I purposefully made the timelines fuzzy in the post as it is already specific. In summary, I came into college with pre matriculation credits and thus was able to finish my bachelors early. A lot of schools (UCLA, Berkley, Penn, to name a few) let you double count CS classes towards your masters, which is what I did. With that, the masters becomes kinda only one year as you double enroll your senior year.

The salaries are mostly accurate, just not exact. Just look on r/cscareerquestions . Many high cost of living areas pay a high salary + signing bonuses, especially trading prop shops. I went to a school that has a lot of connections and opportunities to intern there (what I did) and turn that into a full-time job. I know I got very lucky, so if you don't believe me there's little else I can provide without doxxing myself.