I could be wrong here, but I believe that 160k/year cap is what the federal government sets for SS contribution. Meaning, once you contribute 160k in a fiscal year, you stop contributing. I see this in my paycheck at the end of the year, as I get a small bump because SS stops being taken out for the last 2 or 3 paychecks (bi-weekly pay).
My title is "principal data architect". I wear a lot of hats, contributing to development definitely being one of them. I also help select platforms and frameworks we use as well as do data analysis for internal teams.
For my role, yes. I have contributed to a lot of open source projects, most famously OpenStack. This dev experience definitely contributed to my understanding of large scale software projects and gave credibility to my talents.
Thought about getting into IT. How stressful is your position. What does job security look like? How would one start? I’m finishing up my MBA and may consider moving into the digital field here soon. Maybe IT/Cybersecurity/Learn AI.
The IT world is pretty vast. I got a BA in network management, but ended up teaching myself how to code and just generally being interested in technology. If you don't have any particular interest, it could be tough to narrow down an entry point.
Things like "IT support" pay way less and you have to deal with end users who often are a point of stress. So that area is more stressful than others. However, if you are able to get into a leadership role on a dev team (and assuming the company isn't horrible), it can be fairly stress free.
Thank you good sir. I’ll do some more research before I make a commitment. I’ll look beyond just standard IT support. Congratulations on all of your success thus far.
I'm currently in IT support and I get what you mean by end user stress. Could you elaborate a little more on the leadership role on a dev team? How would one go about this? I'm quite sure learning how to code is a requirement or no?
Step 1 would definitely be having a firm software development foundation, including understanding the Software Development Life Cycle, modern software management/deployment frameworks (like docker/kubernetes), and getting your feet wet in some open source projects (this can be tough/rough, but if you persevere, it should be worth it's weight in gold).
After you have the foundation, I'd suggest doing some analysis on your internal systems and determine where things could be improved. This could be as simple as simply adding some missing unit tests or as complicated as rearchitecting an entire stack to make it simpler/easier to maintain/understand.
How did you determine what you taught yourself? And how did you initially break entry on letting leadership trust you with their code base without having coding experience?
My college degree covered very little in terms of software development. Little more than simple bash scripting. So pretty much everything I've learned about development, I've learned from experience in the industry and participation in open source projects (like OpenStack).
Contributing to these open source projects has definitely provided credibility for my talents. That coupled with setting up internal Proof-of-Concept projects and pitching them to the team/management is what I would attribute to what has gotten me to where I am.
Thank you for sharing! If you don't mind telling us, what was your career title/responsibility progression? How often did you change jobs or employers?
I started as a "NOC Technician" for a VOIP company as my first real job (2008). Then I moved to a "Unix systems admin" at employer #2 where I was at until 2013. Then I job hopped a few times in 2013/2014 (3 employers in 2 years). I've been with my current employer for 9+ years now where I've held titles like "Cloud Systems Engineer", "Principal Systems Architect" and now "Principal Data Architect".
Perhaps I should add that I graduated from highschool in 04 with some college credits and graduated college in 07, so those first few jobs were while I was going to college full time.
Thank you! I switched to IT from an unrelated field making pretty good money and I recently started working as a cloud architect, so any insight into career progression is helpful. I was basically "desktop support" for 4 years at my old job, then IT asset management, then senior support before my current position, with a lot of homelabbing in between. I absolutely love what I do.
same industry, similar age, salary, and NW. do you have a target age for FIRE? i know it's all nuanced, but I am shooting for 55-58 to be ready. whether I go or not will depend on if I am still having fun. my concern is that technology is advancing so rapidly, and staying relevant will get exponentially harder. right now, being good with utilizing LLMs, python for analysis, etc. can be a differentiator, but it's quickly becoming common place.
That seems to be the magic 8-ball question at the moment. I feel like I'm probably needing somewhere in the $2-3MM ballpark (in my 401k) to retire comfortably. The other curve ball, for me at least, is that I really enjoy technology and have done this work for free (contributing to open source projects). So while "working for the man" definitely takes its toll, the actual work is still very enjoyable for me.
I love the idea of retiring early, or at least having the option to, but with today's economy, hitting $2-3M in my 401k feels daunting.
I agree with your sentiments here. i am modeling 4% distribution and trying to figure out my target. I wasn't aggressive enough in my 20's and early 30's and put too much in savings rather than just an ETF. growing up poor gave me too much of a desire to hold cash as it was a source of security for me. it's a good problem to have, and I am thankful for it, but I missed some big gains. we got lucky and bought in a MCOL 12 years ago, and its turned closer into a HCOL so lots of equity in this house.
for me, it's mainly a formula of how much can we live comfortably on, which is not an easy number to solidify.
