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How does an Individual Contributor (IC) have to worry about paying taxes? I’ve never worked at a company and had to worry about the timing of my taxes. Save en

• foobiekr 7y ago
  People with windfalls are often surprised how much they owe. As an example, below 1M, I am told, Uber only withheld 25% from vested (taxable) RSU grants. It was worse in 1999. I knew a few people who blew everything they took out at 1Y with the expectation there was more to come. They ended up with significant tax debt due to under withholding once the market crashed and there wasn’t more to come.
• vkou 7y ago
  > Save enough for 2 years? Only a very small percent could actually save 2 years worth of salary. For a family I’m not sure if anyone able to do this. The standard advice is 6 months. You don't need to save 2 years of salary. You need to save 2 years of your expenses. As a SWE, you make at least ~3x what lower-income people in your area make. If you live with the same expenses as those people, you should be saving 2 years of expenses, every year that you work. It's clearly possible to live that way - most people do it just fine. If, however, you are a good participant in the consumer economy, and spend every dollar that you make (and two pennies besides), a downturn may be tough to weather. You might even have to... not renew the lease on that second Tesla.