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You need to make more than you spend. Your comp is very low so you need to change jobs to get your comp closer to where it should be. Not much else to say on th

You need to make more than you spend. Your comp is very low so you need to change jobs to get your comp closer to where it should be. Not much else to say on this. Start leetcoding and polish your resume. Edit: Yes, $110k for a tech employee with 12 YOE in a HCOL area is very very low. You don't need to work at FAANG to make significantly more than this (see levels.fyi for many examples). The existence of poor people living on less does not change this fact or mean the OP shouldn't strive to be compensated at a level appropriate to their experience.

Otek 5y ago
110k$ is very low? Wow Edit: I understand that not much now. Living in Eastern Europe I have different perspective. BUT, I think that advice: “just earn more” shouldn’t appear when someone asks how to stop living paycheck to paycheck. No matter how much you earn you should always try your best to save some money.
- thebean11 5y ago
  In NYC for a non-entry level software job? Yeah it's pretty low.
  - rzarate 5y ago
    I agree, that's closer to what an intern would make in NYC rather than a director. I'd consider changing industries, maybe engineers are not as valued in marketing agencies as they would on other more tech-heavy industries.
    - Jcowell 5y ago
      Where in NYC are interns making 110K and where can I apply ?
      - thebean11 5y ago
        FAANG, finance companies (banks, Bloomberg etc) plus tons of mid sized tech companies (companies like Mongo, Dropbox etc). Often if salary is lower, there's a relocation bonus that puts you into six figures if you amortize it over your 3-4 months there.
- joshribakoff 5y ago
  For something in demand that takes decades to master that less than 1% of the population can do in one of the most expensive cost of living areas in the world, so yes.
  - brailsafe 5y ago
    I would probably highlight "in one of the most expensive cost of living areas in the world". Otherwise $110k is not very low
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- bogwog 5y ago
  It is for New York
- nine_zeros 5y ago
  $110k is very low for NYC. Federal, state, city, fica taxes will eat close to 50% of that income. The remaining will end up in rent and transportation. God forbid you have some recurring expenses like healthcare or a child.
  - lkbm 5y ago
    So what do the millions of households earning <$60k do? Are they going tens of thousands of dollars deeper in debt each year?
    - serioussecurity 5y ago
      In NYC? They're living without health insurance, 8 people in a 3 bedroom, with less than $500 in savings, and credit card debt, yes. Or they commute two hours each way from Philly. America does not treat it's people well. https://fortunly.com/statistics/american-savings-statistics/#gref https://fortunly.com/statistics/american-savings-statistics/...
      - Jcowell 5y ago
        Errr. I think there’s a big disconnect here. 1) NYC is not just Manhattan. The outer boroughs are also NYC and are far cheaper. Not Nashville cheap but livable. You don’t need 8 people in 3 bedrooms. You can even live in jersey. 2) A lot of NYC has affordable housing and projects. A lot of communities making the basic minimum wage or not at all can live there. 3) 110K is a absolutely doable in NYC. It’s just not doable if you live outside your means.
      - lkbm 5y ago
        > In NYC? They're living without health insurance, 8 people in a 3 bedroom, with less than $500 in savings, and credit card debt, yes. I understand that they don't have savings and have some credit card debt, but we're talking $50,000 per year. And this is over the median household income[0]. Are the people in the 25th percentile living 16 people in a 3 bedroom? The OP has updated to say their mortgage is only $2,600/mo., so even after housing that leaves ~70k over what median household makes before rent. (The OP also reports having three kids, which is almost certainly a large part of that $70k.) I suspect you don't spend a lot of time with people making $30-$70k. They exist, often have housing, and many of them even eat food. It's worth examining how they manage rather than dismissing this as an impossibility. > Or they commute two hours each way from Philly. Nope. NYC residents. Median household income of $63,998 (2019). [0] https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/newyorkcitynewyork/INC110219#INC110219 https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/newyorkcitynewy...
