[Sohcahtoa82]

Location matters a LOT.

The parent comment mentioned North America. This is huge. Tech salaries in Europe are half what they are in NA. In India, they're like 1/4 to 1/3.

Saving is absolutely important, especially in such a layoff-ridden industry. You should really strive to get at least 6 months of living expenses into savings.

[happytoexplain]

>In India, they're like 1/4 to 1/3.

My company pays 10k a year for an Indian contractor, full time. I don't know what their agency pays them, but it can't be even 1/4 of a typical NA SWE salary. More like 1/12th.

[a96]

Most of Europe has social security and reasonable health care. Cities even have working transit systems. Living costs are massively different. I expect the costs in India will also be.

Not that it means you'll be raking in a lot of surplus money, but that's also not directly tied to the size of your salary.

[altern8]

I know but there's always something shiny that keeps me away from that goal.

But I keep reading about people getting fired because of AI and every time I do I get progressively more anxious and closer to getting start on that.