If they perform well, I wouldn’t think so, bad performers will go first. The way you phrased it makes it look like you are really jealous :)

Maybe. We all get to choose our own life strategies.

If you're undisciplined with money it will suck.

I spend less than 20% of what I earn, and if I went up to 600k then it would be a smaller percentage. Not everyone follows the hedonistic treadmill and does that stupid thing of increasing expenses instead of increasing money-producing assets.

People often combine OE with FIRE

What are these things?

overemployed, financial independence retire early

in other words, take multiple jobs, work only as long as it takes to do the work for each, and save in order to retire young

If you can make it work for a year, you've got 3 years of padding.

Maybe you do, maybe you don't; it depends on what assets the money has been invested in. I doubt someone who chooses to pursue this kind of path keeps it as mattress cash.

what's the argument here? investing has risks?

That it would, in fact, suck to go from 670/yr to 0 - unemployment.

Not necessarily. Since my wife and I married 8 years ago, we’ve never spent more that 40% of our combined income annually.

I haven’t had consistent income for almost 9 months now as I am attempting to transition from a blue collar lifestyle (carpenter and electrician) to become a web developer.

I wrote my first html and qbasic code back in the 90s but I always told myself that I could never be anything other than a tradesmen because of my upbringing.

Now I’m looking to change that and it’s only possible because we’ve been so frugal.

Seems about 3x less certain than someone with one job going from 200k to 0

Going to 0 always sucks

I certainly hope not. I've been fully remote working a single job in a tiny, mountain town since 2016 and have been more productive than ever.

I'm happy to travel for work, but will never give up my morning coffee on the continental divide for an office again. I'll switch professions and work at the local hardware store to keep this up :) (I do very much enjoy software work FWIW)

It's quite gratifying being in an environment surrounded by what you love. It's not for everyone, and I'm very grateful it all worked out. Unfortunately, the little towns like this just don't have economies to support my profession, and I'm incompatible with the big cities.

Layoffs are happening and only the overemployed are the ones who easily weather that. It’s job insurance. In the US employers will drop people on a dime

You don't think that this will be a factor? Managers will favor those they know are not dividing their time or attention over those they suspect, or those of whom they are unsure. That's the crux of my theory here.

Layoff has been high risk for many now, OE or not. Many who OE meet or exceed performance expectations