I would say this is right for the first 2-4 jobs but then I would start looking for really promising startups with equity and stay until vested (normally 4 years) unless it's clear the startup is not doing well or you see another startup you just cannot miss. Having said that in my actual career I missed out on a big equity payday due to the dot com bust and my best year I earned about 200% of my base salary + benefits due to bonuses. Later in my career 35-60 I did better maxing out 401K, and stock option plans and just accumulating IRA money. I wish I had converted my traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs during the dot com bust when I was self employed running my own business and making very little.