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@andy_matuschak

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

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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.

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It isn't half. That's horseshit. Source: Live in the Bay Area and just did my budget as a tech bro.

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Our state & federal income + payroll came to 24% of our gross.

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@andy_matuschak

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Was curious—just looked at my last return from years ago working for Big Tech; my effective tax rate (state+federal+payroll) was 31% of gross.

6:59 PM · Jan 28, 2022Twitter Web App

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@andy_matuschak

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Was basing it roughly off of here

Free Income Tax Calculator - Estimate Your Taxes - SmartAsset

Calculate your federal, state and local taxes for the 2021-2022 filing year with our free income tax calculator. Enter your income and location to estimate your tax burden.

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@andy_matuschak

Right. SALT deductions, tax-advantaged savings, etc lower the impact substantially.

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@andy_matuschak

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Yeap. That's about right. We have some big tax breaks this year due to donations so we're much lower. We would be near that w/o the donations/breaks.

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