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I'm early in my career and I'm bullish on myself, but I would never go around preaching that there's a "high probability of success" of a SWE making >$500k beca

I'm early in my career and I'm bullish on myself, but I would never go around preaching that there's a "high probability of success" of a SWE making >$500k because clearly there is not. I'm bullish because I have evidence to support that possibility. Most people have zero evidence that they would ever make >$500k, let alone having a "high probability of success".

AYBABTME 5y ago
But you don't need to pull 500k/y to end up with >1M$ after 12y. Just compound interest will get you there rather quickly if you save half of your 105k median dev salary. Of course doing so isn't comfortable, but I'm sure you can agree it's doable. Also while 500k/y is a stretch and usually occurs due to stock appreciation (not salary), you can reasonably assume that landing a job at big tech will lead you to a 300k total comp within 12y. If you care enough to play the career game.
- ZephyrBlu 5y ago
  I was under the impression we were discussing the authors position (Very high salary + multimillions in the bank), not just >$1M after 12 years. But in any case... > I'm sure you would agree it's doable It's literally not doable. https://www.investor.gov/financial-tools-calculators/calculators/compound-interest-calculator https://www.investor.gov/financial-tools-calculators/calcula... Plug in: - Initial Investment: $0 - Monthly Contribution: $4200 ($50400 annualized) - Length of Time in Years: 12 years - Estimated Interest Rate: 8% - Interest rate variance range: 0 - Compound Frequency: Monthly The output is $1,010,135.22 This is with a generous rate of return compounding monthly, very high savings rate and not taking income tax into account. > you can reasonably assume that landing a job at big tech will lead you to a 300k total comp Joining Big Tech is already an unreasonable assumption for the vast majority of developers: https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1400506450124935171 https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1400506450124935171. Someone's propensity to play the career game doesn't magically increase their capability to do so.

AYBABTME 5y ago

But you don't need to pull 500k/y to end up with >1M$ after 12y. Just compound interest will get you there rather quickly if you save half of your 105k median dev salary. Of course doing so isn't comfortable, but I'm sure you can agree it's doable. Also while 500k/y is a stretch and usually occurs due to stock appreciation (not salary), you can reasonably assume that landing a job at big tech will lead you to a 300k total comp within 12y. If you care enough to play the career game.

ZephyrBlu 5y ago
I was under the impression we were discussing the authors position (Very high salary + multimillions in the bank), not just >$1M after 12 years. But in any case... > I'm sure you would agree it's doable It's literally not doable. https://www.investor.gov/financial-tools-calculators/calculators/compound-interest-calculator https://www.investor.gov/financial-tools-calculators/calcula... Plug in: - Initial Investment: $0 - Monthly Contribution: $4200 ($50400 annualized) - Length of Time in Years: 12 years - Estimated Interest Rate: 8% - Interest rate variance range: 0 - Compound Frequency: Monthly The output is $1,010,135.22 This is with a generous rate of return compounding monthly, very high savings rate and not taking income tax into account. > you can reasonably assume that landing a job at big tech will lead you to a 300k total comp Joining Big Tech is already an unreasonable assumption for the vast majority of developers: https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1400506450124935171 https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1400506450124935171. Someone's propensity to play the career game doesn't magically increase their capability to do so.