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This question's gauche, but: given the prevalence of $400k++ comp packages for ~30-year-olds in Big Tech, why aren't there lots more "gentle[wo]man scholars"? i.e. people quitting to do non-remunerative creative projects I can think of some, but shouldn't there be thousands?

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Dr. Loh

@steveloh722

Jan 28

Burn rate eats up 400k pretty quickly especially in cities like LA and Bay Area

Rich

@Duderichy

Jan 28

Half to taxes, ~230 after maybe, $50k rent / mortgage, hmmm. Maybe $50k discretionary? But yeah, 50% savings rate still takes a long time to build up. Especially if you’ve only been making that much for a few years and made much less before.

Rich

@Duderichy

Jan 28

Given this is a recent phenomenon and the type of person who goes to save that much money isn’t probably going to be the type of person to talk about it much

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and

This is a good point. Maybe I'm being too optimistic. Let's see… lots of great group houses in SF for $1,500/mo. Say we cut discretionary to $2,500/mo. That's $182k/yr leftover. You'd need ~$1.2M annuity to maintain that lifestyle; that'd take ~6 years.

2:27 AM · Jan 28, 2022Twitter Web App

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and

It gets even crazier if you project it past 6 years and just assume at least a promotion or two. You can go from middle class rich to real rich just by working a relatively chill job (as long as you're willing to leave the city afterwards).

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and

People in their 30s in tech aren't living in group houses in SF, they are buying houses

rae mac

@okdistribute

Jan 28

A house in SF is at least $1m so...

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Peter B

@peterb

Jan 31

s/making that kind of money//

Replying to

and

I think a lot of people like having a family though. And I’m not sure retiring on 1.2mm in SF is feasible.

Rich

@Duderichy

Jan 28

It is most certainly not

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and

Who making $400k a year is living somewhere in SF only costing $1500/mo??

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Jan 28

I know lots of people in this situation.

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and

How long does that annuity last? From what I see it’s like 5-10 years, so then you have to jump back into the job market after a long break? Seems very risky to me.