SV & big tech engineer money.
Majority of engineering fields do not make that kind of money to retire at 50. Comfortable compared to the rest of the country, sure.
That said if you’re making $250k+ a year and not on track to retire by 50, seriously please open a retirement calculator and figure out what you need to do to get there.
That said, a lot of people in US tech can probably retire relatively early if they run the numbers and don't have a lot of external expenses.
I regularly frequent HN, and even comment from time to time, but I don't work in tech nor do I make bank. I'm a cashier at a gas station. Lol. I'm lucky if I make $16000 a year after taxes.
Generally outside SV:
- If you are making $250+ it is at least middle management (not tech work) AND
- Only in zones where cost of living is eating this up (e.g. UK/Europe/Australia/etc can get to this equilvalent salary but costs for example for rent, food, tax, etc are much higher).
In most countries SWE is above average pay, but it isn't life changing and it still unfortunately has the boom/bust cycles.
I've met some very good engineers who have built some great large scale solutions who are on less than this salary often in non tech firms being outside of the SV area due to personal reasons (e.g. can't move due to family, too old to do the interview dance SWE has become these days, etc).
A semi decent apartment in SV will cost you ~$3k
Bills(phone, internet, electricity, etc) another $1k.
If you are married, groceries at least $1k.
Even if we assume you don’t do anything else in life, and you are in perfect health best case scenario would be $6k savings a month or $72k a year.
It would take you 10 years to save $720k plus whatever you make from investments.
That’s not enough to even buy you a house in SV. How are you going to retire?
Unless you assume you will get $250k straight out of college and keep up salary raises for 25 years.
Sure, if you don’t have kids, age with no health problems, never enjoy anything in life, you may be able to retire at 50 in Thailand or Philippines.
Assuming a 4% draw down (conventionally agreed to be safe) is over 5.5k a month.
Also $1k month on bills? Groceries too?
Judging by your inflated costs for everything, and ann idea that a house (versus more modest accommodations) is what the goal is, you’ve got Lifestyle creep. And, things certainly get a lot easier when your spouse also works.
Though, of course, if you're living from investment income you should be aware you're living off the work of other people.
