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What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

mtlynch.io

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Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#81

Post by philsnow »

clumsysmurf wrote: post #26
icedchai wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those things are obviously unfortunate, but relatively rare. It is also rare to win the lottery, or actually make a profit on startup stock options. I am not talking about these cases. The average person in this industry makes good money, and should have the ability to save and invest some of their income.

> Those things are obviously unfortunate, but relatively rare Not rare at all, 1 in 5 Americans is being pursued by collection agencies for being unable to pay medical bills.

wow, do you have a citation for that ?

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#82

Post by gowld »

marssaxman wrote: post #54
monktastic1 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

350k isn't uncommon for a senior SWE at Google. In a state with no income tax (such as WA), it's not unreasonable to estimate he takes home 250k (71%). Suppose he spends $60k a year, leaving him $190k/year to bank. Given the performance of the S&P 500 in the last four years, that could be a million today.

I don't know where these numbers come from. I made a gross salary of $140k the year I worked at Google as a senior engineer, and I made some extra money via 401k matching too. $190k would definitely have been more than my entire income, that's for sure. It's hard to imagine that salaries have more than doubled in the six years since then. And... spending only $60k a year, living in Seattle? Yeah, maybe if you live li…

Did you forget that you have RSUs? $60K is plenty for a single person. Working for more than 1 years helps, too, if you sold your stock before it appreciated, since 4-year vest forces you to not sell for 1-3 more years.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#83

Post by [deleted] »

throwawayok wrote: post #32
imbusy111 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume you are being sarcastic. How do you put off $1M in assets with a $200k median salary in four years? $200k x 4 x 65% is just $520k without even any expenses paid such as the ~$72k you would have paid for a room in a shared apartment.

Well, in addition to salary, he would have also gotten a bonus and stock. The bonus might be $50K/year, and then maybe another $100K/year in stock. The number of shares in the stock grant would have been computed at the date he started -- 5 years ago, GOOG was around $440/share, so at today's price, the shares would be worth $245K/year, assuming he held onto them as they vested. So, that adds up to around $495K/year,…

[deleted]

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#84

Post by [deleted] »

willbw wrote: post #58
matte_black wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you finally break free of the startup/entrepreneurial mentality, suddenly the world opens up. The possibilities are so vast (but not all possibilities mean freedom). Breaking free from the gold rush (or in my case, app rush), you start to realize that huge exits and lots of users really doesn't matter as much as comfort and stability. And then you might even consider doing work that doesn't give you equity or ha…

Is it just me or is this style of comment, where you replicate someone else's comment and change some words to make them appear foolish, tremendously irritating and not conducive to good discussion? Imagine having a conversation in person where someone parrots back your phrases changing a few nouns. Would you do that? It is also such a derivative style of commenting, I've seen it many times on HN and I wish people wo…

[deleted]

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#85

Post by ironjunkie »

willbw wrote: post #58
matte_black wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you finally break free of the startup/entrepreneurial mentality, suddenly the world opens up. The possibilities are so vast (but not all possibilities mean freedom). Breaking free from the gold rush (or in my case, app rush), you start to realize that huge exits and lots of users really doesn't matter as much as comfort and stability. And then you might even consider doing work that doesn't give you equity or ha…

Is it just me or is this style of comment, where you replicate someone else's comment and change some words to make them appear foolish, tremendously irritating and not conducive to good discussion? Imagine having a conversation in person where someone parrots back your phrases changing a few nouns. Would you do that? It is also such a derivative style of commenting, I've seen it many times on HN and I wish people wo…

When done right, it is quite enlightening.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#86

Post by stealthcat »

greggman wrote: post #74

I glad it worked out for the author but so far it hasn't worked out for me. It's been 5 years which wasn't my plan. I thought it would be 6 months until I figured out what I want to do. Things that happened. Travelled: found it mostly extremely lonely to travel alone. Got sick of seeing the same things (this place's contemporary art museum, that place's famous church). Of course I saw some amazing things but I now th…

Are you married? Seems you have plenty of time.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#87

Post by ironjunkie »

I liked reading this blog post and found it interesting as this is something I'm looking to do eventually.

Also, is it only me that have such a boring life? or normal people don't have that issue to have too many emails/notifications to respond to? How many people contact you, seriously?

But I have a mini-rant about all those blog-posts with subjects such as "Why I decided to quit Google", or "Why I'm leaving for a startup after being a boss at Facebook for X years".

Those blog post usually always reiterate that the "Smartest people in the world" work at those companies and that it is the "Best job in the world". Sometimes a little bit less arrogance and namedropping would be a good thing.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#88

Post by protomyth »

willbw wrote: post #58
matte_black wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you finally break free of the startup/entrepreneurial mentality, suddenly the world opens up. The possibilities are so vast (but not all possibilities mean freedom). Breaking free from the gold rush (or in my case, app rush), you start to realize that huge exits and lots of users really doesn't matter as much as comfort and stability. And then you might even consider doing work that doesn't give you equity or ha…

Is it just me or is this style of comment, where you replicate someone else's comment and change some words to make them appear foolish, tremendously irritating and not conducive to good discussion? Imagine having a conversation in person where someone parrots back your phrases changing a few nouns. Would you do that? It is also such a derivative style of commenting, I've seen it many times on HN and I wish people wo…

It is a fairly common way to show the opposite (or near opposite) opinion has a weight of its own. It works best when the the original comment is extreme and definitive. It is also not a half bad way to do a self critique of what you are writing to see if you are pushing (although, I must admit when I'm pushing I'm probably not in the mood for self critique :( )

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#89

Post by sizzle »

greggman wrote: post #74

I glad it worked out for the author but so far it hasn't worked out for me. It's been 5 years which wasn't my plan. I thought it would be 6 months until I figured out what I want to do. Things that happened. Travelled: found it mostly extremely lonely to travel alone. Got sick of seeing the same things (this place's contemporary art museum, that place's famous church). Of course I saw some amazing things but I now th…

Have you entertained the idea of settling down with a significant other? From what you shared, it seems like your problems stem from a lack of purpose outside of work and wealth building.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#90

Post by ironjunkie »

throwawayok wrote: post #32
imbusy111 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume you are being sarcastic. How do you put off $1M in assets with a $200k median salary in four years? $200k x 4 x 65% is just $520k without even any expenses paid such as the ~$72k you would have paid for a room in a shared apartment.

Well, in addition to salary, he would have also gotten a bonus and stock. The bonus might be $50K/year, and then maybe another $100K/year in stock. The number of shares in the stock grant would have been computed at the date he started -- 5 years ago, GOOG was around $440/share, so at today's price, the shares would be worth $245K/year, assuming he held onto them as they vested. So, that adds up to around $495K/year,…

those numbers are on the high side, but yes indeed.

Also all those calculations are completely forgetting that money is a time-sensitive value. If invested wisely, the first $ from 4 years ago would be 1.7$ today if invested into a typical low cost SP500

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