- jurassic 5y ago
  For a software person with 12 years experience in a major US city, $110k is insanely low. I’ve known people who made more than that after a 12 week bootcamp.
- santoshalper 5y ago
  For a tech leadership position in one of the most expensive cities in the world? Absolutely. I work in a mid-priced, midwest city and that would be low for tech leadership.
- globular-toast 5y ago
  Welcome to the HN bubble. Over the few years I've been here the talk about salaries have been getting more and more ridiculous. It started off as "three figures" then rapidly turned into 300-400k and now 110k is very low and considered poverty. There's something about money that causes even intelligent people to lose all sense and perspective.
  - elliottcarlson 5y ago
    For a high cost of living area such as New York, with a family to support, it is unfortunately very low - couple that with their title and years of experience, it is just factual compared to the market that they could be earning near double. At $110k a year, you are looking at a $6k monthly take home; over 1/3rd of that is going to the mortgage OP posted, and they have three children. Once you add insurance, groceries, and other obligations (such as perhaps a car + insurance), it becomes very easy to fall in to the paycheck-to-paycheck life. Yes, $110k is a lot of money, but it quickly disappears depending on where you live - for perspective, based on cost of living, this would be equivalent of earning $41k a year in Kansas City, KS/MO, or $37k in Birmingham AL -- cost of living plays a huge factor, and not accounting for that is the actual loss of sense and perspective.
  - ss108 5y ago
    Inflation, plus the goalposts have genuinely moved, plus, again, these salaries are reported from SF and NYC. Things would be different if we were talking about Austin, or even LA.
  - xboxnolifes 5y ago
    For a tech director, 14 years experience, in one of the most expensive cities in the country, yes, $110k is incredibly underpaid. I make (and so do my friends) the same amount, remotely, as a new-grad, not at a FANNG/MAGMA/WHATEVER.
  - scarface74 5y ago
    We have goof perspective. If he were a teacher, our advice would be different. I basically did a career reset in 2008 - a little over 12 years ago. By changing jobs and working at mostly a bunch of no name companies until 2020, I switched jobs 6 times and went from $80K -$150K and was entertaining offers at other no names companies by 2/2020 as a regular old back end C# CRUD developer - in a place much cheaper than NYC. I did a slight pivot in 2020 that’s not relevant to the discussion.
- swat535 5y ago
  It absolutely is, especially by US standards. As an anecdata, I'm a director of engineering and my base salary is ~205k CAD. At my company (based in Toronto, Canada), we have budgeted between 130k-160k CAD base + bonuses for engineering roles (depending on the experience, position, etc). Yet I consider these salaries to be pretty subpar compared to our US counterparts. Folks, demand a fair wage. When a house costs 1.3M , it's unreasonable to get paid peanuts.
- scarface74 5y ago
  He’s not in Eastern Europe. He’s in the US. Mathematically, we all know that he should be able to earn more.
lkbm 5y ago
Their comp is presumably higher than it was a few years ago, even adjusted for inflation. The question to be asked is why their spending has increased similarly. Half of all households in NYC live on ~$60/yr or less (2019)[0]. What's stopping the OP from having their level of spending and saving $50k (minus taxes) a year? The answer to that is also the answer to their question. "Make more money because $110k is very low" is an absurdly out-of-touch response. [0] https://smartasset.com/retirement/average-salary-in-nyc https://smartasset.com/retirement/average-salary-in-nyc
- jurassic 5y ago
