
Barely scraping by with a $250,000 salary in Silicon Valley - aestetix
https://medium.com/@lucasroitman/barely-scraping-by-with-a-250-000-salary-in-silicon-valley-d2b5d665c1c0
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danso
This works as satire, the subtle point being that "barely scraping by" should
not be equated with owning a 2-bedroom home and working toward a Stanford MBA
just 4 years out of college.

That said, someone complaining they are having a hard time with $100K from
Facebook isn't hard to believe, depending on circumstances. I'm reminded of
the story about Menlo Park firefighters making well above $100K but being
unable to live in Menlo Park:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11367881](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11367881)

~~~
kafkaesq
Insane as the SV real estate situation is, you're going to definitely have to
throw kids into the mix for $100K to land you in the "scraping by" category.
Anyone who's single and can't "scrape by" on $100k (or even a far lower
figure) simply lacks imagination.

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geebee
_" Edited: Way too many people haven’t noticed this is satire. I’ve seen an
article on Facebook claiming $100k isn’t enough to live in the valley, and
then another one claiming $130k isn’t enough. Then there’s another Twitter
employee complaining with $160,000.I wanted to make a hyperbolic next step to
show the stupidity of those articles. There are service workers living with
$10k or less. Working in tech, you should be fine with your salary. Stop
complaining."_

I understand this is intended as satire, but I don't think it succeeds on that
basis.

Hyperbole based satire certainly can be used to reveal an absurdity, but
sometimes the hyberbole involved in satire is exactly what turns a reasonable
position into an absurd one. Although it is true that people make it in SF on
less than 100k a year, I don't think it's reasonable to use a satire based on
a single person earning 250k a year to tell people who earn 100k that the
should be happy and stop complaining.

I noticed that this analysis left out childcare. A quick google search shows
that the average cost of childcare per month is 1,900-2,400. If you want the
kind that allows two people to work full time, 2,400 isn't a bad deal.

You also need housing, especially if you have two kids. That's going to be
expensive. It's very unlikely you'll get this for less than $2500 a month in
rent.

As for not complaining... honestly, most of the people I know with kids in SF
and are hard up for money don't complain much, they get on with it. It's the
Silicon Valley tech _employers_ who constantly complain about hiring woes.
These companies often refuse to allow remote work or find a way for workers to
live in places where 100K would be a wonderful salary for a family.

As far as I see it, it's those companies that are constantly complaining to
congress about a shortage of workers.

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otoburb
The recent article edit helped:

 _" Edited: Way too many people haven’t noticed this is satire. I’ve seen an
article on Facebook claiming $100k isn’t enough to live in the valley, and
then another one claiming $130k isn’t enough. Then there’s another Twitter
employee complaining with $160,000. I wanted to make a hyperbolic next step to
show the stupidity of those articles. There are service workers living with
$10k or less. Working in tech, you should be fine with your salary. Stop
complaining."_

~~~
nerfhammer
None of this changes the fact that Silicon Valley is, in fact, ludicrously
expensive. Knocking someone down for alleged hypocrisy or naïvety may instill
a temporary feeling of moral superiority but emphatically does not actually
change that fact.

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RyanCavanaugh
Nice satire, but to truly be on point he needs to do the kind of willfully-
ignorant accounting that claims someone maxing out their 401(k) and putting
another $40k/year into a retirement account is "after expenses, left with no
extra money at all".

~~~
gamechangr
I have read a few that say "after regular expenses" and then go own to
include: "$60k towards Roth/401k" and "three vacations a year"

After that..I'm only left with $17,000 for entertainment.

~~~
CocaKoala
Wait, how do you even PUT 60k in a Roth/401k in one year?

You're capped at 18k for the 401k, and you're capped at 5.5k for a Roth IRA,
assuming you're under the income cap to contribute to the Roth in the first
place. If you're doing a Roth for your partner as well, that's another 5.5k.

So if you and your partner both max out your 401ks, that's 36k per year, plus
another 11k for the two Roths to make 47k going to retirement savings.

Is there another vehicle for retirement savings that I could be dropping money
into, aside from my Roth IRA, my wife's Roth IRA, and my 401k?

~~~
kingnothing
You can do a backdoor Roth IRA contribution. It has no limits.

~~~
monster_group
That is incorrect. Conversion from traditional to Roth IRA has no limit.
Contribution limit is $5500 per year regardless backdoor or not.

~~~
wsxiaoys
It's a well-known trick across googlers....

1\. IRA Backdoor: Contributed to traditional ira with after tax money, capped
at 5500, then converted to RothIRA

2\. After-Tax 401k Mega Backdoor: Contributed to After-Tax 401k, capped at
26K, then converted to RothIRA.

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magic_beans
That was really very, very subtle satire. Maybe it's a little sad that it was
entire believable!

~~~
burntrelish1273
It's sad and hilarious because it's true. Some people are blowing 60+k/year
dining out.

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iopuy
Well done, I read all the way to the end thinking "Wow, he is setting himself
up for some serious backlash"

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hkmurakami
I wonder why SF/Peninsula SV knowledge workers have an expectation to live
large at salary $X when many of their colleagues/friends are making just as
much, whereas Manhattan New Yorkers do not have an expectation to live large
making great money in absolute terms but still making relatively "average
money" wrt relative income.

I suppose one hypothesis is that the region has yet to come to terms with how
widespread high earning power in absolute terms (but not on relative terms)
have become.

~~~
ng12
I think it's two things: the influx of young professionals who suddenly have
lots of expendible income, and the fact that NYC has a very clear pecking
order. I make a very comfortable living in NYC but there's still the "old
money Central Park" crowd and the "lunch at Dorsia" crowd to remind me where I
stand.

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burntrelish1273
I'm bootstrapping on 9.5k/yr. It's doable. Which means I should probably stop
all this startup "nonsense" and make more working a $250-300k salary and be a
multimillionaire within a decade.

The majority of people choose to eat out every meal, subscribe to a bunch of
memberships they use very little, redecorate with new furniture every few
years, go to the movies every weekend, take a vacation with excursion$ and so
on.

Spending or saving money is a choice, just like one's diet or anything else.

~~~
wutbrodo
I did the big company route for a few years out of college and without even
trying very hard, had something like an 80% savings rate. To be fair, this was
a few years ago, so rents were better, but I live in an excellent location in
the heart of the city and even _doubling_ my rent would leave me with a super
high savings rate. I knew people making half as much as me and spending twice
as much, and I'm truly baffled as to how they managed to do so. Especially
since I have a weakness for (among other things) good food and beer: even if I
did it regularly, spending $30 on a good beer hardly makes a dent in the kind
of numbers we're talking about.

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shiny
> My taxes are of 15%, because I get paid in capital gains, through equity.

I know this is satire, but out of curiosity is it really possible to be paid
100% in stock (and then just sell however much you need to live immediately)?

~~~
soreal
Even if it was, you still pay regular income tax on stocks which are given to
you.

~~~
wallstquant
Get an individual patent and get arrange to get paid via royalty licensing. As
I understand it, this is all long term cap gains. However. I am not a lawyer
or a tax advisor.

~~~
acchow
a quick Google shows that royalties from patents are taxes as ordinary income.

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lemonsqueeze
What's wrong with living in a trailer for a year and banking 200k?

Nice satire.

All he talks about are buying liabilities (pool, car, entertainment, renting,
filling big house with shit you don't need).

Imagine if he talked about assets instead (ETF's, rental property, and
starting his own side hustle corporation).

He's rich, but far from wealthy.

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kevwil
Admitted clickbait BS, could use a downvote for this one.

