisely) say the exact reason she wanted to leave, a lot of people just prefer working at smaller companies.

I can attest to this. My (soon to be former) company has grown so much, it just feels totally different. I don't know anybody anymore :(
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