  OP isn’t going to fix his financial picture by skipping lattes and getting a cheaper apartment. Even if he went into hardcore miser mode he might save about $20-30k per year. Compare that with seeking market rate comp he could pretty easily double or triple his income, and be putting away $100k+/yr (and maybe a lot more than that) of additional savings with no change to his lifestyle. Seems pretty obvious where the focus should be. The fact poor people exist doesn’t change the fact OP is likely being taken advantage of by the current employer.
  - bluefirebrand 5y ago
    Certainly, doubling or tripling their comp should be a part of OPs plan, but even if they do make tons more, they may have to adjust spending behaviour to prevent it from overtaking the higher salary eventually. Some people really do just spend every dollar they receive, no matter how much it is.
  - lkbm 5y ago
    Yeah, increasing comp is a good idea, but I assume their comp has increased multiple times over the past decade and it's had zero effect on their saving. Something's causing a growth in spending exactly equal to the growth in income. Increasing income only helps if that function is addressed.
    - scarface74 5y ago
      Maybe 3 kids?
bluefirebrand 5y ago
This may help, but it sounds like what has happened is spending has increased with each level of compensation increase. My advice to OP is: You need to break whatever financial habits you have that prevent you from saving money, and build a habit of saving as much as you can. Just because you get a raise doesn't mean you have to change your lifestyle. You don't have to rent or buy a more expensive place to live, you don't have to lease a more expensive car, buy more expensive meals, take expensive trips, whatever it is. There is some thing you are spending your money on and you need to identify it and get it under control. You can avoid living paycheck to paycheck on almost any kind of budget, but if you always let your spending expand to what you can afford it won't matter how much you earn, you will always feel broke. A common thing I see with my friends who are kind of bad with money is they don't make a calculation of what they need versus what they want. They see stuff they want, they check if they have the money to afford it, and they buy it. It's a bad habit to be in, and you have to be able to say "I am going take the cost of that thing and put it into a savings account instead"
- 6510 5y ago
  A big bag of flour, big bag of onions, keep your yeast growing, 4 or 5 cheeses, big pot of sambal, a salami sausage, ham, bacon, some fish, mushrooms, a variety of frozen vegitable mixes, tomato ketchup, big bottle of olive oil. Oregano, thyme, pepper. mix the dough close to batter. Put flour on a baking tray and spread the dough onto it. Grill on highest settings for 4-6 minutes while you chop the ingredients. Remove the dough from the oven and flip it upside down. Spread a spoon of ketchup over it. Spread out 1-3 spoons of vegetable mix, move them around so that you get zones of flavours, put a tiny slice of salami on one area, make areas of ham and other meat or fish. Add some shrooms, some onion, garlic, poor some oil over it, add garlic, herbs and make zones of cheese. Have the zones overlap or stand alone. It takes a while to perfect the ratios. It should take 6 minutes to prepare the ingredients while the dough is under the grill. Keep the ingredients together in a bowl or box in the fridge to save time. put the art work in a hot air oven but keep the grill on for speed. 6-8 min should be enough. Also enough time to clean everything up for the next pizza. Do this ritual 2-4 times per day so that you have a structured routine that doesn't require thinking about it. It will start out as a soggy mess because you keep putting to much of the ingredients on it. 1/2 cm of salami is enough for a zone. 1 slice of ham, 1 slice of bacon. More and the different combination of flavors each bite should have blends into one unidentifiable mess. The spoon of vegitable mix will produce a bite with a slice of carrot on it. You are eating flour and carrots. But since it is just a single bit it adds to the adventure. Most ingredients last a reasonable while and you use so little of them that the eventual cost is just the cheese. I've done this for a good while on my own but you get to make 3-5 of them at a time. Keep adjusting the ingredients and ratios for each mouth and do different versions for each. For $150 per month you will eat like a king and get fat.

