5 ms·

The OP of this thread, who lives in SF, mentions he has about $11k left over every month after paying for rent and living expenses, and after spending $1200 a m

The OP of this thread, who lives in SF, mentions he has about $11k left over every month after paying for rent and living expenses, and after spending $1200 a month in 'fun' expenses. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20943699 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20943699 Yes SF is expensive, but these salaries are absurd.

craigzucchini 7y ago
Yikes. Dig the name btw.
hellofunk 7y ago
But you must also look at how much space belongs to that one individual for the rent they pay, vs elsewhere; not to mention, California's very high taxes. It's common for those with seemingly high salaries to have very little space or actually share it with many people, and if you lived like that in other places you'd also end up with more leftover each month, even with a lower salary.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- tidepod12 7y ago
  OP mentions he pays $2400 in rent, which would get you a pretty decent studio or half of a 2br apartment in some very nice places in SF. The $11k leftover is also after taxes (and also after 'fun' spending and utilites/food).
- filoleg 7y ago
  ok sure, let's imagine that this specific individual decides to spend $2k more on rent to have a place just to himself, which would bring his net after all expenses to over $9k. Still a lot, so the housing costs don't make that much of a difference here.
  - hellofunk 7y ago
    But rent is just part of the picture, and 2k is a low estimate to match actual quality of life. What about the much higher taxes, much higher prices for other aspects of living?
    - heyoni 7y ago
      He’s gonna need that extra $2k now that the SALT deductions are gone.
    - filoleg 7y ago
      that's why I said "2k MORE", on top of how much he is already paying for rent by sharing a place with someone.
manfredo 7y ago
Apparently he's including equity in that figure, not just salary. With that in mind, those figures not super out of the ordinary for devs in SF.
- balfirevic 7y ago
  Which he should, for liquid stock of a publicly traded company.
  - manfredo 7y ago
    It's still not the same thing. I worked at a company whose stock price dropped by 40% in the span of a year. If someone is making $100k/$100k stock and equity, then that can easily become $100k/50k. It's even worse than that because you paid taxes on the stock at the vesting price and not the sell price (you can deduct this as a capital gains loss, but it's still money you're not getting). That poster is definitely has good compensation, but TC needs to be broken into salary and equity.
    - tidepod12 7y ago
      The companies that I am aware of award stock units based on their monetary value. If the stock is worth $100/unit, and your TC is to get $100k in stocks, you get $100k in stocks. If the stock falls to be worth $50/unit, you still get $100k in stocks. Your compensation has nothing to do with stock price. Your decision to sell or hold onto the stock is an investment decision made by you, but isn't really relevant to the discussion of "this is how much money was given to me by my company".
      - balfirevic 7y ago
        Is there a time period between being awarded stock and being able to sell it?
      - encoderer 7y ago
        This isn’t normal. They do often have a minimum compensation target but it’s going to be a lot less than your advertised comp. once your stock is granted the number of shares is locked in.
refurb 7y ago
Spreading equity across several weeks can be very misleading when you’re in the middle of a period where the stock price is shooting up. When the stock price flattens, that extra $11k per month might turn into an extra $5k per month which isn’t exactly rolling in cash in SF.
- tidepod12 7y ago
  >Spreading equity across several weeks can be very misleading when you’re in the middle of a period where the stock price is shooting up. Shooting up? Dude works at Pinterest, and Pinterest stock has actually been falling recently. >extra $5k per month which isn’t exactly rolling in cash in SF. Five thousand dollars a month is rolling in cash for anywhere. This is the type of attitude I'm talking about in my other comment in this thread. There's an incredible loss of perception when it comes to SVers and what constitutes a lot of money and what doesn't. An extra $5k a month is more than the entire salary of the average American household. Hell, it's almost more than the average SF income!
  - refurb 7y ago
    It’s important to note I said “in SF”. If you want to save up a $300k down payment on a single family home, $5k a month in savings will take you 5 years (assuming you ignore your retirement entirely). Otherwise, I agree that $5k per month after taxes and expenses is a ton of money.
    - tidepod12 7y ago
      My point was that $5k a month is a lot of money, even in SF! $5,000 a month is more than the take-home income of the average worker in SF.
  - heyoni 7y ago
    Cool. Save up 100k and move to the middle of where in India. You won’t be able to do your job, or talk to anyone but hey, you’ll be better off than most of the world.
  - 7y ago

craigzucchini 7y ago

Yikes. Dig the name btw.

