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Comment by davydm | Hacker News Reader

I didn't move from FAANG, but a very similar equivalent in my home country. I saw people "golden handcuffed" all the time, and the honest truth is that you have to decide what's more important to you - spending cash on vacuous bullshit and being unhappy at work, or not dreading every monday. You can still find places that pay well, and you don't have to sacrifice your life to them. The big thing is learning to live within your means - or, simply, to be able to say "no" to the little kid inside you who wants everything.

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> The big thing is learning to live within your means

I'd say it's more "learning to live within the means of a non-FAANG person."

My FAANG colleagues spending 4x what I was on their mortgages in the Bay Area were also technically living within their means, but it also meant they had no choice but to stay handcuffed.

> My FAANG colleagues spending 4x what I was on their mortgages in the Bay Area were also technically living within their means, but it also meant they had no choice but to stay handcuffed.

That is the problem. It is about how much you are keeping after taxes. If >75 of that is going to bills, mortgages, cars and the stock drops, then you are essentially keeping far less and you'll find yourself stuck in your job.

Now that AI is everywhere, the loss of their job means a ~5 month runway (If on H-1B you have 2 months) is the reason why folks in the Bay Area at FAANG are terrified of leaving their jobs and find themselves handcuffed.

>> spending cash on vacuous bullshit and being unhappy at work ...

I don't find anything incorrect in your response per se but I hope those weren't your assumptions about my situation and I didn't specify the details either. I've lived within my means, spend only for comfortable leisure travel, no mortgages; otherwise I wouldn't have achieved FIRE.

Neither am I sacrificing due to work as it's a good team with good WLB, it's just that I'm no longer excited by the work without dreading the Mondays. So as I mentioned in another response it's very likely that I'm actually scared of leaving this comfort level.

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