From a disadvantaged family (no initial savings) and perhaps student loans (ill-advised, but not uncommon) -- it's not unthinkable that he hasn't hit "soft retire" numbers after 10 years.

But your sentiment is correct: If you're debt-free, you should be able to "soft retire" after 10 years as a software engineer in today's markets.

Another thing to factor in is being from a lower income area will distort your perception of what a large number is. I come from a town where the per capita income is 20k. My first "real" job was doing tech support at $16/hr. It felt like A LOT of money to me. I thought I was getting overpaid, that sentiment followed me for years. Today making 125k I still feel overpaid, though when I look at the value I produce for the company, and the numbers of my peers I know it's not. It took me many years to get to 125k because each step up the ladder felt pretty big to me even though it probably wasn't compared to my peers.

Pay is very relative. I look at my old high school buddies, they range from 25k-40k. The first time I asked for 100k, I thought it was craziness. Like no human being deserves that amount of money. So it took me several years to build up to that number.

I can completely relate to this. Doing a practice interview with a career counselor we got to the part about negotiating pay. I said I had no idea how to do this. She said ask for 70k as a junior developer. I told her that, that felt like saying "I'll be needing all the money in the world please."

What part of the country do you live in? That's a great salary in some places, and an incredible salary in others.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "soft retire"?

Build a sufficiently large investment portfolio such that annual income from investments approximately equals annual expenses. Note that this may require moving to an area with lower cost of living (eg. working in SFBA for 10 years and then moving to the midwest).

The approximate rule of thumb (not accounting for investment variability, so be careful!) is that you can extract 4% of your investments annually without affecting the basis (while adjusting it for inflation). So if you can live off that 4% (ie. $40k off a $1M investment portfolio), then you can "soft retire."

There are entire communities dedicated to this notion (eg. http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim...)

.... what planet do you live on? That certainly isn't the case for the vast majority of developers, even if their lifestyle involves a studio apartment and ramen noodles.

GDP per capita in Vietnam is $2k. I think you're overestimating how much it costs to retire. Even $500k would be enough that you'd never touch the principle.

I think you're underestimating the social cost of moving halfway around the world to a place where you aren't familiar with the culture or language or people.

If you're single and socially unattached, your proposition is viable. But you can't readily expect someone's SO and/or children to be as willing to cut ties with their home. And if you have a solid group of friends, that's a big thing to give up and to try and rebuild in a foreign land without the benefit of common language and culture.

I am from a third world country myself :) and have always earned in the country's currency. And even though I did start working as a software engineer in the startup I mentioned, I did not eventually continue in the field and do statistical modelling for a living (which pays much more than the average software engineer here).

if you have no life outside work, sure ;)

No, that's if you take home $100k and 'only' spend half of it (which already represents the median household income in the US)

OK, but how many developers in the US get $100k? Throughout the first 10 years of their career?

And I'm sorry, I should explain - I live and work in the EU, in Germany right now. So I can't compare. In any case, one can certainly save, and I'm not gonna lie, I could certainly spend less without losing too much :) But a claim like "10 years is enough to retire" seems a bit extreme.

You can consistently get $100k in Silicon Valley, New York City, and Washington DC Metro, although you will need Top Secret security clearance for the latter.

It should come as no surprise that the expenses in those areas are much higher. If you settle for a lower salary in an area with lower living expenses, your effective savings rate could be higher.

Also, you don't want those DC jobs. Just say no. The military industrial complex is a soul-eating machine, and it does not respect software professionals.

The problem is that other places have fewer available jobs in the field, and a greater proportion of them are extremely unglamorous. $90k maintaining a stupid, business-line CRUD app may be less attractive than $80k making custom software for medical researchers.

Good luck saving half your income, even at $100k, in any of those places. Median rent alone in SF is way over half of that in a year... BEFORE taxes.

I saved over 80% of my take-home pay when I lived in SF. The rent is expensive, yes, but everything else is cheap and at most jobs you get free food and entertainment.

Don't forget Seattle. Amazon/Microsoft/Expedia/etc.

$100k after tax (including stock) is basically starting salary in the valley for 22-year-old college graduates at big companies.

SV salary levels are not the norm across the industry. Furthermore, these high salaries in places like SV are often displaced by the extreme cost of living.

well, a full answer to the question would also need the percentage of college graduates that land jobs in big companies in the valley...

P.S. I don't think we'll get far with this... i just noticed, e.g., "median household income in the US" - that seems a tricky thing to compare with, given that many ppl in the US don't have health insurance, or live in trailer parks eating off food stamps...

I think almost all my (upper-year) classmates got offers to at least one of Amazon/Microsoft/Google/Facebook/Twitter/Palantir/Uber. And I went to a school in Canada that nobody's ever heard of (University of Waterloo).

From across the pond, I can tell you we do have heard of you.

I don't follow the Shangai listings (because to me they are kinda pointless) but if pressed to list canadian universities, University of Waterloo would definitely be there....

> And I went to a school in Canada that nobody's ever heard of (University of Waterloo).

Erm, that's well-known as an excellent school. Top-tier, really. My only qualms about inviting in a Waterloo man for an interview would be that our work might not be interesting enough.

What with one of Tommy Flowers colleagues moving there post ww2 :-)

Read Cryptonmicon and you can work out who Randy's' family is based on

You do realize that Waterloo has a CS program that's highly regarded (internationally), yes?

Outside tech circles most people give me a blank stare or ask me if it's in England or in Belgium. It's certainly not an Ivy League school where my rich parents dropped $200k to ensure my spot in the upper class, like some of these commenters claim.

For sure. Why you're getting my response, and others like it, is because well, this is a tech circle and we're talking about tech jobs, so in this context, it's certainly nowhere close to being a school no one has heard of.

edit: Your original comment (paraphrased) was, 'I go to this school no one's heard of, but my classmate get offers to <top-tier tech companies>', but the reality of this is that all of these top-tier tech companies are without a doubt quite aware of Waterloo and it's quality. The same can't be said for, what, I don't know, Cleveland State University.

Humblebrag by association.

Which brings us full circle back to the topic of the article such that its only children of rich parents who graduated from ivies, white "1% rock star programmer" males only, then you don't need the easy cash anyway.

Children of rich parents come in all shapes, sizes, and colours, friend.

As I mentioned in another unrelated thread, most people do not have the discipline to do this. It is simply unrealistic... but, yes, it can be done.