zlacker

You don't need to do _wild_ savings to retire at an age where you can enjoy your health in the US, as a tech worker.

Cost of living is skyrocketing where in the US and to what degree higher than its EU equivalent? The EU has borne the brunt of inflation so I'm having a hard time seeing where EU citizens are paying less to live than Americans.

> The horror. Personally, I'll take stagnant economic growth over statistics that get pumped by tech firms that are richer than entire countries in europe - Microsoft and Apple are individually worth more than Italy.

Ok. Economic growth is not a vanity metric for pumped up tech firms to move the needle on. Economic growth has direct effects on comparative quality of life. Trying to make some other, vaguely conspiratorial, equivalence is ignorant at the least.

>>emptys+(OP)
Ah, yes; because the only people we should consider in these discussions are Silicon Valley tech workers, who consider making $150k a year to be "on the low side".

Do you ever give a thought to the vast majority of Americans who make less than you? Or even to the vast majority of tech workers who make less than you?

>>danari+Lm
Just for some additional context here, look at average housing prices for a single-family home, not even something nice, I mean like 1000sqft 2/2 in a neighborhood without a drive-by shooting once per week. Calculate the mortgage payment on that with the current 7-8% rate. Calculate how much you bring home net on $150k after taxes. Now you’re on your way to seeing why that’s basically “low income” (technically $104k/yr for a single person living alone): https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/low-income-media...

Wait until you find out about Prop 13 and how that new 80 year old $1.5m house you bought costs 10x in taxes what everyone else on the block pays because they got there in the 70s and 80s.

>>danari+Lm
Is there any surprise in an American having such a narrow view where they only consider their own circumstances?

>>Freedo+F21
I'm European.

>>emptys+(OP)
Even software engineers are not guaranteed a cushy retirement. Everyone assumes the stock market averages a return of 7-9% per year, but there have been periods of a decade or more where the return was 0 or negative, not just in other countries stock markets, but the US as well. If the stock market, for whatever reason, stays flat for the next even 10 years, which has happened before, it will severely limit even SWE retirement savings by the time they reach 55 1/2 years old. Part of the issue is there are so many limitations to retirement savings. How much you can contribute. Whether you can contribute (if you are not provided a 401k from your employer, you can’t put away anywhere near $20k/year for retirement). Then there’s social security. “Everyone” says that won’t exist in 30 years, so why am I paying into it? Why am I forced to pay into it? I should be able to opt out if I’m maxing out my 401k every year. It’s a broken system to be sure.