| ▲ | spwa4 2 hours ago |
| Problem with this is that this can get you to 1-5 million in net worth (declining fast, someone joining a FANG now certainly won't make it as a single contributor to 5 million, unless they're truly exceptional) (of course 5 million effectively pays you a relatively high level FANG salary just from 4% safe investments ...) Maybe you can get to 50 million with a reasonable management career. But let's say you're on this path and you have 3 million or so, at 35/40 years ... then what? Management at all costs? No reasonable job at a FANG will get you to even just double what you have at that point. |
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| ▲ | GMoromisato 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| If you have $5 million USD wealth you're in the top 5% of the US (and top 0.5% of the world). If you cannot have a happy life on that, well... But I get it--if your goal is to accumulate more wealth (no judgement--that's a legit goal) then it gets harder. When I was at Microsoft, partner-level engineers were making $1 million per year; now it's probably $2 million. Staff-engineer at FAANG is probably similar, I bet, to say nothing of the AI labs. I bet you could reach $25 million after 10 years with the right investment strategy. And $25 million throws off at least $1.25 million per year if you invest right. Beyond that, you probably do need a startup or some other significant ownership stake. |
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| ▲ | jebarker an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | I know these are just spit-balled numbers but getting to $25M in 10 years even with $2M annual comp would require pretty risky investment I think. Assuming you spent $300K per year and paid US taxes you’d have about $900K left over. 7% average returns would mean you’d have about $13M saved after 10 years. Getting more than 7% on the whole portfolio is going to require significant risk. | | |
| ▲ | GMoromisato an hour ago | parent [-] | | Fair enough--I didn't do the math. Looks like you'd hit $25M after 15 years or so. And I grant that 7% is aggressive. Still, if you reach staff-level at 40 years old, you could have $25M at 55. That's pretty amazing. But that requires lots of luck. Most people never make it to staff-level. I never did. | | |
| ▲ | jebarker an hour ago | parent [-] | | It is incredible. Sustaining 15 years at staff level will cost you a lot in other ways though! | | |
| ▲ | GMoromisato an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Yup! Depends on the company and the person, of course. Another thing: People at FAANGs usually ride the stock up and get way more than 7% per year. I'm embarrassed to say that I sold a lot of MSFT stock at $30 in 2011. Today (~15 years later) it is trading at $530. | |
| ▲ | spwa4 an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | Sustaining 15 years at staff level is near-impossible and will extract a heavy toll for the vast majority of people. Plus at 55? Not saying you'll be dinged purely for your age but it's not like it has no influence ... |
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| ▲ | joshuamorton 12 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > When I was at Microsoft, partner-level engineers were making $1 million per year; now it's probably $2 million. This seems...high. The levels.fyi data for 68/69 shows them maybe crossing 1M, and the highest available data point at a bit under 1.5 mil. Staff engineers at FAANG are not making 1M a year except in cases of significant stock growth. 700-800K is more reasonable. The AI labs pay a significant premium, yes (2-3x!). My math on it was basically "I can work for 10-15 more years and retire meeting my financial goals, or work until my 4 year grant at an AI lab finishes and meet all the same goals, with more interesting work". | |
| ▲ | spwa4 an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | > Beyond that, you probably do need a startup or some other significant ownership stake. That would be what I'm trying to avoid. |
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| ▲ | singpolyma3 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| If you're at 5 million you're already well past wealthy and should probably not be stressing about this. |
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| ▲ | hdjrudni 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I think you can make it to 5 million in maybe about 12 years at FAANG. Maybe quicker if you're frugal. More if you raise the ranks quickly. |
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| ▲ | ryandrake an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | I don't think your math is mathing. To end up with $5,000,000 after 12 years at, let's say, a constant 5% annual interest rate, you will need to invest over $25K per month over that time, or $300K per year of disposable income, after taxes, living expenses and so on. You would have to be very high level even in a FAANG to be able to do that. I know, I know, everyone on HN says entry level FAANG makes $600K/year and drives a brand new Porsche, but it's not reality. | | | |
| ▲ | joshuamorton an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | I'm not sure that's quite feasible. 2-2.5M in 10 years is about the best I've seen excluding getting reasonably lucky with major stock jumps. You could juice that a bit further with really aggressive savings, but for most people, you're looking at 4-5M in income pre tax over that 10-12 year period (maybe a bit higher), weighted mostly toward the end, so without a ton of time for market gains to help. |
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| ▲ | quickthrowman 44 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| You don’t need a FAANG salary, that just makes it easier. My net worth is nearing $1M after saving for 8 years, making less than $100,000 a year. If I exclude the ESOP equity I have, it’s still over $500,000 and that’s just maxing out 401K and Roth each year for 8 years with the market return. |
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| ▲ | derwiki 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| 4% of 5m is 200k; not a high level FAANG TC |