Otek 5y ago

110k$ is very low? Wow Edit: I understand that not much now. Living in Eastern Europe I have different perspective. BUT, I think that advice: “just earn more” shouldn’t appear when someone asks how to stop living paycheck to paycheck. No matter how much you earn you should always try your best to save some money.

thebean11 5y ago
In NYC for a non-entry level software job? Yeah it's pretty low.
- rzarate 5y ago
  I agree, that's closer to what an intern would make in NYC rather than a director. I'd consider changing industries, maybe engineers are not as valued in marketing agencies as they would on other more tech-heavy industries.
  - Jcowell 5y ago
    Where in NYC are interns making 110K and where can I apply ?
    - thebean11 5y ago
      FAANG, finance companies (banks, Bloomberg etc) plus tons of mid sized tech companies (companies like Mongo, Dropbox etc). Often if salary is lower, there's a relocation bonus that puts you into six figures if you amortize it over your 3-4 months there.
joshribakoff 5y ago
For something in demand that takes decades to master that less than 1% of the population can do in one of the most expensive cost of living areas in the world, so yes.
- brailsafe 5y ago
  I would probably highlight "in one of the most expensive cost of living areas in the world". Otherwise $110k is not very low
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
bogwog 5y ago
It is for New York
nine_zeros 5y ago
$110k is very low for NYC. Federal, state, city, fica taxes will eat close to 50% of that income. The remaining will end up in rent and transportation. God forbid you have some recurring expenses like healthcare or a child.
- lkbm 5y ago
  So what do the millions of households earning <$60k do? Are they going tens of thousands of dollars deeper in debt each year?
  - serioussecurity 5y ago
    In NYC? They're living without health insurance, 8 people in a 3 bedroom, with less than $500 in savings, and credit card debt, yes. Or they commute two hours each way from Philly. America does not treat it's people well. https://fortunly.com/statistics/american-savings-statistics/#gref https://fortunly.com/statistics/american-savings-statistics/...
    - Jcowell 5y ago
      Errr. I think there’s a big disconnect here. 1) NYC is not just Manhattan. The outer boroughs are also NYC and are far cheaper. Not Nashville cheap but livable. You don’t need 8 people in 3 bedrooms. You can even live in jersey. 2) A lot of NYC has affordable housing and projects. A lot of communities making the basic minimum wage or not at all can live there. 3) 110K is a absolutely doable in NYC. It’s just not doable if you live outside your means.
    - lkbm 5y ago
      > In NYC? They're living without health insurance, 8 people in a 3 bedroom, with less than $500 in savings, and credit card debt, yes. I understand that they don't have savings and have some credit card debt, but we're talking $50,000 per year. And this is over the median household income[0]. Are the people in the 25th percentile living 16 people in a 3 bedroom? The OP has updated to say their mortgage is only $2,600/mo., so even after housing that leaves ~70k over what median household makes before rent. (The OP also reports having three kids, which is almost certainly a large part of that $70k.) I suspect you don't spend a lot of time with people making $30-$70k. They exist, often have housing, and many of them even eat food. It's worth examining how they manage rather than dismissing this as an impossibility. > Or they commute two hours each way from Philly. Nope. NYC residents. Median household income of $63,998 (2019). [0] https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/newyorkcitynewyork/INC110219#INC110219 https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/newyorkcitynewy...
jurassic 5y ago
For a software person with 12 years experience in a major US city, $110k is insanely low. I’ve known people who made more than that after a 12 week bootcamp.
santoshalper 5y ago
For a tech leadership position in one of the most expensive cities in the world? Absolutely. I work in a mid-priced, midwest city and that would be low for tech leadership.
globular-toast 5y ago
Welcome to the HN bubble. Over the few years I've been here the talk about salaries have been getting more and more ridiculous. It started off as "three figures" then rapidly turned into 300-400k and now 110k is very low and considered poverty. There's something about money that causes even intelligent people to lose all sense and perspective.
- elliottcarlson 5y ago
  For a high cost of living area such as New York, with a family to support, it is unfortunately very low - couple that with their title and years of experience, it is just factual compared to the market that they could be earning near double. At $110k a year, you are looking at a $6k monthly take home; over 1/3rd of that is going to the mortgage OP posted, and they have three children. Once you add insurance, groceries, and other obligations (such as perhaps a car + insurance), it becomes very easy to fall in to the paycheck-to-paycheck life. Yes, $110k is a lot of money, but it quickly disappears depending on where you live - for perspective, based on cost of living, this would be equivalent of earning $41k a year in Kansas City, KS/MO, or $37k in Birmingham AL -- cost of living plays a huge factor, and not accounting for that is the actual loss of sense and perspective.
- ss108 5y ago
  Inflation, plus the goalposts have genuinely moved, plus, again, these salaries are reported from SF and NYC. Things would be different if we were talking about Austin, or even LA.
- xboxnolifes 5y ago
  For a tech director, 14 years experience, in one of the most expensive cities in the country, yes, $110k is incredibly underpaid. I make (and so do my friends) the same amount, remotely, as a new-grad, not at a FANNG/MAGMA/WHATEVER.
- scarface74 5y ago
  We have goof perspective. If he were a teacher, our advice would be different. I basically did a career reset in 2008 - a little over 12 years ago. By changing jobs and working at mostly a bunch of no name companies until 2020, I switched jobs 6 times and went from $80K -$150K and was entertaining offers at other no names companies by 2/2020 as a regular old back end C# CRUD developer - in a place much cheaper than NYC. I did a slight pivot in 2020 that’s not relevant to the discussion.
swat535 5y ago
It absolutely is, especially by US standards. As an anecdata, I'm a director of engineering and my base salary is ~205k CAD. At my company (based in Toronto, Canada), we have budgeted between 130k-160k CAD base + bonuses for engineering roles (depending on the experience, position, etc). Yet I consider these salaries to be pretty subpar compared to our US counterparts. Folks, demand a fair wage. When a house costs 1.3M , it's unreasonable to get paid peanuts.
scarface74 5y ago
He’s not in Eastern Europe. He’s in the US. Mathematically, we all know that he should be able to earn more.