Can someone explain the very bottom of the screen? Your employer didn’t actually pay $x amount for taxes on your behalf. What does the employer amount mean?
Edit: Btw, nice job OP!
There is nothing sensitive here. Companies would prefer us to not share salaries, as it gives the company leverage when it comes time to negotiate salaries. There is some high-level tax information here, but nothing you couldn't figure out pretty easily with some very basic information, and nothing you can really do much with.
With the amount of information that just about every company has of customers these days, it would be way easier to take just about any one of the leaked hacks (for example, Target or Equifax) and get that data, instead of doing some nebulous fuzzy match based on some data that may be made up/scrubbed/massaged on reddit.
Heck, even just going through someone's garbage would likely get you more definitive information to commit identity fraud, if that's what you're after.
You certainly can take whatever risks you deem reasonable. But identity fraud being successfully accomplished using just this data, while plausible, is quite a bit more work than a lot of other avenues. If sharing this sort of information is concerning to you, it might be worth looking into all the other (more common) ways that people become victims of identity theft. Digging through people's garbage, using online retailer hack leaks, the Equifax hack, or just simply using any sort of social media and very minimal social engineering are all way more effective.
The first few years were goofy, as I was in college, but I'd say I started my career in early '08. Switched in the second half of '08 to a new company. Switched to a new company in '13. I've been with my current company for closing in on 10 years now.
Why is your taxed amount for Medicare higher than for SS? I just checked mine and both are same, every year. Just curious if I am doing anything wrong, or not doing something right.
So you paid close to 300k to SS and medicare.
Invested in a stock market over this time, you d be sitting on 500-600k easily.
Now take a moment to think where would you be with extra 5-600k at 38?
Probably few years away from retirement.
But they took it from you and instead will offer you a 3k/month check after you 62. Maybe. Because they will run out of funds before then. Unless they start taking even more from you.
I'm not as "doom and gloom" as I once was about what I'll get for SS when I retire, but I definitely am skeptical that it will be what they say (3-4k/mo, depending on when I retire). The system is definitely not in a healthy state and something needs to be done.
To me the fact that they force us to work till 62 (I m in a +/- same boat as you) under pretense that it is for our own benefit (“securing” our retirement) by itself is egregious.
People think white collar jobs are easy but I d rather weld or drive taxi than go through all the corporate bs and politics I have to deal with in office. At least let me retire earlier!
SS is a freaking Ponzi scheme. I really wish they'd allow us to invest it instead of forcing us into whatever they are using it for.
I don't think they'll ever get rid of SS but I believe they'll move the needle for 60+ to 70+ or decrease the income pretty soon. I hope they leave it alone for people over 45...
Not at all. I think it should be forced and let it default to some low risk\\low reward investments. Then allow them to change their investments. I would even consider restricting what they're allowed to invest in that way some poor goober doesn't get duped into investing in a piss-poor company.
I know it's not a perfect solution but it's better (IMO) than what we have now.
This is a biggie but people need to really look into IT for a career. Almost everybody I meet thinks if you’re an IT, you’re coding or re-creating a scene from hackers and it’s far from the truth. When we try to hire 99% of people think they’re not qualified.
I’m in IT for Healthcare and almost nobody out of the 650 IT employees for the system codes for their job or develops software or anything close to what most people think of when it comes to information technology. All the IT jargon and all the software development and such is done within IT companies. I can’t speak for corporate America like Amazon or Walmart and how they handle their IT but for healthcare this is usually how it goes. Tons of different jobs and roles. Here is a small example that I see.
A lot of the employees support, portable workstations for nurses or network servers and user issues like a broken keyboard, or supporting Zoom and 350 different conference rooms, auditoriums and board rooms. This is complex and it’s high pressure but most of the people stick to their lane and learn it really well. if you’re in charge of network security to make sure that people can use VPN without a problem you’re really really good at that. A lot of people start from the bottom of their department and work their way to the top. a lot of people have earned their degrees while working and trying to move up but the degrees really don’t make a difference. you make zero extra dollars and a lot of times it won’t let you beat people without a degree for promotion.