hellofunk 7y ago

But you must also look at how much space belongs to that one individual for the rent they pay, vs elsewhere; not to mention, California's very high taxes. It's common for those with seemingly high salaries to have very little space or actually share it with many people, and if you lived like that in other places you'd also end up with more leftover each month, even with a lower salary.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
tidepod12 7y ago
OP mentions he pays $2400 in rent, which would get you a pretty decent studio or half of a 2br apartment in some very nice places in SF. The $11k leftover is also after taxes (and also after 'fun' spending and utilites/food).
filoleg 7y ago
ok sure, let's imagine that this specific individual decides to spend $2k more on rent to have a place just to himself, which would bring his net after all expenses to over $9k. Still a lot, so the housing costs don't make that much of a difference here.
- hellofunk 7y ago
  But rent is just part of the picture, and 2k is a low estimate to match actual quality of life. What about the much higher taxes, much higher prices for other aspects of living?
  - heyoni 7y ago
    He’s gonna need that extra $2k now that the SALT deductions are gone.
  - filoleg 7y ago
    that's why I said "2k MORE", on top of how much he is already paying for rent by sharing a place with someone.

manfredo 7y ago

Apparently he's including equity in that figure, not just salary. With that in mind, those figures not super out of the ordinary for devs in SF.

balfirevic 7y ago
Which he should, for liquid stock of a publicly traded company.
- manfredo 7y ago
  It's still not the same thing. I worked at a company whose stock price dropped by 40% in the span of a year. If someone is making $100k/$100k stock and equity, then that can easily become $100k/50k. It's even worse than that because you paid taxes on the stock at the vesting price and not the sell price (you can deduct this as a capital gains loss, but it's still money you're not getting). That poster is definitely has good compensation, but TC needs to be broken into salary and equity.
  - tidepod12 7y ago
    The companies that I am aware of award stock units based on their monetary value. If the stock is worth $100/unit, and your TC is to get $100k in stocks, you get $100k in stocks. If the stock falls to be worth $50/unit, you still get $100k in stocks. Your compensation has nothing to do with stock price. Your decision to sell or hold onto the stock is an investment decision made by you, but isn't really relevant to the discussion of "this is how much money was given to me by my company".
    - balfirevic 7y ago
      Is there a time period between being awarded stock and being able to sell it?
    - encoderer 7y ago
      This isn’t normal. They do often have a minimum compensation target but it’s going to be a lot less than your advertised comp. once your stock is granted the number of shares is locked in.

refurb 7y ago

Spreading equity across several weeks can be very misleading when you’re in the middle of a period where the stock price is shooting up. When the stock price flattens, that extra $11k per month might turn into an extra $5k per month which isn’t exactly rolling in cash in SF.

tidepod12 7y ago
>Spreading equity across several weeks can be very misleading when you’re in the middle of a period where the stock price is shooting up. Shooting up? Dude works at Pinterest, and Pinterest stock has actually been falling recently. >extra $5k per month which isn’t exactly rolling in cash in SF. Five thousand dollars a month is rolling in cash for anywhere. This is the type of attitude I'm talking about in my other comment in this thread. There's an incredible loss of perception when it comes to SVers and what constitutes a lot of money and what doesn't. An extra $5k a month is more than the entire salary of the average American household. Hell, it's almost more than the average SF income!
- refurb 7y ago
  It’s important to note I said “in SF”. If you want to save up a $300k down payment on a single family home, $5k a month in savings will take you 5 years (assuming you ignore your retirement entirely). Otherwise, I agree that $5k per month after taxes and expenses is a ton of money.
  - tidepod12 7y ago
    My point was that $5k a month is a lot of money, even in SF! $5,000 a month is more than the take-home income of the average worker in SF.
- heyoni 7y ago
  Cool. Save up 100k and move to the middle of where in India. You won’t be able to do your job, or talk to anyone but hey, you’ll be better off than most of the world.
- 7y ago