r/financialindependence • u/fidgit86 • Aug 13 '21

What do you do that you earn six figures?

It seems like a lot of people make a lot of money and it seems like I’m missing out on something. So those of you that do, whats your occupation that pays so well?

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u/guptabhi Aug 13 '21

American tech companies are crazy. Most of the world pays much less (30-75k).

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u/windcape Aug 13 '21

I make 110k/year here in Sweden with just shy of 10 years experience.

But my pay is unlikely to go up much further than this. The $200-300k salaries they pay in the US is never going to happen here, even if you work for the same companies (Apple/Google/Microsoft/etc.)

That said, when you make above $100k it's generally a pretty good life lol.

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u/s200711 Aug 13 '21

Is that more than usual though? It's always difficult to pin down what's normal because the range is fairly wide and we're all biased by our social bubbles.

But I'd say in Germany as a run of the mill software dev at some average company in an average city, you'll likely max out at 70k EUR. Which certainly isn't bad, but it's not 6-figures retire in your 40s money.

And I had assumed that Sweden is roughly similar, so perhaps something like 800k SEK being a typical upper bound for devs (like 75th percentile). Would you say that's roughly accurate, or do more people end up with $100k+?

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u/magnafides Aug 13 '21

Which certainly isn't bad, but it's not 6-figures retire in your 40s money.

Just for perspective, in the US you're not retiring in your 40s just based off of a low 6 figure salary.

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u/Runningflame570 Aug 13 '21

Are you not? I'm sure not planning to work into my 50s.

Low sixes is a good salary in most cities.

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u/magnafides Aug 13 '21

It's definitely a good salary, but I don't think you retire in your 40s without your investments doing significantly well. When I say "low six figures" I was thinking like 100-150k.

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u/atypicaltool Aug 13 '21

I don't know I did. Single, started off at 100k, ended up at 170k with comp year 6, left after 9 years. Retired at 32. Lab tech btw. Investments did good, but no moonshots, at 1.6M now.

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u/magnafides Aug 13 '21

Just curious, where do you live and what are your expenses like? 1.6M isn't enough to retire at 32.

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u/atypicaltool 29d ago

Right now I'm kind of a vagabonder. I have a 55$ phone bill, and I guess a 50$ truck insurance payment. This is new so I can't give you an accurate budget. I also have a very aggressive portfolio and I sell option contracts. Yes 1.6M is more than enough to retire on depending on your budget.

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u/magnafides 29d ago

So are you saying that if someone is able to get by without a house payment/rent, a car payment, or any other real expenses they could retire on that amount of money? And they can get there by 32 if they take risky investments and are lucky enough to have those pan out? I mean, that's great for you but hardly a repeatable formula for early retirement.

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u/atypicaltool 29d ago

Everyone here claims a safe withdraw rate of 4%. 4% of 1.6M is 64,000 a year and this shouldn't eat into your principal. This is almost 5 times above the american poverty level. I think I'll be able to manage.

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u/atypicaltool 29d ago

Never in my posts did I state everyone or even most could achieve this. I was just answering OPs question. I realized I was fortunate in my income especially without a compsci degree. I would hope if most people chose they could live off of 64k a year. My brother retired early at 30 and raised a family of 4 on 33k a year including house payment without issue in California. I'm just a family of 1

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u/windcape Aug 13 '21

If I started at $120k on WA with no income tax at 25 and then made $300k at 35, retiring before 50 would definitely be doable

Access to the low taxed US stock market where you can easily buy options would help as well

(Options trading in the EU sucks and generally requires you to take a test to prove you’re not a WSB ape)

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u/magnafides Aug 13 '21 edited 29d ago

Sorry, when I say low 6-figures I mean like 100-150k. 300k is obviously going to buy you a lot more leeway. That's the difference between being in the top 15% and the top 1%.