For everybody in that thread, 100 times the number of people exist that haven't done so well or good at all. Don't feel bad if you're not as successful. There's more to life than making 20k+ a month.
No idea why so many people always aim for more money instead of more freedom
But hey, people finding happiness in owning more than they can spend or use are free to work as much as they possibly can.
I much prefer what I do now. A job that is sometimes stressful, that I even outright hate on rare occasions, but that is on average fulfilling and fun and lets me go to bed with a clear conscience. All while I still have enough free time and left over money to actually spend the money I earn on things I enjoy.
Now if someone gave me a choice between earning 20k a month or earning nothing a month, I'd still chose the former. I'd rather struggle with the mental issues and stress that come along with it than living in constant fear how I'd pay for my next meal...
But Ideally I'll have built up enough savings to retire early at some point and live off of the interest generated. Best of both worlds.
For people living in those countries, health costs are no longer an incentive to earn a lot. In the UK in fact, the pharmacy is free for people on low incomes but roughly £120/year for everyone else. The same applies to the dentist.
> This is a forum about hackers and hacking a way out
yes, and as such you'll run into the folks with opinions on either side of the discussion, how is that not more intellectually stimulating than the alternative?
To educate and remind people of survivorship bias, so as to prevent this:
20k a month is… what make an average senior SWE in the USA?
It’s ridiculous to think you’d have only 1% chance of making it to that level of revenue.
You can be rank-and-file in software, law, and medicine and exceed $20k/mo after taxes.
Makes the risk in entrepreneurship not worth it for me.
I mean, you "can" do a lot of things. That doesn't mean it's common. You "can" hit a hole in one, be struck by lightning or win the lottery, after all.
Someone on HN knows someone who's brother's uncle's girlfriend's roommate's cousin makes $750K/yr as a L7 superstar at Google in Silicon Valley, therefore "You can make $750K as a SWE" is technically a true statement. This true statement somehow evolves into "SWEs commonly make $750K, look at levels.fyi" which further evolves into "SWEs on average make $750K." Neither of which are true.
plus if I believe levels.fyi, 200k+ is F500 programmers, and mostly those at FAANGs or other high-end orgs. Plenty of folks ain't.
But yeah, 20k/mo. is mid-level legit-org SWE pay.