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/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/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%.