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Comment by arthurcolle | Hacker News Reader

28% is huge. Good job for doing that. Not many more options here. Reduce expenses or increase income, but remember to live a little! Also noticed your username and your thinking that you "can't get into FAANG." A lot of interesting work is being done at companies that aren't Internet company superstars, and if you enjoy what you're doing, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. Just my $0.02.

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I already work at a FAANG, the problem is my rent is absurd (~3k all in) and I have a higher tax burden than HQ. Also I work at the FAANG that isn’t respected and pays poorly - feels like reading HN is just a series of microaggressions some days.

What are you renting for 3K? Seems to me your rent is your biggest problem here.

A < 500 square foot studio. It’s close to work at least.

Consider a room in a share instead? There’s a reason that’s the norm for the first 5+ years or so of a new grad’s life in a major city.

That's basically my only limit. I refuse to have a lower standard of living than my parents did when they immigrated to this country. And at best, I'd save $12k more a year, which is good, but that's like half of a FANG bonus.

That's absurd. For $3K, that's highway robbery. If you have decent credit, why don't you try to get a mortgage or something?

Ive considered it. I have around a 770, but I don’t have anywhere close to 20% down on the $700-1mil condos/townhouses near by (my total net worth is only around $120k today, which is honestly pitiful).

Congratulations, you've just insulted 99% of the population, and probably 99.9% if you are including countries other than the US. I hope you find a way to get "wealth", but you may want to start thinking about how you come off to other people. Calling everyone except for a few FAANG employees pitiful doesn't make you sound like a like-able person.

Perhaps that’s true, but it’s apparent to me that those people are the only ones with a chance at class mobility in this country now. At this point at least, it’s out of reach for me.

That is not pitiful.

I think you should recalibrate to the average. Most new grads have a negative net worth. You are far ahead of the curve and it’s good you are thinking about wealth building, but it’s very dismissive to say 120k net worth is pitiful.

I'd wager with 1.5 years of experience + internships most Google/Facebook new grads have a net worth that's double or more, especially including vested RSU appreciation.

I was talking to a new grad engineer at Lyft who joined the same time I joined my company - his net worth is around $300k now not including unvested RSUs.

Call me naive but I really don't believe that most google/facebook new hires have 250k in net worth.

Let's say that they started at 200k per year(that seems really high). Their take-home would be 135,000 in California. That means after 1.5 years they would have taken home 202500. Even if they managed to graduate from college not only free from student loans but with a net worth of 50k, they would need to save all of their take home for the first year and a half.

Do I think that some people with 1.5 years of experience have a net worth of 300k? Sure. But I certainly don't think it is most.

It's 200k, plus bonuses, plus RSU appreciation, plus savings from having a lot of needs taken care of (transportation, food, laundry, etc). A lot of them also made a bunch during their internships and got bigger signing bonuses than I did (I only graduated with around ~$40k through a handful of internships and college jobs)

Is an entry-level engineer's base salary really 200k?

> plus savings from having a lot of needs taken care of (transportation, food, laundry, etc)

This isn't additional revenue earned, this is just lowering your expenses. Yes, these perks are nice but they don't really contribute to net worth.

Graduating from college(which would cost somewhere between 150,000-500,000 for four years with limited ability to earn income) with a positive net worth is amazing. It is awesome that you were able to do it. I doubt most people are able to do so.

Comparing yourself to others is a sure way of feeling upset , there’s always going to be people with more money than you.

Life isn’t just about money or work. I have less net worth than you and a lot more years under my belt, the country I am in doesn’t pay as much for software engineers and that’s ok.

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