Poll: Your income bracket in 2009? | Hacker News Reader

Poll: Your income bracket in 2009?

42 pointsrokhayakebe35 comments

How much did you earn in 2009?

These figures will be distorted by many on HN who are building equity in businesses rather than drawing income.

It will also by distorted by those who are playing the lotto but have not yet won it.

funniest thing I've read all week - thanks

I ... guess you could call it that.

Really I just don't like to work. (For someone else, on something that isn't interesting.) I would like to believe that the hours I spend each day studying, playing music and exercising count as "equity", but I could just as easily see it leading to nothing career-wise. The funny part is, I'm happier than I have ever been!

BTW my 2009 AGI was $22k, and I live in the Bay Area. It's doable.

I wouldn't mind a post explaining your lifestyle. I don't see how that's possible. Not saying it isn't true, I'm just curious.

This is about how much money I made when I lived in San Francisco for a few years mid-decade.

It was doable primarily because I always lived with people who had rent controlled apartments or houses they'd lived in for some time. The cheapest rent I paid--and where I lived longest--was $550/mo. My girlfriend lived with me there and we split it 50/50.

Other things contributing to low living expenses: no car (huge savings); no TV; aggressive (but perfectly legal) tax deductions; choosing fun activities over costly purchases; freegan friends who gave us loads of food; and, of course, two buck chuck...

It's certainly doable.

Funny, this describes me almost perfectly. One thing is I do not live in the city, so my rent is slightly cheaper still. Other expenses that I see people my age spending a lot on which I don't: clothes, internet-enabled phones, eating / drinking out. Especially the last one.

A downside of living this way is, obviously it would never work with a family. So if/when it comes time for me to do that, I will probably have to grow up and get a Real Job.

Until that point though, this is great! I look at all these people, friends, working 60 hrs a week and completely missing out on their 20s and 30s, and I feel like I've stumbled on to a well-kept secret.

Based on the salary and studying part, he must be a grad student.

yes, please.

Isn't HN's particular distortion the point of the exercise?

If so, then what is the reference point against which the distortion is measured?

They will also be distorted by the large number of readers concentrated in the coasts.

I made less than 10k last year.

My work is very close to my home, I have two part time jobs. One lets me work on anything I want as long as I sit in front of a computer. The other is hands on experience running a friends small business. Combined these total 22 hours a week.

Quit my full-time job a couple years ago to learn about programming and pursue business ideas.

It's not so bad being poor once you get into the groove. I cook all my meals, do my own car repairs and garden. Free time = quality of life.

What about people under $50k?

Fixed.

I'd modify it so that you have upper bounds in order to avoid scenarios such as a person making $200k and validly choosing "More than $50k" AND "More than $100k". In other words, force one response only.

I assumed readers would know not to select More than 1M and More than 50K.

Polling and assumptions about behavior don't mix well.

Eh, if you can't figure this poll out you probably aren't making more than 50k anyway.

I made a lousy $20k last year, but I also made my analytics platform so that year's not a total writeoff.

Interesting that because of the amount of people doing startups on HN the average income is probably actually quiet low. Whereas I'd imagine to earning potential of the HN community would be high if everyone got the jobs they could get if they didn't want to start their own venture.

I don't pay myself, everything goes back in the business.

It's how much you earned. It would be the gross, so the cash you pumped back into a business wouldn't matter for this answer.

Quality of life would depend also on the place you live. In a cheap country <50k would be more than enough to have a good lifestyle.

What should students choose? Less than 50k or should there be a new option?

I put <50k. Just because we're students isn't an excuse!

Factor in work-study and the student loans, I agree.

First to parse this page into a snazzy histogram that automatically updates gets an upvote.

You mean like this?

http://www.eastofcleveland.com/misc/hn2009sal.php

Edit: I guess I'm cheating, in that it doesn't "automatically" update...but just visit that, and keep hitting F5.

The specified CGI application misbehaved by not returning a complete set of HTTP headers.

College student and bootstrapping a startup? Yeah...

This is gross/pre-tax, yes?

how do you set up the poll?

http://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll

You need a few hundred karma to post one.

http://pleaserobme.com/ should be happy with this new data source.

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