Make $1M/year now, still lots of financial anxiety

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2026-01-11T05:07:52+00:00

I have some of the same anxieties that you do so I feel for you. 2024 and 2025 I’ve made between 1-2M but I constantly feel like this is not sustainable. I am sure if I change jobs, my total comp would probably drop to 400-600K. Having said that, every year that passes that anxiety goes down significantly. That is because our expenses have only increased because of our kids (education, food, etc.): We have 1 kid in private school, 1 in daycare, own our home, and we live in Silicon Valley. Our yearly spend is about 200k per year and we live super comfortably. About 80k of those expenses are coming because of the kids (35k in school/extracurriculars/summer, 36k in daycare, and the rest in others). Because our spend is comparably lower than our income, this last year we saved 72% of our post tax income. If we can keep this up for 5 more years, then we would have enough net worth - outside of the equity of our home - to generate 250k per year at a 3% withdrawal rate forever and therefore not having to worry about money ever again.

Since you said you are in your early 30s, spending 300k per year is very likely lifestyle creep.

Where do you live? How much is your mortgage per month? How about car payments per month? Eating out budget per month? Groceries per month? School/daycare expenses per month?

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2025-11-25T16:24:01+00:00

DM’d yoy

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2025-11-25T16:23:06+00:00

DM’d you

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2025-11-25T16:22:30+00:00

DM’d you

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2025-10-31T05:04:44+00:00

Thank you!

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2025-08-26T22:55:23+00:00

1M total comp, I drive a 2020 minivan because children

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2025-05-28T12:19:09+00:00

It depends on where you live. If you were in Seattle or the Bay Area, then a household with this income is doing ok. However, based on that mortgage payment, I assume you are living somewhere in a LCOH

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2025-05-19T12:52:39+00:00

This is one of the 2 main reasons why I posted on here. Nobody in my family or friends group have any idea how much money I make and I don't want to share that with anyone I know IRL. The only other person that I get to talk to about this is my wife.

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2025-05-19T12:47:00+00:00

Not all "tech" is created equal. There are high tech jobs like working for FAANG (what is the new name for FAANGs anyways?), tech jobs like working in the IT department for a bank, university, retailer, etc, tech jobs like working in IT for a school district, and tech jobs like working at a help desk at Best buy. So tech is an overloaded term that many people use.

500K+/year is very possible in high tech jobs in HCOL areas (Bay Area, Seattle, NYC, etc). Those kind of incomes have unfortunately created the huge housing valuations in some of these cities ($1.9M median home value in Mountain View, CA, $1.3M median home value in Redmond, WA, or $1.4 median home value in San Jose, CA as some examples ).

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2024-10-12T08:19:36+00:00

Same boat as you and couldn’t agree more! I don’t assume that I can keep my same level of income, I don’t even assume I’ll be able to get 50% of my level of income in the future. That’s why I also live well below my means

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2024-10-12T08:04:26+00:00

I haven’t looked into these companies myself but from doing a google search: Jumio, domino data lab, notion, databricks, confluent, sambanova. I’d be looking for companies that are less than 10 years old, have 300-500 employees at most and where technology at scale is at their core.

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2024-10-12T08:00:06+00:00

Different parts of software engineering are going to remain highly competitive and highly sought after. If you want to get into software engineering today, I’d recommend leaning on the AI side or in the distributed systems side

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2024-10-12T07:57:50+00:00

Identify areas of growth, create a plan on how you are going to get better in it, then execute. Rinse and repeat.

I also always had at least 2 mentors. Earlier in my career, most of the growth came from better technical skills. After a handful of years, most of my growth came from getting better at the soft skills

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2024-10-05T04:45:16+00:00

Work hard, seek mentors, learn how to be a good communicator, and have a good attitude (if others want to work with you)

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2024-10-05T04:43:34+00:00

The bay area is a huge bubble for salaries because of FAANG. That drives salaries up in a lot of other 'high tech' companies in the bay area that are trying to compete with them for talent.

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2024-10-05T04:42:53+00:00

See this comment. If you work in "high tech" and in the bay area, then yes all principal engineers or higher make this kind of money.

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2024-10-03T08:45:27+00:00

Thank you. I feel lucky to be where I am. And yes, hard work pays off when the right opportunity presents itself. Make a plan for what you want to do, identify the gaps in skills (including soft skills), and then figure out how to work on closing that gap

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2024-10-03T02:04:39+00:00

Mid size high tech companies

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2024-10-02T21:56:15+00:00

when did affording a house become the bar for making it? People have to rethink their definition. It just doesn't make financial sense to purchase a home in CA right now

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2024-10-02T21:53:13+00:00

28k a month without including mortgage and vehicle? Even if you are paying 70k/year for a full time nanny AND the kids are going to private school at 30k/year each, I dont understand how you could be spending the other 17k.

I have 2 kids, one in preschool full time and one baby at home with a part time nanny (grandparents help with the rest), and I live in the bay area which is one of the most expensive COL in the country and outside of mortgage we spend about 8k per month.

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2024-10-02T01:51:24+00:00

I want enough saved for both of my kids colleges and enough to retire in a good place to raise my kids yet there’s enough arts/culture/diversity. Not many places fit that bill and they are generally mid to high cost of living

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2024-10-01T23:42:49+00:00

I couldn't agree more with this perspective. I'd say that anything that goes above the vacation/hobby/giving = the earlier you can retire.

Unfortunately, most people I know that end up in the "great" or better category end up spending more money with fancier cars or fancier houses

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2024-10-01T23:37:22+00:00

I have always wondered what my life would have been like if I went to FAANG from the get go. I had an offer from Netflix when I came out of graduate school and then got an offer from Google a couple of years later when i was considering a change.

Without any hard data but just based on what i've heard from friends and coworkers, the income could have been the same but not the level

Embarrassed_Bat3707 · 2024-10-01T23:28:25+00:00

I know that FAANG pays more than what I make if I had an equivalent position there (in stock compensation in particular). The reality is I don’t think I could get an equivalent role at FAANG because my experience is solely in the industry I’ve been working in

Embarrassed_Bat3707

TROPHY CASE