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Comment by sjg007 | Hacker News Reader

Sure! You could've kept working! Why did you retire?

I'm guessing "because he could". 8 years of L6 at Google should set you up for life if you move to a moderate cost area of the country.

What's the net worth of an L6 for 8 years at Google?

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Staff-Software-Engin...

I'm pretty sure glassdoor is a conspiracy by FAANG executives to confuse their employees. If you believe these numbers you will not be able to get what you deserve when negotiating comp at these companies.

I helped make https://www.Levels.fyi - a lot of folks reference our site as being the most accurate for FANG compensation. I would also check PayScale, Paysa, Blind, etc

Very nice. Your numbers are consistent with my experience, and the presentation is very useful.

I have never had Glassdoor give a useful estimate of any job I had, including those at major companies.

Since from what I hear a fresh grad in the Bay Area gets $100k+ just in cash, we could extrapolate. I'm guessing that's at least $150k (probably more like $200k+ in today's market) in total compensation for year. Add about $20k+ in cash and probably the close to the same in Google shares per level, that would make it easily $400k per year. So he would have gotten $3.2 million, I can't imagine his expenses being higher than half of that, so he should be worth $1.6 million after 8 years. Probably more.

I'm curious how off my estimations are :)

Also, if he was in Mountain View, it's likely that he owned a home and that contributed a bit.

The tech sector stock growth has been amazing/unprecedented over that time period. His first few years of stock grants have tripled or more in value.

I'm betting it's something like $2.6mm. $1.5mm in saved income, $0.8 in stock appreciation on savings, and $0.3 in housing/misc.

...are you assuming a 0% tax rate?

You're so low it's actually kind of uncomfortable.

thausamiote thinks I’m at the other end of the spectrum because I forgot taxes :o)

Other estimates in the thread (and Glassdoor) for annual TC are way off. L6 at G is a big range - 350-700k. Hard to say how much the guy made, because it depends on how much stock he kept vs. sold throughout the years, so I'll do a range. Let's assume he worked from 2010-2018:

Average TC: $450k - $850k

Post-tax: $270k - $470k

Annual expenses: $60k - $120k

Savings: $1.2m - $3.3m

Obviously this is a gross simplification, since it ignores other investments and makes pretty broad assumptions about their expenses, but it should give you the broad strokes.

Exactly. Now some other slob with a job has to pay to feed my family just because I can afford to buy a house and he can’t. The American way. The only practical problem with this scheme is the cost of private medical insurance is astronomical for someone who retires before Medicare age. So I might get some kind of token job just to get group health plan.

Don't understand first sentence. Are you saying you bought a house and rent it out?

That's my take on it.

I think that must be what he is saying. The rent on a house in Palo Alto, MTV, etc, adds up to $60K-$100K/year, which is more than the US median household income.

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