> That annual salary far outstrips what I can reasonably expect to earn in a decade, and I'm a developer working for a fintech startup with a good couple of yea

> That annual salary far outstrips what I can reasonably expect to earn in a decade, and I'm a developer working for a fintech startup with a good couple of years under my belt. For most people in the world, $500K pa is a preposterous amount of money. There are developers at fintech startups making $50k/year? After 10 years of employement? Maybe the author is just being superlative here, but I find this surprising. Yes $500k a year is a very high salary, but 1/10th of that is a pretty low salary for an experienced developer - particularly for the latter half of that decade. Depends on skill level, but I'd suggest any developer making less than (70k + 10k * years of experience) take some interviews to check if they are working for below market rate.