[eliben]

This is a nice article, but two observations:

- He made a great home investment, apparently bought cheap and later was able to rent it for a lot of money. This is good for him, but somewhat lucky (or, alternative, a spark of insight into real-estate)

- He made nice returns on stocks

Both are fine, but not a part of "corporate programmer salary"

[div]

My thoughts exactly. He used the rent from 1 house to cover the mortgages on both his rental and his own house.

A typical mortgage around here is about 1/3rd of your income. So being able to basically have other people pay 2 mortgages for you is _huge_.

He also mentions he bough a bunch of Cisco stock for 7$ which he later got to sell for 30$. That's more than a 300% return, so depending on how much he invested, that can easily amount to a hefty chunk of cash as well.

[stevenwei]

Not to mention his wife's salary.

But the HN posting title seems to have been adjusted from the original title (which doesn't mention corporate programmer salary).

[lusr]

I'm surprised how little attention that part of the story receives, but maybe I'm in the minority as a late-20s bachelor?

Earnings received by a partner and shared expenses makes a dramatic difference to wealth accumulation. Where I live, if I earn double what two people in a relationship each individually earn, the couple make an extra 12% after-tax vs. what I do because they are taxed at a lower rate on their lower individual incomes. Furthermore, while two people eat and poop twice as much as one person, the greatest expenses (living) can often be shared.

[brown9-2]

and in retirement he has a part-time job that earns 50k/year.

[byoung2]

Exactly...a bit misleading. It's more about making smart investments and having a lot of luck with the timing. Like my parents, who had successful careers (dad was a dentist, mom was in real estate), but in the end selling the house they bought in 1975 for $87,500 (and paid off) for $950,000 in 2004 was what put them in the best shape for retirement.

[usedtolurk]

True, but his investment capital came from his IT salary (at least initially).

I thought this article counter-balances some of the many startup success stories we read about here. All great success seems to involve exceptional circumstances, hard work and good luck.

I guess the point is that startups aren't the ONLY way for programmers to get lucky.