[ldayley]

All of the sibling comments are good answers to this question!

What hasn’t been mentioned is that Signal is an extremely high-profile target for rogue actors and nation-states. Employing staff with personal financial troubles in sensitive positions can contribute to the temptation to use access for personal gain. This is one way intelligence services groom double agents. Despite what appears to be very high salaries they won’t get rich in the Bay Area— but it seems like it’s above a threshold where one of these engineers would feel desperate.

Also: I imagine having a WhatsApp founder as a board member/funder helps here, as they famously built and scaled globally before their acquisition with only 20-30 engineers…

[barbazoo]

It’s nuts to think a salary of $400k a year won’t get you rich, even in the Bay Area. If they’re not rich, maybe they should check in with a financial advisor because they’re doing something wrong.

[7402]

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery”

― Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/90487-annual-income-twenty-...

[ldayley]

I agree, but only because I routinely speak with people who make double that and still struggle to pay monthly bills. Short answer: financial outcomes aren't about the number (above a basic threshold), and they’re almost entirely a function of behaviors & (some) luck.

Paying more is still a valid form of defense against petty corruption, though.

[linotype]

If someone paid me $800k per year, I would be retired in three years. You’re right on the behavioral aspect, for sure.

[b112]

What often baffles me is the "buy a whole bunch of things on credit", and then get laid off and have not a penny left.

I've seen stories of actors in Hollywood banking $15M from a movie, buying all sorts of property with mortgages, boats, cars, all on credit, then losing it all due to default without that next movie.

Behaviour indeed.