4 ms·
I spent eight years or so working at an investment bank in NYC on the technology side of things while my wife finished up grad school. The pay was good, but the
by kchoudhu 10y ago
I spent eight years or so working at an investment bank in NYC on the technology side of things while my wife finished up grad school. The pay was good, but the hours and schedule rigidity were not.
My wife eventually got a really good professorship halfway around the world. We had a couple of titanic fights about what taking this job would entail -- and we eventually came to the conclusion that we would come out ahead if I quit and started my own company. I'm concentrating on building a portfolio of services now that will provide cashflow for a bigger project later on -- and it's going well. I get to play with the kids all day, write code when I feel like it (mostly late at night) and focus on getting healthier (I've lost about 20 pounds in the last year...no more stress eating on the job). Location doesn't matter because Internet: last year we spent 8 months in Doha, 2 months bumming around Europe and 1 each with family in Los Angeles and Bangladesh.
Honestly, I'm surprised more techies don't go down this road.
- dajohnson89 10y agoIt's risky.
- kchoudhu 10y agoIt worked out for us, but I would be peddling bad advice if I didn't add that I don't recommend doing it without a substantial financial backstop already in place.
- jelliclesfarm 10y agoQuestion: Don't you have to pay tax stateside on income earned outside the USA?
- kchoudhu 10y agoAfter a certain income threshold, yes. The income threshold is actually quite high: 103K of income earned abroad per person in a family is exempt from US taxation, which is a substantial savings. I'm not comfortable disclosing my personal situation in any greater detail in public -- but I'm happy to chat about it over email if you are interested!
- jelliclesfarm 10y agoThanks! (and apologies)
- morgante 10y agoIf you do contract development, it's really not that risky. If anything, I'd argue it's riskier not having that option available. Even though I've taken full-time jobs on occasion, always having the option to fall back on contracting is an amazing safety net.
- j_s 10y agoVery curious about the tax implications of this approach.
- kchoudhu 10y agoWe moved to a jurisdiction without income tax, so we were only taxed on our earned income above a certain threshold. As US citizens, it was a reasonably lucrative move.
- antisthenes 10y agoAh, yes, if only being in Princeton and then working for Wall street for 8 years was available to everyone. Wonder why doesn't everyone just do it? It's so easy, right?
- kchoudhu 10y agoNo argument that this isn't an option available to everyone, but a large number of technologists have the financial klout to make this work.