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Comment by codingdave | Hacker News Reader

I feel like this question needs more context - is this a specific group of HS students? A club with shared interests, or an entire class of diverse people? I'd give different answers to a CS club than an entire class. And I'd teach that being rich is only partly about the money you make, and more about being careful with the money you spend. Living within your means, and saving/investing will make you rich in the long run. Higher salaries make it easier to do that, but the discipline of managing your finances has a huge impact over time.

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Contra to a popular belief, saving doesn't make you rich. It makes your future more secure though. Of course, you must not spend recklessly (e.g. buy 20 Ferraris or a yatch).

Investing that yields high reward is not saving.

Making money is more important because as you move up the ladder your earning will grow exponentially. Any ladder probably achieves the same impact (e.g. a director earns 10 more times than a senior engineer).

No amount of saving can get you that much money.

If you can move up the ladder quickly (or even slowly), making money will outpace spending.

> director earns 10 more times than a senior engineer.

Where the heck do you work??

I certainly hope OP is communicating ways to be successful and secure, not how to strive to be in the 1%. For most high school students, "rich" means being able to easily pay their bills, have a decent home, and have plenty of disposable income. Only people who are already quite rich define "rich" as having the luxury of choosing whether or not to buy yachts.

At Google, for example, a director can easily earn 3m a year, while a senior engineer earns 300k a year.

A VP can easily earn $10M to $50M a year. At that level, the compensation varies a lot, but it can be 3x-10x from the director level. Stock compensation is really great.

Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Airbnb, Coinbase, Salesforce (maybe), Oracle (maybe), Square (I could name 10 more) would probably offer similar compensation ladder

> I certainly hope OP is communicating ways to be successful and secure, not how to strive to be in the 1%. For most high school students, "rich" means being able to easily pay their bills, have a decent home, and have plenty of disposable income. Only people who are already quite rich define "rich" as having the luxury of choosing whether or not to buy yachts.

Being born as an average citizen in a developed country would probably put you in the top 1% of the world already. Very likely.

If this is the case, what is the point of the question?

Nit: directors (parallel to L8) at Google earn closer to 1m/year, not 3m per year, i.e. 3x what Sr. Engineers (L5) do.

Love that example. Glad I do not spend money recklessly.

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