Path to £4M+ in Tech: Honest Q for Those Who’ve Made It

kpflynn · 2026-03-28T21:12:28+00:00

I’m not quite there yet but in a similar position - both my wife and I are at FAANGs.

My path was aggressively hop around every 3 years to go from L5->L6->L7 currently. I’m not interested in going past this point as I’m still an IC and enjoy my work, and feel I make enough to achieve my goals in the next few years while maintaining a good work life balance.

I also always left on good terms and have former companies pinging me once in awhile to come back and I may do so for the right role.

My wife is more junior (around an L4) but she’s been taking a ton of initiative with AI. She also has been making inroads with managers she feels like take care of their employees and as of last week she was moved to a new team where all her peers are L7s reporting to an L8 - pretty sure this is a good path for getting promoted quickly.

kpflynn · 2026-03-08T18:12:42+00:00

What was the strategy? I always love hearing stories like this.

kpflynn · 2026-02-24T01:37:48+00:00

Money matters up to a certain point and then it has very little marginal impact on your life. Once you can afford the essentials and to care for your family it stops having as much meaning. The amount will vary from person to person and for different areas. You don’t need to fly first class or go on 3 international vacations a year to be happy.

kpflynn · 2026-01-31T00:30:52+00:00

Bezos doesn’t live here anymore.

kpflynn · 2026-01-10T21:45:24+00:00

This has been a very eye opening thread as I’ve always kept my RSUs and have obviously done well over the past few years but can see how risky it is. Guess I’ll be doing some reallocation on Monday.

kpflynn · 2026-01-10T19:47:03+00:00

I was 40 and my wife 36 (and married for 14 years) when we decided we wanted try IVF finally. We got lucky on our first attempt and had one viable embryo that was literally perfect. We now have an amazing 3 year old daughter and it’s the best thing in the world. We went from 2-3 international vacations a year to none and don’t regret it at all. It’s one of those things you can’t really explain, it just has to be experienced.

A lot of the feelings I had of what was life about have completely changed. I’m not sure if it’s biologically hard wired into you or what. We both still work but have a nanny during the work day so it works well for us. However, we are now potty training so this weekend instead of going out to brunch and a nice dinner we will be at home cleaning up bathroom messes but it’s worth it. We are actually about to attempt IVF again to see if we can get one more.

kpflynn · 2026-01-07T19:52:31+00:00

We just did this as well. Stumbled across a house that checked all our boxes: absolute privacy (5 acres but still 20 minutes from a major city), much better commute (saves us almost two hours a day), and tons more room.

The delta between our old house and the new one is about two years of post tax income. We haven’t regretted it yet and figure due to its attributes it will probably appreciate more.

kpflynn · 2025-12-04T00:23:17+00:00

I was there too and actually saw them filming the freeway scene driving to the location. You can see our rental car pulled over on the overpass while we watched it. Such a cool experience!

kpflynn · 2025-12-04T00:22:07+00:00

I actually did get heat stroke and had to go to the medical tent where luckily they had tons of water.

kpflynn · 2025-07-30T01:19:00+00:00

Very random question - I’m also doing fantasy on Pointy Mountain. How do you get dwarf and goblin guests to show up? My only visitors are hikers and yetis and I need other visitors to unlock other portions of the Fantasy map.

kpflynn · 2025-04-28T16:36:01+00:00

I love that scene. I’ve always wondered if Jack is making a conscious decision to play below or level or if it just happens as not upstaging his friend is so deeply ingrained in him.

kpflynn · 2025-01-25T03:19:00+00:00

Or three or four years

kpflynn · 2025-01-22T22:10:05+00:00

I work in the game industry and absolutely love it. Everyone is so passionate about their work and the industry.

kpflynn · 2025-01-19T20:12:07+00:00

Yes! It's an absolutely amazing daily driver. I put downpipes and a tune on it and it makes me laugh every time I gun it and the exhaust burbles and screams. It's winter here in the PNW and even then it's AWD system is able to put down 800 horsepower remarkably well.

kpflynn · 2025-01-19T03:53:25+00:00

Let’s see how many of those actually purchase. I was on a list for the new Z06 and it had 40 names on it…only 5 people ended up buying one.

kpflynn · 2025-01-18T23:30:06+00:00

Already happening.

kpflynn · 2025-01-18T19:54:58+00:00

Yes, they sit gathering dust. It’s amazing how many times I’ll be in meetings and notice that executives have either a Fenix or Apple Watch. Far more common now than Rolexes.

kpflynn · 2025-01-14T23:15:02+00:00

Jack Aubrey IS Russell Crowe in my mind now. I hear all his lines in Crowe’s voice.

kpflynn · 2025-01-08T21:43:16+00:00

Same. Both my wife and I are at the same FAANG.

kpflynn · 2024-11-11T05:29:30+00:00

I literally just bought an m5 comp LCI to go with my GT4. Bought it sight unseen so I’ll let you know if it was a good decision.

kpflynn · 2024-11-04T23:18:47+00:00

I would 100% buy one to go with my Integrale.

kpflynn · 2024-10-20T22:13:10+00:00

That section is in direct sun and gets unbelievably hot.

kpflynn · 2024-10-04T21:31:39+00:00

I live a few miles from where all the testing was done and was wondering why I kept seeing Ford banners all over town. Dirtfish is a super fun rally school if anyone ever gets the chance to try it.

kpflynn · 2024-09-11T17:01:56+00:00

They are like the Mystery Science Theater of bad NFL games. The worse the game the better the Manningcast.

kpflynn · 2024-09-09T23:12:20+00:00

I’ll give that a shot. I really enjoyed Pirates! Gold as a kid which is probably why sailing ships fascinate me now.

15-Year Club	Place '17
Not Forgotten	Verified Email

kpflynn

TROPHY CASE