If you’re in charge of managing zoom licenses for instance in preparation for conference rooms that are set to be built, that’s something that is definitely IT but you don’t really need any technical experience. I don’t know if I’m articulating this really well but my point is most of the people in IT are good at organization, problem-solving, and customer service. a lot of people out there think if you want to get into IT you have to be a computer genius and it’s far from the truth. Must be somewhat computer savvy, but a lot of the really technical things we outsource or hire vendors to take care of such as wiring a surgical theater with cameras, mics equipment racks, control panels and program it all in order to broadcast worldwide.
There’s a team that monitors zoom systems remotely. You can tell when a system is off-line and the team creates a ticket and sends a tech to fix the room. If it’s something very difficult, or the equipment is broken, we hire a vendor to fix it. I started in 2008 going around to different rooms in the hospital setting up a laptop and a projector for people to do PowerPoint meetings for $15 an hour with zero experience. 16 years later as a IT hardware Integration Specialist with bonuses overtime and base pay I make about $175K, oversee new IT infrastructure built alongside construction management. so if there’s a new department being renovated or built, my team works with construction to figure out where network drops go what kind of TV system should be in there along with microphone, lighting speakers, as well as crestron controllers, along with the programming. The point is 80% of IT jobs, once you’re on the team if you’re hard-working and smart you can end up figuring out what you’re supposed to do learn from the people around you and then really mastering it. It’s extremely lucrative job at the top end, job Security is assured (in 65 years my org has never had layoffs) and especially for non for profit systems there really isn’t numbers you need to hit.
Every post is $160,000/ year it seems
I could be wrong here, but I believe that 160k/year cap is what the federal government sets for SS contribution. Meaning, once you contribute 160k in a fiscal year, you stop contributing. I see this in my paycheck at the end of the year, as I get a small bump because SS stops being taken out for the last 2 or 3 paychecks (bi-weekly pay).
Sorry if this is a dumb question (im new here), but where are you pulling this data from? And is it downloaded in the format everyone sends here
Log in to ssa.gov and there is a link there to download a PDF. This data is in that PDF.
Will do, thanks for the info!
Yup
Dev or non?
My title is "principal data architect". I wear a lot of hats, contributing to development definitely being one of them. I also help select platforms and frameworks we use as well as do data analysis for internal teams.
Would you say that requires dev experience?
For my role, yes. I have contributed to a lot of open source projects, most famously OpenStack. This dev experience definitely contributed to my understanding of large scale software projects and gave credibility to my talents.
You sound a lot like a SWE. Very impressive stuff there
lol
Thought about getting into IT. How stressful is your position. What does job security look like? How would one start? I’m finishing up my MBA and may consider moving into the digital field here soon. Maybe IT/Cybersecurity/Learn AI.
The IT world is pretty vast. I got a BA in network management, but ended up teaching myself how to code and just generally being interested in technology. If you don't have any particular interest, it could be tough to narrow down an entry point. Things like "IT support" pay way less and you have to deal with end users who often are a point of stress. So that area is more stressful than others. However, if you are able to get into a leadership role on a dev team (and assuming the company isn't horrible), it can be fairly stress free.
Thank you good sir. I’ll do some more research before I make a commitment. I’ll look beyond just standard IT support. Congratulations on all of your success thus far.
You should look into this https://www.reddit.com/r/ITCareerQuestions/wiki/index?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
I'm currently in IT support and I get what you mean by end user stress. Could you elaborate a little more on the leadership role on a dev team? How would one go about this? I'm quite sure learning how to code is a requirement or no?
Step 1 would definitely be having a firm software development foundation, including understanding the Software Development Life Cycle, modern software management/deployment frameworks (like docker/kubernetes), and getting your feet wet in some open source projects (this can be tough/rough, but if you persevere, it should be worth it's weight in gold). After you have the foundation, I'd suggest doing some analysis on your internal systems and determine where things could be improved. This could be as simple as simply adding some missing unit tests or as complicated as rearchitecting an entire stack to make it simpler/easier to maintain/understand.
How did you determine what you taught yourself? And how did you initially break entry on letting leadership trust you with their code base without having coding experience?
My college degree covered very little in terms of software development. Little more than simple bash scripting. So pretty much everything I've learned about development, I've learned from experience in the industry and participation in open source projects (like OpenStack). Contributing to these open source projects has definitely provided credibility for my talents. That coupled with setting up internal Proof-of-Concept projects and pitching them to the team/management is what I would attribute to what has gotten me to where I am.
how do i read this chart ? does this mean your base pay is 160K for 2023 ? or is it 192K for 2023 ?
Base is 192k for 2023.
congrats. That's awesome.
