4 ms·

I'll be brutally honest - I'm very tied financially to large paychecks that I can earn with Scala :-(

Viliam1234 5y ago
Consider your long-term financial strategy. Short version: google "early retirement". Long version: Even if you make lot of money, consider spending little, and saving as much as possible. Doing this will increase your freedom in the future. You may be able to choose a different, less paying but more enjoyable job. You might even be able to completely retire, and get extra 8 hours a day! A part of this is knowing how to invest money. There are many scams out there, you need to do some research, but the good start is looking for passively managed index funds ("index funds" = copy the economy, which is generally growing; "passively managed" = you are not spending half of your interest to pay someone to roll the dice). Dunno, you might put 90% of your savings in these, and 10% in crypto. Maybe buy some real estate. The important thing is to invest money and avoid scams. Then watch your savings grow exponentially. Many people with high income get caught in the trap of increasing their spending accordingly. Sometimes the extra spending provides significant extra pleasure, but often the benefits are negligible and people waste money simply "because they can" and because everyone around them is doing the same thing so it would be "weird" not to. Sometimes reducing your expense gives you as much extra money as having a side job, and is incomparably easier and more enjoyable (cooking your own meals may feel low-status, but you are your own boss, there are no meetings, no Jira tickets, no need to compete with anyone). If you don't have kids, as a software developer you should be able to save at least 50% of your salary. (Maybe more if you say the Scala paychecks are especially large.) Think about it this way: if you save 50% of your salary, it means that for every year you work, you get 1 year of vacation... maybe more, if your money collects interest. And if you feel burned out now, it's probably not going to get better in 10 or 20 years. In theory, if you can save 25× your yearly expense, and invest with 4% interest (above inflation) on average, the money will last forever. Note that you can still keep working, even if you no longer have to, and you will have greater freedom at job choice, so probably more enjoyable jobs.

Consider your long-term financial strategy. Short version: google "early retirement". Long version: Even if you make lot of money, consider spending little, and saving as much as possible. Doing this will increase your freedom in the future. You may be able to choose a different, less paying but more enjoyable job. You might even be able to completely retire, and get extra 8 hours a day! A part of this is knowing how to invest money. There are many scams out there, you need to do some research, but the good start is looking for passively managed index funds ("index funds" = copy the economy, which is generally growing; "passively managed" = you are not spending half of your interest to pay someone to roll the dice). Dunno, you might put 90% of your savings in these, and 10% in crypto. Maybe buy some real estate. The important thing is to invest money and avoid scams. Then watch your savings grow exponentially. Many people with high income get caught in the trap of increasing their spending accordingly. Sometimes the extra spending provides significant extra pleasure, but often the benefits are negligible and people waste money simply "because they can" and because everyone around them is doing the same thing so it would be "weird" not to. Sometimes reducing your expense gives you as much extra money as having a side job, and is incomparably easier and more enjoyable (cooking your own meals may feel low-status, but you are your own boss, there are no meetings, no Jira tickets, no need to compete with anyone). If you don't have kids, as a software developer you should be able to save at least 50% of your salary. (Maybe more if you say the Scala paychecks are especially large.) Think about it this way: if you save 50% of your salary, it means that for every year you work, you get 1 year of vacation... maybe more, if your money collects interest. And if you feel burned out now, it's probably not going to get better in 10 or 20 years. In theory, if you can save 25× your yearly expense, and invest with 4% interest (above inflation) on average, the money will last forever. Note that you can still keep working, even if you no longer have to, and you will have greater freedom at job choice, so probably more enjoyable jobs.