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Yeah, I definitely didn't mean high engineering standards then. The places you are listing wouldn't work for me because of the little financial incentives they

Yeah, I definitely didn't mean high engineering standards then. The places you are listing wouldn't work for me because of the little financial incentives they provide. As far as I know FAANG are the only places where a reasonably decent software engineer can make ~$400-500k/y (at least those were my offers), and by living frugally the way I do that means massive savings even in a high cost of living location, which puts me closer and closer to my financial freedom goals they day I decide to be done and move to a low cost area. So, I guess working with "very capable people" and a very good paycheck is enough for me :-)

souprock 8y ago
Do you have a well-defined goal in terms of dollars and years? If not, you might always want a bit more money, and thus never quit. You'd miss out on the chance to raise a family. It's safest to get that done before age 30. No matter how much money you get, you can't buy back your younger years after they are gone.
- deanmoriarty 8y ago
  Yes, if I can continue with my current savings rate, I should be done by my mid-late 30s (very early 30s now), with my passive investments fully covering my cost of living at least in Mediterranean Europe (where I'm originally from) or South East Asia (where my partner is from), both amazing places to live :-) Both my partner and I are not looking to have kids (we've thought about it for many years before reaching the conclusion) and we already have extended families with tons of kids, so from that point of view we feel there's nothing we're missing, it's a non-priority. For everything else, I'm not exactly wasting my life right now, I'm enjoying it even in a very high cost of living area: if you can deal with housing (and not having kids admittedly helps a lot since you can live in way smaller and cheaper places close to work), things are not that much more expensive than anywhere else, so I get a lot of experiences with good arbitrage :-)

souprock 8y ago

Do you have a well-defined goal in terms of dollars and years? If not, you might always want a bit more money, and thus never quit. You'd miss out on the chance to raise a family. It's safest to get that done before age 30. No matter how much money you get, you can't buy back your younger years after they are gone.

deanmoriarty 8y ago
Yes, if I can continue with my current savings rate, I should be done by my mid-late 30s (very early 30s now), with my passive investments fully covering my cost of living at least in Mediterranean Europe (where I'm originally from) or South East Asia (where my partner is from), both amazing places to live :-) Both my partner and I are not looking to have kids (we've thought about it for many years before reaching the conclusion) and we already have extended families with tons of kids, so from that point of view we feel there's nothing we're missing, it's a non-priority. For everything else, I'm not exactly wasting my life right now, I'm enjoying it even in a very high cost of living area: if you can deal with housing (and not having kids admittedly helps a lot since you can live in way smaller and cheaper places close to work), things are not that much more expensive than anywhere else, so I get a lot of experiences with good arbitrage :-)