
Ask HN: I want to get out of finance but salaries scare me - boredeasy
I&#x27;ve been doing software development as a profession for about 8 years. I&#x27;ve done it for fun for over 15. I&#x27;ve worked mainly in finance, lately it&#x27;s been predominantly in python. I&#x27;m very passionate about programming, but finance not so much. I&#x27;m currently making 200k a year. This isn&#x27;t even a lot for finance, I have friends making double&#x2F;triple+. I really want to move to a mainly tech company but unless it&#x27;s a Google caliber I can&#x27;t imagine keeping my salary. Has anyone made the transition? How did it work out for you? Any advice?
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MrZongle2
If you want out of finance, get out of finance.

I was making a little less than half of what you're currently making at a job
that I _hated_ , but I stayed there for 8 years because I was terrified of the
financial impact of going somewhere else. The money was very good for where I
was living, and there was nothing comparable in the region.

Staying there wasn't worth it. Not only did it affect my behavior -- which, in
turn, affected my personal relationships -- but I stagnated professionally.

Life's too short. Believe in yourself. Find another job to jump to, and _go_.

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CompelTechnic
How much have you been saving using your fat salary? If you've been making an
average of 150k and saving aggresively over the last few years, you could
easily have $500,000 saved up. Invested in dividend stocks, using 4%
withdrawal rule, boosts your apparent income by $20,000.

If you want to feel safer, save more cash until you switch to do whatever you
want to do. Some people find that no matter how much they save up, they never
feel comfortable- don't fall into that trap. Know the real risk here- the risk
of not doing what you want to do in life, because you need a "safety blanket"
job.

~~~
moocow01
at 150k approximately half your income is going to go out to taxes through
federal/state/sales/etc/etc.

so now with 75k you've got to pay for living expenses (taxes already removed)
and lets be very generous and only take out 25k for that stuff. (~1k for rent,
~1k for food and everything else)

So even with saving 50k its going to take you 10 years to get to 500k and
perhaps only 7 if you invest wisely.

Anyways sorry to be picky but 500k is not easily saved up on such a large
salary.

~~~
smartician
I think you're confusing marginal tax rate with effective rate. As a single
person in California making $150k p.a., your take-home pay is about $95k per
year, or $7,900 per month.

~~~
moocow01
Your right thats its a fuzzy calculation but I usually just consider that half
of income goes to taxes one way or another...

~35% goes out to your standard/official taxes

then you pay ~8% of whatever you spend to cover sales tax

then you pay ~2% of whatever your home is worth for property taxes (renters
don't see this as tax but its built into the monthly payment)

and then there are lots of other smaller things like the car registration
fees, bridge tolls (that may be a more of a bay area thing).

Anyhow its not exact but the way I budget is that 50% of my income is for
actual spending/saving and have found that that ends up being about right

~~~
smartician
It doesn't really make sense to me to factor things out like that. Sales tax
on groceries should be accounted for in the groceries budget. Property tax is
part of your housing budget. Car registration fees and bridge tolls add to
your transportation budget. Income taxes are different because they determine
how much you're actually being paid each month.

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segmondy
Stay where you are, and save as hell. Go to a tech company and it's not
guaranteed to be glorious as Whatsapp.

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alsoboredeasy
Identify a couple niches you've tackled over the years and try contracting
within those niches.

It may be tougher to find jobs for tech specific shops but you can at least
get out of finance and have a change of pace.

I say this as someone making a similar salary with ~7 years of professional
experience.

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falsestprophet
$149,890 is the 90th percentile salary of the 33,360 software developers in
the New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ metropolitan statistical area
(according to [http://data.bls.gov/oes](http://data.bls.gov/oes)).

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randomwalk152
Interestingly I'm in a similar situation. I'm working as a quantitative
analyst (quant) at a big bank and I'm on the precipice of leaving. I am also
dismayed at the possibility of having my salary cut in half. For this reason
I'm strongly considering doing some sort of startup - I just need to figure
out what to do :)

Even though I'm young, I'm realizing life is just too short to be stuck doing
something you don't like. Make the switch or else you will regret it in a few
years.

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blendo
I've been programming for over 30 years, and began work in finance in 1995. As
you note, the money is very good. But I found that it became soul-deadening.

Last year I quit my job, took five months off, then started work as a
programmer with a public service agency. Despite a 30% pay cut, I'm happy now.
Performing "socially useful" work turns out to be important to me.

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lemon1979
I make 130K, 4 years after doing a PhD in systems. No/negligible bonuses. NY
area. Man .. I should work in finance.

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spoiledtechie
Work for a government contractor. You can easily reach those numbers at a
small tech firm who contracts for the government.

You can also look into tech companies that give you bonuses for work etc. That
salary can be easily reached through yearly bonuses.

~~~
malandrew
Huh? You'd probably have to deal with the same bullshit as he has to deal with
in finance.

If you really love software engineering, there is no better path to happiness
at work than working somewhere where technology is the core business and not
just a supporting business.

A company who does government technology contracting work's core
business/competency isn't really technology, but the ability to win contracts
by meeting all the requirements, knowing the right people, knowing how to work
the bidding process, etc. Software engineering and tech are merely incidental.

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czbond
You can easily pull that as a Software manager or VP Enginneering. Do you want
to stay a programmer or manage? What part of the country are you in now? (I'm
guessing NY or NC).

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stirno
Become an independent contractor - easy path to similar numbers.

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jman25
Honestly, if you do care about money at least in the sense of relatively
short-term cash, I'd recommend trying to solve it by shooting for something
Google-caliber.

