SF Is One of the Worst-Paying Places in the US for Software Engineers

Re:SF Is One of the Worst-Paying Places in the US for Softwa... by nugget on Thursday February 09, 2017 @07:02PM (#13612190)

If I were a young software developer solely focused on saving as much money as possible, I would: move to SF in a heartbeat, work for Facebook, Google, or Amazon, pick a mission-critical team that exposed me to systems at massive scale, and live in a van a pleasant 5-10 minute bike ride from the office. After I felt comfortable I'd start to consult on the side on weekends for up to $53k of annual tax-free solo 401k sheltered income. Life doesn't present a ton of these "sell picks and shovels to gold miners" opportunities but this is definitely one of them.

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Re:SF Is One of the Worst-Paying Places in the US for Softwa... by zump on Thursday February 09, 2017 @07:51PM (#13612443)

Stupid advice. Not everything that happens is a choice, you can't just pick a team at Google, and you can't just magically become a profitable consultant on the side.

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Re:SF Is One of the Worst-Paying Places in the US for Softwa... by EpicEng on Thursday February 09, 2017 @08:57PM (#13612704)

If I lived in your fantasy world I'd just make myself the king of Saudi Arabia. Seems simpler.

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Re:SF Is One of the Worst-Paying Places in the US for Softwa... by et-al on Thursday February 09, 2017 @09:00PM (#13612725)

> After I felt comfortable I'd start to consult on the side on weekends for up to $53k of annual tax-free solo 401k sheltered income.

May someone please explain this? I wasn't aware of a different 401k contribution limit for freelancing.

> Life doesn't present a ton of these "sell picks and shovels to gold miners" opportunities but this is definitely one of them.

Feel like this is more akin to a goldminer working 24/7. Selling "picks and shovels" is what landlords / AWS / food delivery / ride-shares are doing.

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Re:SF Is One of the Worst-Paying Places in the US for Softwa... by pk3 on Friday February 10, 2017 @12:28AM (#13613441)

If the side business is profitable (and makes enough to enact this plan), it works like this for a solo 401(k): the employee's contribution (you) up to $18,000 and a profit sharing contribution up to 25% of the business earnings. For 2017, it maxes out at $54,000 if you're under 50 years old.

Keep in mind though that maximums are per person not per company; if you keep the day job 401(k) (and potential match) you'd have to reduce the contributions from your side business to not exceed the maximum.

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/one-participant-401k-pl... https://scs.fidelity.com/products/mobile/sepMobile.shtml

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Re:SF Is One of the Worst-Paying Places in the US for Softwa... by nugget on Friday February 10, 2017 @10:56AM (#13616207)

The employee contribution maximum is limited per person, but the employer contribution maximum is per company (if the companies are unrelated, by ownership structure). Some illustrative answers here:

https://www.quora.com/401-k-Is-it-possible-to-fund-both-a-So...

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Re:SF Is One of the Worst-Paying Places in the US for Softwa... by et-al on Friday February 10, 2017 @03:47AM (#13614108)

Thanks pk3 and baddox!

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Re:SF Is One of the Worst-Paying Places in the US for Softwa... by baddox on Thursday February 09, 2017 @09:36PM (#13612851)

I was under the impression that you can just set up a corporation for your freelancing, with you as the only employee, and have your corporation offer a very generous 401k plan that matches individual contributions up to the maximum legal amount.

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