[therealwill]

Or plan C. For younger engineers start thinking about financial independence. Software Engineers enjoy a high starting salary and an even higher mid career salary so it is entirely possible to achieve financial independence in your 30s-40s with a frugal lifestyle and smart investing.

[brianwawok]

Mr Money Mustache for the win!

[UK-AL]

The problem I have money Mustache is that he doesn't value time that much.

He advocates doing things yourself, DIY etc.

If you can pay someone less to do something than you could earn in the same amount of time. Its better to outsource those tasks.

[brianwawok]

Ya it is hard to say. From his POV - he is already "retired", so he has tons of time available and if doing things himself limits his expenses - win win.

For someone who is busy working.. it depends. If you get a salary to work 40h a week... does hiring a poolboy for $20 an hour instead of cleaning your own pool for a self-declared time worth of $50 an hour make sense? I am not sure. If you are consulting and your choices are bill 45h and have a poolboy, or bill 40h and have your own poolboy... then the logic is much more in favor of outsourcing your tasks.

The other trick is how much do some things really cost? I know to pay someone to put brakes on my car, I would pay the equivalent of $100-$200 an hour. For $100-$200 an hour, I will gladly crawl under my car and get dirty!

[jacquesm]

Second that. Being in software gives you a half decent shot at this, it would be a whole lot harder if you were a brick-layer.

[bcg1]

Woah buddy, don't reveal all of the secrets! You're taking the competitive edge away from those of us that had to learn the hard way

[zwischenzug]

I've more or less done this, and now pickjobs for what I'll learn, who I'm working with, and lifestyle.