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Comment by wnolens | Hacker News Reader

It's not even just FAANG anymore. Plenty of places pay over 350k for a senior.

And Seattle is probably a much better place with respect to taxes and cost of living. Most other cities where FAANG will employ are fine. Don't have to be #1 to win.

Still a lottery winner with respect to the global employment market. But if you graduated with a US software engineering degree, you can make this happen.

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And for those who were born outside the US, none of this is applicable (unless you are young and can try emigration), and the advice to be an entrepreneur is correct.

EDIT: There are some people here who claim you can earn that kind of money outside the US, but they never give details when pressed, or describe some kind of very specific set of life circumstances you will never be able to replicate.

I will bite. L4 Google in Zürich, Switzerland. Base: 163k CHF (very low, just promoted), 15% bonus, 50k USD GOOG / year. Not counting stocks, I net 9k a month while maxing retirement account (aka Roth IRA but with less returns) at 2.7k CHF / month. Rent: 2.3k / month in city center, Health insurance: 350 CHF / month. No other significant expenses.

I invest 3.8k CHF / month from base only. All in all, I save ~100k CHF a year counting bonus and stocks.

You also need to be okay working at a FAANG.

After working in a 4k person org, I don’t think I could stomach working at another giant company.

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