2 years after my layoff | Hacker News Reader

2 years after my layoff

teamblind.com

38 pointsmgh213 comments

> ...due to some deliverables for the year, worked 12 hours every day to get that done...

Don't. Do. This.

Our time on the planet is limited, and no amount of Jira ticket completion or revenue targets will change it.

Only do it if you are paid time and a half for hours over 40/week.

Fortunately i learnt my lesson in early stage of my career i.e my first job which was an employment with a big corporate well oiled machine. After 1.5 years I did quit my job and became freelancer.The approach i follow is time Vs Money.I am selling my time to some one and the buyer gets to decide what am i required to do for the time they bought. In turn am getting paid in money. I love my work, with regards to people i consider every one of my colleague as my friend. I keep it simple when dealing with people at work, i try to behave like mirror and reflect what i get.I help who ever requires it and try to provide info to people who do not have it so they can understand better.Have trained junior dev members.Helped them with their job search.

> I spent the next few months spending time with my family

must be nice to be able to afford to just dick around and relax searching for your true calling. Unfortunately, not everyone is in the position to do that when they suddenly get sliced.

Also in the article is advice “Make sure you have a plan if things go bad. Make sure your savings are in order, brace for impact to cover for a while.”

I know lots of people making 6-figures who would be in trouble inside of a month. For most of them, that’s a choice where they have other feasible options.

> I know lots of people making 6-figures who would be in trouble inside of a month.

Here in Latvia, I make around 36k EUR annually (25k EUR after taxes) and I still have savings to last me around 4 years without any income, if need be (with passable quality of life, accounting for some inflation). Usually I save/invest around 50% of my paycheck each month.

At the same time, I know of some people here personally who are in similar careers, but essentially live paycheck to paycheck.

It's pretty curious to see how the circumstances of various people differ, both within the same country and globally. If I earned a US salary remotely, I'd pretty much be set for life within a decade or two, a bit like the FIRE sub-culture (assuming no large scale monetary crashes, but maybe some recessions).

There’s a very beneficial reinforcing effect of saving a high percentage of your income: you have lower monthly spending, meaning not only does your savings/investment accounts’ balances go up faster, the amount of annual spending you need to replace is lower.

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-si...

> There’s a very beneficial reinforcing effect of saving a high percentage of your income: you have lower monthly spending, meaning not only does your savings/investment accounts’ balances go up faster, the amount of annual spending you need to replace is lower.

The caveat here is that some things are just more expensive in absolute terms. A car or a computer that I want to buy won't cost that much less just because of my location, because location based pricing applies to a limited set of goods and services: like food, clothes, rent or heating/power bills.

So while saving and not living above your means is good, also optimizing for absolute income values is probably a good idea. Thus many seek out ways to work for well paying companies or in well paying careers, while also living frugally in an area with a relatively low CoL, or maybe make lifestyle choices like forgoing owning a motor vehicle (if possible).

True, but there are many choices a person can make when buying a car or computer (or most products, for that matter.) They could buy used (well, at least in normal times when used cars cost less than new cars) or buy a model with fewer features, or buy less frequently, etc.

Also you get to tell abusive asshole bosses no. What are they gonna do, fire you?

You can even afford to take a pay cut to work on something you really believe in.

They don’t call them golden handcuffs for nothing. If you let the money become your drug of choice then everyone controls your life more than you do.

Often called “F__k you money”

https://youtu.be/xdfeXqHFmPI

It's not difficult to spend everything - many times, high income implies living in a high cost of living area - rent and other things just cost so much more. There is also a trap: you start to feel that expensive things are just not that expensive, because compared to your necessary expenses, they just look ok. Buying a 3k TV doesn't look so silly when your rent is 3k and grocery bill 2k per month. It looks very different when you pay 1.5k for rent + 1k for groceries.

I'm not saying people are right to spend everything they earn, just that it's easy to fall into that trap.

Blind is a cesspool of toxic tech workers. Last month they are praising Elon like a god, this month they call him a joke for letting them go. I really don’t feel any sympathy for these toxic individuals that got laid off.

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