What TC is enough for Bay Area
Considering single earner, what TC is enough to get by in Bay Area with SFH, a bit of savings for rainy day and may be funds for kids tuition. TC 170
Depends on age and stage of life and how you progress. Maybe benchmarking net worth with age is a better idea.
170is good enough
I am not sure, right now I am not able to save much. After taxes, deductions and rent its not much.
What's your yearly expenses ?
I think at least 400k. With all your requests, you’ll be miserable with less than that. Any FAANG would give you that if you have a few years under your belt.
How many years to get that?
I would say 300ish
10 years ago, 170k was fine even at Director levels. If you have a house, you're fine. Otherwise, you pay needs to be 1/3 -1/2 of the median price of homes in your area.
500 lower bound
Do a bottom up calculation. Rent : 3500 (2 bedroom apt in a decent suburb ) or 4500 for a house Monthly expenses : 2000 ( moderate lifestyle) or 3000 ( + style ) Kids tuition: depends on where the kid is ( pre school - 1000 to 1500) Total : 6500 ( min ) or 9000 ( + style ) This is 70% of your salary 78 k or 108 k Net salary would be 112 K or 154 K Now if you want to save 70 K yearly , then add 100K to your package so you will need 212 K for a moderate life and 254 K for plus style.
What about retirement savings like 401k, hsa etc?
Take it out of the 100K . Then savings in hand would be less . There could be more considerations too but this is s rough back of envelope calc
I used to live on annual income of $25k, ~2k a month after taxes, as a waiter and happy (single, no responsibility). So, making money as SWE (~100k) is a blessing for me! (Thanks my younger self for making the right major decision!). And yes, I am not in FAANG and it doesn’t actually matter much as long as I can learn something new everyday. TLDR: Enough is relative
The 70% is the tax bracket with a non working spouse and kid
1.5 mil should be fine.
I am asking for lower bound, If I do big O there is no upper bound
$1.5m is the lower limit. Everybody here makes that, minimum. Just set up your RSUs to autosell.