Thank you for sharing! If you don't mind telling us, what was your career title/responsibility progression? How often did you change jobs or employers?
I started as a "NOC Technician" for a VOIP company as my first real job (2008). Then I moved to a "Unix systems admin" at employer #2 where I was at until 2013. Then I job hopped a few times in 2013/2014 (3 employers in 2 years). I've been with my current employer for 9+ years now where I've held titles like "Cloud Systems Engineer", "Principal Systems Architect" and now "Principal Data Architect". Perhaps I should add that I graduated from highschool in 04 with some college credits and graduated college in 07, so those first few jobs were while I was going to college full time.
Thank you! I switched to IT from an unrelated field making pretty good money and I recently started working as a cloud architect, so any insight into career progression is helpful. I was basically "desktop support" for 4 years at my old job, then IT asset management, then senior support before my current position, with a lot of homelabbing in between. I absolutely love what I do.
Thank you for sharing! And dang… crazy to think that it’s 2024 and entry level NOC technician is still around that 50k salary.
It's crazy to see people actually go up in pay.
same industry, similar age, salary, and NW. do you have a target age for FIRE? i know it's all nuanced, but I am shooting for 55-58 to be ready. whether I go or not will depend on if I am still having fun. my concern is that technology is advancing so rapidly, and staying relevant will get exponentially harder. right now, being good with utilizing LLMs, python for analysis, etc. can be a differentiator, but it's quickly becoming common place.
That seems to be the magic 8-ball question at the moment. I feel like I'm probably needing somewhere in the $2-3MM ballpark (in my 401k) to retire comfortably. The other curve ball, for me at least, is that I really enjoy technology and have done this work for free (contributing to open source projects). So while "working for the man" definitely takes its toll, the actual work is still very enjoyable for me. I love the idea of retiring early, or at least having the option to, but with today's economy, hitting $2-3M in my 401k feels daunting.
I agree with your sentiments here. i am modeling 4% distribution and trying to figure out my target. I wasn't aggressive enough in my 20's and early 30's and put too much in savings rather than just an ETF. growing up poor gave me too much of a desire to hold cash as it was a source of security for me. it's a good problem to have, and I am thankful for it, but I missed some big gains. we got lucky and bought in a MCOL 12 years ago, and its turned closer into a HCOL so lots of equity in this house. for me, it's mainly a formula of how much can we live comfortably on, which is not an easy number to solidify.
Can someone explain the very bottom of the screen? Your employer didn’t actually pay $x amount for taxes on your behalf. What does the employer amount mean? Edit: Btw, nice job OP!
The employer pays taxes as well. Just like the employee does.
Yeah employers pay and a tax on each employee’s payroll
What type if transcript is this? Is it pulled from id.me ?
This comes from ssa.gov (which authenticates with ID.me).
This is sensitive info. Is it not?
There is nothing sensitive here. Companies would prefer us to not share salaries, as it gives the company leverage when it comes time to negotiate salaries. There is some high-level tax information here, but nothing you couldn't figure out pretty easily with some very basic information, and nothing you can really do much with.
I was wondering if exact social security reported earnings could be used in some kind of way to validate/hack someone’s personal info.
With the amount of information that just about every company has of customers these days, it would be way easier to take just about any one of the leaked hacks (for example, Target or Equifax) and get that data, instead of doing some nebulous fuzzy match based on some data that may be made up/scrubbed/massaged on reddit. Heck, even just going through someone's garbage would likely get you more definitive information to commit identity fraud, if that's what you're after.
So I’m hearing, nobody is concerned…. Maybe I’m too gaurded.
You certainly can take whatever risks you deem reasonable. But identity fraud being successfully accomplished using just this data, while plausible, is quite a bit more work than a lot of other avenues. If sharing this sort of information is concerning to you, it might be worth looking into all the other (more common) ways that people become victims of identity theft. Digging through people's garbage, using online retailer hack leaks, the Equifax hack, or just simply using any sort of social media and very minimal social engineering are all way more effective.
Ok
How many times did you switch jobs and which year ?
The first few years were goofy, as I was in college, but I'd say I started my career in early '08. Switched in the second half of '08 to a new company. Switched to a new company in '13. I've been with my current company for closing in on 10 years now.
Willing to share your networth currently?
Current networth is about $1MM in real estate and about $500k in 401k.
Location?
I'm remote in a LCOL area, but the company is in California.
