[lotsofpulp]

> 1. Move to a Tier 1 tech hub like the Bay and NYC. If you get laid off, you will probably find another job in a couple of weeks due to the density of employers.

> 5. Live lean, save for a rainy day, and keep your family and friends close. If you're not in a financial position to say "f##k you" you will get f##ked, and strong relationships help you build the support system you need for independence.

All you have to do is move you and your family to the most expensive places in the world. But also live lean and save for a rainy day.

[alephnerd]

The median SWE TC in the Bay Area is $272k [0]. After tax and a fully loaded Roth 401K that is around $143,000.

And that's just for 1 person. Your spouse (if you have one) is most likely also working in a white collar job as well which we'll impute with the median income in they Bay which is $75k [1], but in reality is an underestimate as your spouse is likely to work in a tech, biotech, medicine, finance, accounting, healthcare, or government adjacent field which would increase their income significantly.

Using the $75k imputed spousal take-home, that would make your joint household income after tax and both maxing out Roth 401k to be around $180,000.

Renting a 2-4 bedroom single family home in a family friendly locale like the Tri-Valley, South Bay, or the Peninsula comes out to around $4.5K/mo, which means you have around $126K per year.

Let's remove $26K due to household expenses (which I personally think is excessive - my household operates on $1.5K/mo and we live pretty extravagantly in San Francisco) and you end up with $100K in cash after a fully loaded 401K, taxes, and rent.

Put around 60-65% of that in a couple ETFs (expecting around 5%-9% returns) and the remaining 35-40% in liquid cash savings.

That means you have around $60K per year invested in easy to liquidate assets, around $50K per year invested for retirement, and around $40K per year in hard cash.

This is why it works and why most people in Tech still remain in the Bay or NYC (similar math).

If you cannot live lean with a 3 person household using the math above in the Bay Area - a region where the MEDIAN household income is $137K [2] - then frankly you have major character defects.

[0] - https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/san-fra...

[1] - https://www.bayareaequityatlas.org/indicators/median-earning...

[2] - https://vitalsigns.mtc.ca.gov/indicators/income

[lotsofpulp]

It was mostly a joke about the flippant way your comment added in "keep your family and friends close" after moving to highest cost places in the world.

First, many people may not want to move, even if their kids or siblings move. Other people have friends and family too.

Second, many people may not have the skills or drive to get the "median" paying job necessary to live the desired quality of life.

Third, many people and/or their family may not be healthy enough to afford dual high income households.

Obviously, earning a lot of money while spending minimally is a path to success, and obviously moving to the Bay Area and NYC is one of the higher probability routes to success and upward movement (at least financial), but it's not without other costs.

For those with the desire to attain that financial success, I encourage them to follow the playbook. But I would not expect them to keep friends and family close.

[dzonga]

you're doing the honorable by offering solutions