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Comment by checkyoursudo | Hacker News Reader

I have made around 25k/month (gross) and 0/month (or even negative, if you count having to use savings to live). The reality for me has been that the amount of stress that comes with making 25k is not entirely dissimilar to the amount of stress that comes from making 0, albeit from different causes. I am much happier where I currently am, somewhere in the middle. I make about average for where I live, and that is perfectly fine with me.

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Pretty much this. Whilst I've never earned more than 20k a month I've a couple of friends who do. And they're fairly miserable despite the money. Same with my friends who earn far less than me or even nothing. It's just a different kind of miserable.

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.

these days people are more happy in getting less at and spend more time at home doing nothing of doing nothing or going out.

I make more than I need and way less than I could. Nothing is more valuable than waking up and doing exactly what I want to do that day. Everyday.

No idea why so many people always aim for more money instead of more freedom

Freedom requires security, which requires money.

But once you have enough, why aim for more?

You never reach 100% freedom and security. You only approach it asymptotically as you gain more money. So maybe for some, their threshold for "enough" is higher than you think. Maybe for someone else, they just haven't figured out what to do with the freedom yet, so they keep going and moving marginally closer to that 100% so they can better enjoy it when they do know what to do with it.

You can't buy time. And a demanding job that'll get you that 20k/month will start to degrade your health at some point, rather sooner than later. And in most of the world even 'only' 1/4 of that will make sure you're living a quality life, esp if you can earn it with part time work while spending extra free time exactly how you want to.

But hey, people finding happiness in owning more than they can spend or use are free to work as much as they possibly can.

Where the heck do you live that 13k/month is an average salary for an it expert?

Median household in the bay is around 130k, not far off

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