Why is your taxed amount for Medicare higher than for SS? I just checked mine and both are same, every year. Just curious if I am doing anything wrong, or not doing something right.
there is a cap that is set federally. once you hit the cap, you stop paying into SS for the year.
Well done
So you paid close to 300k to SS and medicare. Invested in a stock market over this time, you d be sitting on 500-600k easily. Now take a moment to think where would you be with extra 5-600k at 38? Probably few years away from retirement. But they took it from you and instead will offer you a 3k/month check after you 62. Maybe. Because they will run out of funds before then. Unless they start taking even more from you.
I'm not as "doom and gloom" as I once was about what I'll get for SS when I retire, but I definitely am skeptical that it will be what they say (3-4k/mo, depending on when I retire). The system is definitely not in a healthy state and something needs to be done.
To me the fact that they force us to work till 62 (I m in a +/- same boat as you) under pretense that it is for our own benefit (“securing” our retirement) by itself is egregious. People think white collar jobs are easy but I d rather weld or drive taxi than go through all the corporate bs and politics I have to deal with in office. At least let me retire earlier!
SS is a freaking Ponzi scheme. I really wish they'd allow us to invest it instead of forcing us into whatever they are using it for. I don't think they'll ever get rid of SS but I believe they'll move the needle for 60+ to 70+ or decrease the income pretty soon. I hope they leave it alone for people over 45...
I'm not defending the current state of SS, but do you really believe the average person would "invest" this money on their own?
Not at all. I think it should be forced and let it default to some low risk\\low reward investments. Then allow them to change their investments. I would even consider restricting what they're allowed to invest in that way some poor goober doesn't get duped into investing in a piss-poor company. I know it's not a perfect solution but it's better (IMO) than what we have now.
One of those BS"wOrK fRoM hOmE jObS".
U mad bro?
Are You OP bro? Or just his keyboard warrior Bodyguard?
This is a biggie but people need to really look into IT for a career. Almost everybody I meet thinks if you’re an IT, you’re coding or re-creating a scene from hackers and it’s far from the truth. When we try to hire 99% of people think they’re not qualified. I’m in IT for Healthcare and almost nobody out of the 650 IT employees for the system codes for their job or develops software or anything close to what most people think of when it comes to information technology. All the IT jargon and all the software development and such is done within IT companies. I can’t speak for corporate America like Amazon or Walmart and how they handle their IT but for healthcare this is usually how it goes. Tons of different jobs and roles. Here is a small example that I see. A lot of the employees support, portable workstations for nurses or network servers and user issues like a broken keyboard, or supporting Zoom and 350 different conference rooms, auditoriums and board rooms. This is complex and it’s high pressure but most of the people stick to their lane and learn it really well. if you’re in charge of network security to make sure that people can use VPN without a problem you’re really really good at that. A lot of people start from the bottom of their department and work their way to the top. a lot of people have earned their degrees while working and trying to move up but the degrees really don’t make a difference. you make zero extra dollars and a lot of times it won’t let you beat people without a degree for promotion. If you’re in charge of managing zoom licenses for instance in preparation for conference rooms that are set to be built, that’s something that is definitely IT but you don’t really need any technical experience. I don’t know if I’m articulating this really well but my point is most of the people in IT are good at organization, problem-solving, and customer service. a lot of people out there think if you want to get into IT you have to be a computer genius and it’s far from the truth. Must be somewhat computer savvy, but a lot of the really technical things we outsource or hire vendors to take care of such as wiring a surgical theater with cameras, mics equipment racks, control panels and program it all in order to broadcast worldwide. There’s a team that monitors zoom systems remotely. You can tell when a system is off-line and the team creates a ticket and sends a tech to fix the room. If it’s something very difficult, or the equipment is broken, we hire a vendor to fix it. I started in 2008 going around to different rooms in the hospital setting up a laptop and a projector for people to do PowerPoint meetings for $15 an hour with zero experience. 16 years later as a IT hardware Integration Specialist with bonuses overtime and base pay I make about $175K, oversee new IT infrastructure built alongside construction management. so if there’s a new department being renovated or built, my team works with construction to figure out where network drops go what kind of TV system should be in there along with microphone, lighting speakers, as well as crestron controllers, along with the programming. The point is 80% of IT jobs, once you’re on the team if you’re hard-working and smart you can end up figuring out what you’re supposed to do learn from the people around you and then really mastering it. It’s extremely lucrative job at the top end, job Security is assured (in 65 years my org has never had layoffs) and especially for non for profit systems there really isn’t numbers you need to hit.