lkbm 5y ago

Their comp is presumably higher than it was a few years ago, even adjusted for inflation. The question to be asked is why their spending has increased similarly. Half of all households in NYC live on ~$60/yr or less (2019)[0]. What's stopping the OP from having their level of spending and saving $50k (minus taxes) a year? The answer to that is also the answer to their question. "Make more money because $110k is very low" is an absurdly out-of-touch response. [0] https://smartasset.com/retirement/average-salary-in-nyc https://smartasset.com/retirement/average-salary-in-nyc

jurassic 5y ago
OP isn’t going to fix his financial picture by skipping lattes and getting a cheaper apartment. Even if he went into hardcore miser mode he might save about $20-30k per year. Compare that with seeking market rate comp he could pretty easily double or triple his income, and be putting away $100k+/yr (and maybe a lot more than that) of additional savings with no change to his lifestyle. Seems pretty obvious where the focus should be. The fact poor people exist doesn’t change the fact OP is likely being taken advantage of by the current employer.
- bluefirebrand 5y ago
  Certainly, doubling or tripling their comp should be a part of OPs plan, but even if they do make tons more, they may have to adjust spending behaviour to prevent it from overtaking the higher salary eventually. Some people really do just spend every dollar they receive, no matter how much it is.
- lkbm 5y ago
  Yeah, increasing comp is a good idea, but I assume their comp has increased multiple times over the past decade and it's had zero effect on their saving. Something's causing a growth in spending exactly equal to the growth in income. Increasing income only helps if that function is addressed.
  - scarface74 5y ago
    Maybe 3 kids?

bluefirebrand 5y ago

This may help, but it sounds like what has happened is spending has increased with each level of compensation increase. My advice to OP is: You need to break whatever financial habits you have that prevent you from saving money, and build a habit of saving as much as you can. Just because you get a raise doesn't mean you have to change your lifestyle. You don't have to rent or buy a more expensive place to live, you don't have to lease a more expensive car, buy more expensive meals, take expensive trips, whatever it is. There is some thing you are spending your money on and you need to identify it and get it under control. You can avoid living paycheck to paycheck on almost any kind of budget, but if you always let your spending expand to what you can afford it won't matter how much you earn, you will always feel broke. A common thing I see with my friends who are kind of bad with money is they don't make a calculation of what they need versus what they want. They see stuff they want, they check if they have the money to afford it, and they buy it. It's a bad habit to be in, and you have to be able to say "I am going take the cost of that thing and put it into a savings account instead"

6510 5y ago
A big bag of flour, big bag of onions, keep your yeast growing, 4 or 5 cheeses, big pot of sambal, a salami sausage, ham, bacon, some fish, mushrooms, a variety of frozen vegitable mixes, tomato ketchup, big bottle of olive oil. Oregano, thyme, pepper. mix the dough close to batter. Put flour on a baking tray and spread the dough onto it. Grill on highest settings for 4-6 minutes while you chop the ingredients. Remove the dough from the oven and flip it upside down. Spread a spoon of ketchup over it. Spread out 1-3 spoons of vegetable mix, move them around so that you get zones of flavours, put a tiny slice of salami on one area, make areas of ham and other meat or fish. Add some shrooms, some onion, garlic, poor some oil over it, add garlic, herbs and make zones of cheese. Have the zones overlap or stand alone. It takes a while to perfect the ratios. It should take 6 minutes to prepare the ingredients while the dough is under the grill. Keep the ingredients together in a bowl or box in the fridge to save time. put the art work in a hot air oven but keep the grill on for speed. 6-8 min should be enough. Also enough time to clean everything up for the next pizza. Do this ritual 2-4 times per day so that you have a structured routine that doesn't require thinking about it. It will start out as a soggy mess because you keep putting to much of the ingredients on it. 1/2 cm of salami is enough for a zone. 1 slice of ham, 1 slice of bacon. More and the different combination of flavors each bite should have blends into one unidentifiable mess. The spoon of vegitable mix will produce a bite with a slice of carrot on it. You are eating flour and carrots. But since it is just a single bit it adds to the adventure. Most ingredients last a reasonable while and you use so little of them that the eventual cost is just the cheese. I've done this for a good while on my own but you get to make 3-5 of them at a time. Keep adjusting the ingredients and ratios for each mouth and do different versions for each. For $150 per month you will eat like a king and get fat.