[nefitty]

Your assumption about the demographics of HN is counter to everything I've seen. Most of these people do have money. Simply by virtue of being professionals in the US, they are part of the 1%.

If someone was really inclined, $20k USD would pay for a year's rent in a comfortable apartment. $20k for other expenses. A year of grinding is open to a lot of people here I bet. They just don't want to do it.

The fear is too large, the inertia of normie life too great.

[leetcrew]

> Simply by virtue of being professionals in the US, they are part of the 1%.

most white collar professionals, SWEs included, are not even close to being in the 1%. the 1% income bucket for the whole country starts around $350k, so roughly an L5 at google.

[dragonwriter]

I think the grandparent is referring to US professionals tending to be in the global 1%, not the US local 1%.

[wyre]

The global 1% cutoff is around $35,000, which is ironically very close to the median income in the US.

[nefitty]

Yes, that is what I meant. I could have clarified.

[sanedigital]

You need to add another $20K for taxes. And potentially another $10K for health insurance, depending on location. At $70K/yr you’re well into the top tercile in the US.

[coldtea]

>You need to add another $20K for taxes.

If you have the $40k for the year saved, you don't pay taxes for them again when you use it to spend the year not working, etc.

[sanedigital]

Fair, I may have misunderstood GP's comment. I was under the impression they meant $40K in take-home income.

[hattmall]

If you only make $40k a year you aren't going to be paying very much in taxes at all. You also want be paying very much for healthcare as it will be subsidized by the ACA.

[nobody9999]

>If you only make $40k a year you aren't going to be paying very much in taxes at all. You also want be paying very much for healthcare as it will be subsidized by the ACA.

ACA subsidies (at least in NY) are in the form of tax credits. If you don't have any (or not enough to pay taxes on) income, those tax credits are useless.

If you have no (or very low) income, the state will instead put you on Medicaid. Which has mostly terrible healthcare providers.

As such, if you go the "quit my job and go my own way" route, expect to pay USD$600-1000/month (for an individual, families will be much, much more) for decent health insurance or deal with the huge pile of crap that is Medicaid.

If you're young, single and healthy, perhaps that won't matter to you. If you're not, that could be a big problem.

[valleyer]

In fact, the ACA tax credit is refundable; that is, if you owe no taxes, the government pays you.

[sanedigital]

If you're self-employed your FICA rate basically doubles. Depending on your state, that means your tax burden at $40K could be ~$9-12K. Even with a subsidy you're looking at another $2-3K for health insurance. That makes your take-home less than $30K, 25% less than what GP proposed was sufficient income for basic comfort.

[nefitty]

Except for severe chronic health issues, healthcare can probably be handled by walk-in clinics for a year. Those are generally $100-$200 per visit. Medication costs can be lowered with services like GoodRX, which I think even has a trial month for even lower costs.

With taxes, wouldn't you be able to defer them? Just track what you owe or whatever. It might be different in other places because in Nevada we only pay sales tax.