[rguzman]

it really depends on what you mean by rich: the surest path to end up with $2-5M over ~10 years is job at ~FAANG, do it well to get promoted, and manage your savings/investments well. that path is very unlikely to get you to $10-100M in the same 10 years, and starting a startup seems to be one of the best ways to do that.

[ilrwbwrkhv]

You forget the higher up you go in these companies, the politics get nasty. Not many people have the appetite for that.

[lupire]

You don't need to be a higher up; you just need to be a good cog.

[Hydraulix989]

Senior engineer (E5) is enough to get you $2-5M over 10 years. That's terminal cog level.

[ojbyrne]

According to levels.fyi, E5 at Google gets you $385k TC annually. If you save a third of that (which is not easy) for 10 years you get to approximately $1.3 million. Maybe your investments get you above $2 million, but it would really depend on what decade that was. If you had the Great Recession in the middle of that, not so great.

If you think it is easy to save more than a third of your income, remember you’ll have a federal marginal tax rate of 35% or higher, will probably have to work onsite in a HCOL state, and unless you’re lucky enough to live in WA, a high state income tax. Yes you can shield some of your income via 401ks and Roths, but for the former you’re going to get taxed on withdrawal, and for the latter you get penalized if you touch it before you’re 59.5.

Now if you’re dual cogs with no kids, maybe. If you do have kids, you’re not retiring until long after ten years.