Greed is good participants, #personalfinance #investments #techcareer 1. Can some people with 25+ years in tech comment how they navigated the tech bust of 2000 and the 2008 crash ? 2. What techniques or career pivots they took to maintain their level of earnings? 3. How did they manage mortgage payments when stocks valuations dropped 50%? ( Beans and rice? ramen diet?) 4. Managing 401k investments and Roth/IRA investments etc. 5. After the bust, how did they ask for compensation ? More cash vs more stocks in Tc?? #google #microsoft #intel #broadcom #cisco #att #broadcom #ibm #semiconductor #facebook #oracle #dell #verizon #morganstanley
They navigated it by hanging on to their jobs for dear life.
I weathered 2001 storm by pivoting to contract/consultant work for a year. I moved my stock into bonds and didn’t lose any value. As a consultant, I made the same amount of money but lost benefits. Took a couple of short term roles I wouldn’t have taken otherwise but the contracts were extended— companies needed the help but were not willing to make commitments. I was opportunistic and pivoted where I saw opportunity. Took a lesser paying job with good benefits but greater potential to develop more sills. Negotiated a 40% salary increase a few months later. Wasn’t affected in 2008
Diversify into real estate
Recovery didn’t start until 2005. Keep investing consistently, with expectations of not making money for 3-5 years. Career, leetcoding and constant practice. In dot com bust half of it workers lost their job. I applied to jobs were they looked at my resume and said we need someone with these skills but got no call back. Then I would find out it was because they didn’t exist anymore. Most of my cs friends left tech during that time. The only ones that stayed in it were the extremely competent ones or those who knew important people. It was a dark time that lasted a very long time.
I don’t think this’ll happen again though. 2000 was different because it was the first time software started eating the world and the world wasn’t yet ready for it. In 1999 NFTs would have been laughed at and Elon Musk would have been dunked into a toilet for being a dweeb. Now he’s the richest man on the planet.
@amazon do you think employment in tech will diminish in the upcoming years? It has been going strong for a decade now
Most important thing is you think party is ending is to work for a company that is profitable.
invest as normal. focus on earning power
Don’t pull out early. Keep investing in strong companies, index funds etc and buy at a discount.
Number 3 is easy. Don't borrow more than you can earn if you need to hop off the gravy train for a few years.
Yup. I can make my mortgage payments in the Bay Area using my salary alone. Also constrains how much salary I can forego though, so working for private companies is almost completely ruled out.
Why would you rely on non-base (stock, bonus) for anything essential?!?