i don't work for a FAANG company but if i did, the reason would be primarily pay. if you're making 500k$/year in california, you can take home around 280k after

i don't work for a FAANG company but if i did, the reason would be primarily pay. if you're making 500k$/year in california, you can take home around 280k after taxes. no small/medium tech business i'm aware of is paying that much. it's easy to say money isn't everything. but you don't really need to work very long to retire with that kind of money. if you're single (even in the bay area) it should be relatively easy to live a fairly cushy life on 100k$/year spending. that means you can pocket 180k$/year in savings. if you invest it, and the stock market returns 7%/year on average[1], you will be a millionaire in 5 years. it's one of the lowest risk ways for a young engineer to accumulate wealth. definitely within reach to retire in your early 40s, depending on how much money you want to spend. [1] no investment is guaranteed but the stock market has been very reliable in the past with a long enough timeline.