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Comment by munchbunny | Hacker News Reader

A lot of FAANG programmers are people who "work to live". Even with the financial means, the freedom to do what they want isn't necessarily something they value very heavily. Instead, it's a steady 9 to 5 and they have time for family, friends, and hobbies, and they're content with that.

Also important to note though: while FAANG pays well, it doesn't pay so well that you can consistently retire at 35 unless you pay very close attention to your wealth management.

If I had financial independence, I'd try to become a teacher. Unfortunately, even fully vested, I'm a good ways out from financial independence.

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I think I picture "freedom to do what I want" as a studio apartment with a laptop, an internet connection and a library card needing something like $30K a year. So I think for every year I make $150K I can take ~3 years off.

Everyones situation is different.

Hope you get to teach some day.

Your going to live in a studio doing nothing but hack on a laptop for the rest of your life? No other things to do discover or try? No people in your life?

Studio, laptop, internet cost money. Human relationships are free. Some hobbies are free or low cost. You would not be buying the latest gadgets, seeking out the best restaurants and visiting the 100 places you must see before you die. It's a trade off.

It's costs money to do things with people. Friends want too go places, do things, activities. I can't imagine you'll be hosting guests in your studio eating beans and rice. Life can be so much more interesting.

>Friends want too go places, do things, activities.

No, mostly they are too busy working.

Just to give a different perspective, I am budgeting for a not-ascetic but also not-extravagant lifestyle (cook at home, buy nicer clothes less often, buy cars new but stick to low maintenance budget models, etc.), dual-income family, kid(s), one or two trips a year (one to travel, another to visit family), some hobbies with equipment costs, a chronic medical condition I was diagnosed with at 25 that is minimal impact right now but will almost certainly get expensive when I'm retirement age, some ongoing memberships like for state parks, etc.

Factoring in taxes, it adds up to more than I'd like but less than I would intuitively assume.

When I was 19 all I wanted was enough money to buy mt dew, pizza, a couple programming books, whatever the newest laptop was, and an internet connection.

Not sure what happened there.

What happened was adults pay their own bills.

As someone in their 30s, married and preparing for kids, what has surprised me is how much all of the little things add up. Not the sheer dollar amount, but rather just how many bills you can get in a single month and how many little bits of infrastructure are required for a stable baseline day to day living.

The answer for me was “enough that I have to actively dedicate time to managing them.”

I think most young FIRE people think that way. I certainly did too, in my early 20s. Then 3 years become 10, 15, 20, and you accumulate an actual life in the meantime (sometimes kids, sometimes pets, sometimes spouses, sometimes hobbies, etc), and the mere thought of living in a studio with a library card becomes a prison. Compounds when you realize you'll no longer have the same energy to "do what you want" when you're 40/50/60, so even maintaining that bare minimum living would be unsustainable.

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