As someone who’s worked in Silicon Valley for 13 years… A lot of senior developers that work at big tech companies can earn over $500k total compensation (salary, bonus, and stock) per year. A higher level, like L7 at Google or E7 at Meta, can earn over a million per year. You can end up with $5-10 million net worth after 10-15 years.
Some people end up saving enough and having enough investments to retire early and mostly live off the returns. This strategy is often referred to as FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early).
Of course, people still want something to keep them busy, so they tend to end up doing something they always wanted to do but never had the time or money to do it. They don’t need the money, so can spend time just enjoying it rather than focusing so much on working. I know someone who retired in their 40s and started doing woodworking full time.
Those numbers are accurate . I really don’t understand how more people I work with haven’t retired. I made sure to avoid too much lifestyle creep but I can imagine it’s addicting for some. I’m 40 and making the switch out of tech soon. I couldn’t imagine doing this another 10-20 years.
Current tech isn’t sustainable. Data centers increase the air temp for miles around, pollute massive amounts of water, and use more power then some countries. We don’t have the infrastructure to support data centers and people in a lot of places, and you fucking know which will get preferable treatment.
Thats just a single one of the literal hundreds of depressing things in tech.
There seems to be a lot of people who worked in tech and then went off to fucking do anything not in tech and I’m like "do you know something we don’
As someone who’s worked in Silicon Valley for 13 years… A lot of senior developers that work at big tech companies can earn over $500k total compensation (salary, bonus, and stock) per year. A higher level, like L7 at Google or E7 at Meta, can earn over a million per year. You can end up with $5-10 million net worth after 10-15 years.
Some people end up saving enough and having enough investments to retire early and mostly live off the returns. This strategy is often referred to as FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early).
Of course, people still want something to keep them busy, so they tend to end up doing something they always wanted to do but never had the time or money to do it. They don’t need the money, so can spend time just enjoying it rather than focusing so much on working. I know someone who retired in their 40s and started doing woodworking full time.
Those numbers are accurate . I really don’t understand how more people I work with haven’t retired. I made sure to avoid too much lifestyle creep but I can imagine it’s addicting for some. I’m 40 and making the switch out of tech soon. I couldn’t imagine doing this another 10-20 years.
generally they have something we don’t: money
Yes, tech is exploitative. Of everyone. The only way to win is not to play.
Current tech isn’t sustainable. Data centers increase the air temp for miles around, pollute massive amounts of water, and use more power then some countries. We don’t have the infrastructure to support data centers and people in a lot of places, and you fucking know which will get preferable treatment.
Thats just a single one of the literal hundreds of depressing things in tech.
Tired of assisting in our own exploitation.