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Comment by throwawaaarrgh | Hacker News Reader

I scorned the SF tech scene growing up, and now that I'm getting older, it seems foolish that I didn't live there for a few years and try to fleece some VCs to build a crappy product and exit with millions, or at least take one of those cushy $350K jobs and bank most of it for a decade. Could be retired at 40, instead I'll be saving for retirement until 68.

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Run the numbers, those salary numbers aren't as good as you think once taxes and CoL are factored in. And for every big VC payout there are thousands with worthless monopoly paper options. You're probably farther ahead than you think.

CoL is the big one, along with lifestyle inflation. It depends on the numbers, is a smaller percent saved off a bigger paycheck more than a bigger percent off a smaller paycheck? Too many variables to ever really say, so the thing to optimize for is hygge.

100% on the money (pun intended) and also something people forget is how trapped you are if you take a $350k job.

That salary puts you square in the top 3% of wage earners in the country. Finding another comparable job becomes stupid hard so you end up trapped.

Granted if you're an engineer from a top school or have MS/PhD you'll be OK but that's always my fear - getting a good job and then losing it and not being able to take another because of that horrible lifestyle inflation.

My salary is $20,000 right now and I cut my health insurance. Obviously if I’m staying in a pod, we don’t have millions of dollars in investment.

I’m doing what I can with what I have.

Same

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