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Comment by ryandrake | Hacker News Reader

I'm sure people who have worked at FAANG for 20 years aren't starving in the streets, but you don't know enough about their financial situation to predict whether they are "unreasonably wealthy." How much of their salary went straight in to their landlord's pockets? Towards student loan interest? Towards health issues, childcare, or taking care of extended family members? Maybe they tried investing and lost money. Heck, maybe they just prioritized travel over saving money, or something. You can't just assume someone has F-you money just because they worked for 20 years.

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> How much of their salary went straight in to their landlord's pockets? Towards student loan interest?

I don’t think comments like these really understand the incredible value of FAANG comp over the past 20 years. People who got and kept these jobs had a true golden ticket.

Paying rent and student loan interest are a rounding error.

These were not normal jobs in normal circumstances.

For the most part, yes, yes you can.

I half-typed a longer message but when it came time to actually do math assuming some averages for annual saving, interest, google stock growth, etc. I decided it wasn't worth the effort.

You wrote me original message with less words

> You can't just assume someone has F-you money just because they worked for 20 years.

At Google? You can. Or they spent it all, in which case the point still applies.

Anyone at Google from 2005 to 2025 is a multi millionaire many times over based on stock value alone. Even a savant at squandering money would struggle to come out of 20 years at Google without unreasonable wealth.

It only takes a spouse with a personality disorder and a divorce to change the calculus.

People who are bad with money are bad with money, no matter how much money they have. Look up the financial problems Judy Garland and Johnny Depp have had, for instance.

Squandering great wealth requires great wealth in the first place

Sure, but it's often the case that if you squander a small income you'll squander a large income. Obviously nobody can live in Silicon Valley on $10k/year; but if you find yourself struggling to stay within your means with $50k/year in a typical town, you'll find yourself struggling with $500k/year as well.

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