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Comment by trulyme | Hacker News Reader

When you say "you can't", I assume you mean retire officially? I imagine that having a few million euros in the bank (or in different assets) would mean that work is optional.

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You don't just get a few million through work. Salaries aren't high enough to save that aggressively.

I make like $320k, my wife makes $70k. Our rent in the bay is $2800/mo and we spend about $4000/mo on other expenses.

I just moved to the bay from the enterprise world, so my net worth is 400k. At this rate, assuming very conservative raises and 6% on all investments -- including already reserved stock units -- I'll be worth $2.2m in five years (age 40). $7.5m by 50.

And that's just assuming I hit $400k-ish in the next few years and stay there for the rest of my life, and my wife gets no significant raises. If I get higher, which is entirely possible, I'll make even more. Or maybe at some point I'll try for a startup and go for the really big money. Maybe not.

Of course, many of those assumptions could not work out. But the kind of exponential advantage of saving a large fraction of your paycheck eventually overcomes any disadvantages. Worst case scenario is tech goes bust and US stock market turns into Japan's in the 80s, but in that case I'll still be better off than most because I have a lot of savings and I'm not addicted to the paycheck.

I think the plan will be to do this for a few more years and consult part time. Full retirement would be too boring.

Ooof, you realize how few people are in that position salary wise right?

The context of the subthread was not being able to do it in EU/Sweden, where $320k/year incomes are less common.

If you were in Sweden you’d be making $120k and your wife $50k. Your marginal tax rate would be about 70%. You’d have a net worth of say $200k, but that would be tied up in your apartment/house.

A net worth of $2.2m is pretty much unheard of here. The only people I know with that kind of money are founders who successfully exited their startups.

Sort of tangential to the point that you're trying to make, but if I were in Sweden I'd probably be okay working longer because I could actually travel outside of 1-week segments once a year like I have to do in the US.

In the US you should be at 4 weeks or more of vacation per year by the time you have 20 years in, plus a couple more weeks of paid holiday. No engineer gets one week per year, even their first year two is typical and it builds.

The above isn't universal. Quality of life is one thing companies compete on so the only companies that give you one week are start ups (where it is understood you are taking a risk in hopes of big payoff from your options), and game companies where the dream job gets people accept abuse.

I'm really happy about this with my current company. They now start with 4 weeks, and after 5 years you get 5 weeks.

This is the most out of touch thing I’ve read on HN in a while. When did we start talking about whether couples bringing in $400k/year could retire at age 50. You are clearly an outlier, even when compared to software engineers in the states, let alone Europe.

I know it's an outlier because a few years ago I was making $85k in Houston as recently as 2019. I studied whiteboarding and moved. Now I'm a FAANG engineer.

Careful predicting the rest of your life based on 2 years of the best success you’ve ever experienced. Something similar happened to me 5 years ago and I’m operating on the assumption the crazy pay can disappear at any time. If you luck into a way to suddenly retire in 5 years, always assume there’s someone standing behind you willing to do it for less. Many money faucets eventually turn off.

The beauty of saving that much is I don't depend on it.

I have yet to save as much as I theoretically should be able to. Good luck, sincerely.

Edit: and you still have yet to demonstrate that your income will last for the next 5 years, let alone 15. Don’t count your chickens yet.

At present trajectory this is a reasonable outcome, in the case of a major correction saving your money will also mean you benefited from the bubble.

There used to be stories from the .com bubble of people who only knew a little html getting six figures. On being told this around ‘08 everyone would nod and think that it was ridiculous - after all fresh college grad backend engineers could be hired for just 30k at the time on the low end in the US.

Flash forward to today and we’d think a front end engineer or designer with technical knowledge for those rates would be a steal even after adjusting for inflation.

I don’t doubt techs impact, or that the big tech should be the most valuable companies in the world. But I would be surprised if software engineer became the highest paid profession on a permanent basis, which with current salary progressions is a given without a correction.

6% historically has been easy. Going forward it wont be as easy, think 3-4% is more likely.

Plus sounds like you dont have kids, they are very expensive in both money and time. Have you seen how much childcare is?

My friends who spent their 20s at FAANG would disagree with you.

In the EU?

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