[marcog1]

This might not help you, but it might help someone earlier in their career.

I was born, raised and studied in South Africa. Living costs and salaries are cheaper. I worked in California. Instead of living a lavish lifestyle, I saved. In hindsight, I should have saved even more. The important thing I did was opting for cheaper housing. I worked hard, which opened doors. I landed up at a startup that's now doing really well.

I retired after just six years. Six more years later, I'm doing what I want. I've been cycling around Europe and Africa. Next week I'm flying to Canada to explore North America for the next two years. It's a pretty cheap lifestyle, but I get to experience life around the world in a way few people ever do. I'm working on building a presence on YouTube. I've met others who sustain their travels via YouTube. Even if I don't, I can keep going for quite some time living off of savings. I wouldn't be able to do this so easily if it weren't for stock.

I'm not advocating a travel lifestyle. Instead, I'm advocating for saving up while you're earning decent cash. Don't blow it all. Then hopefully you can leave for what you really want to do, and not be tied down due to finances.

[ericyd]

Not only is this unrelated to the OP, but it's also not actionable advice. Sounds like you got lucky and got a bunch of great stock. That's not something most people can count on, and housing in American urban centers only goes so low.

[mgdev]

"Save while you're earning decent cash" seems pretty actionable to me.

[ericyd]

I found the anecdote of retiring in 6 years to distort the message significantly. Sure everyone can save more but that likely won't result in massive lifestyle changes in a short time frame.

[AlwaysRock]

Kind of depends. Plenty of people COULD live like a monk and save a ton over 6 years. But that requires not having a family and likely not enjoying your life very much. I probably COULD live on significantly less than I make right now. Hell, I have in the past.

But I sure didnt enjoy it very much.

But if you lived on rice and beans in the cheapest place you could find while making a 6 figure salary... Saving a very significant sum every year would be possible.

[yreg]

Six years is certainly lucky, but it's easy to save working as SWE. There are people living in your city on a tiny fraction of your income. A person without commitments could save the entire diff, if they wanted to.

And travelling is cheap as well, I have a friend who is travelling long term for like $300-600 a month, including all the transportation costs, etc. (The opportunity cost of not working is obviously much higher though.)

[wing-_-nuts]

Yeah for real. I think that any dev can retire by 50 if they want to. Maybe by 40 if they really put in effort, but if you're retiring before your mid 30's you're either 'leanFire' meaning you've basically committed yourself to a life of relative poverty or you somehow got hold of a 'lotto ticket', and that, by definition is extremely rare and not something anyone should plan for.

[benzible]

"I wouldn't be able to do this so easily if it weren't for stock" does not. It's misleading to attribute early retirement to a frugal lifestyle and savings when it appears that they hit the lottery.

[necheffa]

> "Save while you're earning decent cash" seems pretty actionable to me.

This is in fact pretty unactionable unless you are planning on boondocking during your career and retirement - at which point - why bother with post secondary education and a white collar job in the first place, just boondock from the getgo.

[GaryNumanVevo]

I was able to save around ~$800k over 6 years while living in the Bay Area, that's now at $1.45mil two years later. But I consider myself extremely, extremely lucky.

[skeeter2020]

It's incredibly unrealistic for anyone to replicate that sort of principal savings and then return. You might as well suggest buying lottery tickets, which you essenntially admit. This is either bad advice or shameless bragging, but tough to see it in any charitable light.

[yreg]

OP asked for any kinds of stories.

[jimbokun]

Do you mind sharing your total comp during those years? (since you are sharing pretty personal numbers already)

[GaryNumanVevo]

TC was ~300k USD. My base salary could cover my living expenses (single living with a roommate). I held all of my RSUs + ESPP for 5 years.

[jimbokun]

It’s actionable advice for many, if not most, people who write software for a living.

[skeeter2020]

How old are you? Do you have any dependents, a partner, children? Do you have any health issues; what do you do for coverage? What are you going to do in 'n' years when you're older, less relevant and broke?

I too am a saver, and over the past 20+ years we've been suckers. The problem is I grew up as a child when a savings account, essentially a zero-risk asset, paid well over 5% interest. That hasn't been true for a long time, with inflation & taxes grinding away at any marginal gains. I wish I'd financed and leveraged more, not consumption goods but investments. The other problem with being a saver is it's very hard to be one, then flip and be a consumer of your savings. The thing that makes you able to save is also what holds you back from spending. There are a lot of baby boomers who have a lot of assets yet still live very thrifty lifestyles; especially if they grew up blue collar when you could "save yourself rich".

[itsoktocry]

>I wish I'd financed and leveraged more, not consumption goods but investments.

The good news is, this is available to you right now!

The bad news is buying the best assets is hard, just like it was 5, 10, and 20 years ago.

Savings accounts weren't paying 5% for nothing. It's easy to look back at what could have been, but those moments are happening right now, too.

[insane_dreamer]

So long as you are single and childless.

[silverquiet]

That describes an increasing portion of the population.

[insane_dreamer]

fair point [0]

[0] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/08/for-valen....

[matrix87]

As an early career I agree with almost everything you say except doing it to quit and not work in industry

I mean, I save quite a bit (more than a third after taxes) just because consumerism is annoying. But at the same time getting paid to write code and learn how computers work seems like a pretty sweet gig to me long term. Especially because there's a compounding effect, the more you know the easier it gets to learn new things

And big company bullshit isn't that bad, at least to me. It's a bunch of convenient things to complain about

[gtvwill]

OK now let's compound this and think about how society would look if every participant followed the "rip and dip" methodology.

[lolinder]

The actual advice you're giving here is generally good, but for your specific outcomes there's a relevant XKCD [0].

[0] https://xkcd.com/1827/