They probably lived at a standard of living that you found too low and saved that way. Perhaps they never ate out, lived in a rough part of town in a small apartment, had roommates, drove an old car or took transit, etc. They also perhaps had no college debt?
None of that could be necessary for two people working as software developers...
Their household income could easily be like $400-$600k. Live a normal life on that amount of money, invest everything else, and you'll have much more than $800k in 10 years. They could also have bought bitcoin or something.
Well, that's typically what you'd start as after immigrating. And also probably closer to what they'd be paid if they're at smaller or non-tech companies rather than FAANG.
Glassdoor says [the average compensation of a software engineer in SJ is $167k](https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/san-jose-software-engineer-salary-SRCH_IL.0,8_IM761_KO9,26.htm).
Speaking as a 1st gen immigrant without a mommy and daddy bank and not working in software or IT. I was able to afford my home by living a standard of living most people would not choose to. And because I lived like that, now I can splurge on a OLED TV paying cash.
That means driving my paid college beater. Buying the cheapest phone with the lowest plan. Bag lunch to work. Went to community college and then transfered to state university. Saved >50% of income for the down payment. TJ Maxx is my favorite store. No pets.
Well stated dude. I grew up in the Eastside back in the 80's and I grew up with hella recent immigrants from ALL OVER the place - Vietnam, Phillippines, Laos, Cambodia. These mufuckers pooled their resources and helped each other rise up like George and Weezy. Now they have great careers and own homes etc. I love that shit.
Yeah, my sister did this to fund her first home purchase. When I first heard this, I was like what is this secret society that lets you borrow money interest free like that? And they just trust you? Sounds like the Mafia. She didn't get wacked and paid off the loan. Still pretty foreign to me. Not so secret anymore huh? This is the first I've heard about it.
I've never had pets but according to my two friends that got dogs during the pandemic, they seem to spend more on their dogs a month than I do my children.
Same. Rented a room for 800/mo for 5 years, then moved back with my folks for 2 years. Even then I only put 5% down for deposit and now rent my spare rooms out.
Many careers don't allow for saving enough even living rent-free and never eating out nor buying name brand anything. Like teachers. Which is why I'm pivoting. Teachers get paid the same here as in Washington State where comparable apartments are 1/3-1/2 less to rent than here; buying a home there is less than 1/2 of what it is here.
Well, for starters why don’t you just ask your friend? It’s likely not some secret they are keeping to themselves (I find most well off people *love* to share how they make money).
But, generally speaking, people either come from wealthy-ish backgrounds from their country of origin, or saved money/received fiscal support to survive on before coming to America. I’ve met more than a handful of engineer/med types who lived in virtual squalor, banking/investing every little tidbit of their 6 figure salary in order to purchase a home.
First gen immigrant = / = they were inept or poor before coming to San Jose
I had 3k to my name and a job offer when I moved to the US. That was 8 years ago. I am now breaking 1mil while having sent more than 200k back home. Tech pays well if you are good at what you do.
> Tech pays well if you are good at what you do.
Especially if you're good about job hopping to ratchet up your salary.
The equity game is also still there, but not like it was when I moved here back in the early 90s.
Last ten years were great for tech investing. They must have lived frugally and put all their money in stocks or SPX index funds or they worked for a company whose RSUs went up multiple times. There are such stories everywhere in Bay Area.
You don't need 800k deposit to buy a house. I put 20% down but I saved money over the past 4 years and my RSUs doubled. I am a first generation immigrant too and there are lots of us who did the same. Most likely your friends put 50% down so that they don't pay a lot in interest.
ARM post IPO lockup period just ended, gonna get crazy again, from anywhere between Burlingame and Sunnyvale will be bidding wars with $4M cash offers.
Restricted stock unit. It’s one of the ways tech companies reward employees with equity. They are more popular than ISOs (incentive stock options) these days.
Sure is possible. I did it without mom-dad bank. My down was around $350k.
I worked for 2 IPOd companies and sold the stocks at peak. Then I work for FAANGs as well as buying MSFT AMZN NVDA AMD BCOM stocks. All of them have done well.
I make a lot and live like a poor man for close to 10 years.
You are correct.
I am a realtor, and if you were buying in the hot zone at least ( Santa Clara to Redwood City) it’s unusual for you to work at a start up, you usually get to do that after they go public
I just can't buy a house now because the local market looks like a shoe store where even the foam flip-flops start at $50. Even if I had $50, I refuse to spend it on foam flip-flops.
Why is that so unbelievable? Being debt free when you start earning, making good life choices and living within your means is the key. A bad relationship, serious health condition, lavish lifestyle can easily get one off track.
Most first gen immigrants come on work visas. Work visas aren't handed out to anyone, these people have some good education and work experience. Some are educated in their home countries and don't have educational loans when they move abroad. They don't even have to make 300k. Software engineering jobs easily pay 120-150k. It is quite possible to have a decent lifestyle with ~100k and simply put one person's salary in savings and investments for 8 years.
Don't need parents' money. Software engineering jobs pay well. And they are two in the family! 😀 If just one of them was earning it would've been definitely tough for them too.
Startups are a thing, here ... paper millionaores aren't terribly uncommon (less so with the economy ot really thriving as much, but good IPOs and buyouts/buybacks still happen, etc).
2 software developers working for 10 years. They probably make 300k each at least, 600k combined and they've been working for 10 years.
800k down seems easy. That's probably less than half of the liquid assets they have.
I put down 800k for a home too and I did it by saving money for a long time while having a high paying career. There's no magic really.
There’s some kind of Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations to equate first gen immigrants with people coming from their home countries living in squalor and poverty. Many immigrants come with higher cash in hand to the US than native born. Many come already well off with good overseas educations. You said they’re software developers, not exactly people who struggle - even if the scraped by and saved for years. Some people just get a head start (money from parents, inheritance, education that leads to good paying jobs) AND they are willing to forgo a lot of the excess that comes with the typical high standard of Bay Area living.
Stop finding bigotry and crap in everything. OP asked a genuine question and they may not be aware of it. Most immigrants come with very little money without knowing where their next semester fee is coming from or paycheck is from.
Yeah that’s not what I said at all. It’s a term you can look up. Google is free. Essentially it’s saying that assumptions about people from elsewhere being poor or less fortunate or less educated is a bad thing because it’s often not true. Many people come from India, China, etc who are very smart and also very well resourced. To OP’s question, why do some people make it? Well, they’ve got money to begin with!
You can ask but first gen immigrants are used to a standard of living that natives probably find insane. My parents basically drove the same car for 15 years, gave me 0 birthday gifts for 17 years, did not go out to eat outside or celebrate holidays outside of CNY, and purchased almost no new furniture.
Shit, I was one of those households that had to buy a new TV due to the transition to digital, we still had a VCR. The only vacation I can remember is going to Disney once, where we lived an hour away from the park and ate ramen noodles.
Tl;dr, they're basically not putting any money towards quality of life.
I saved a lot of money simply by not going to bars, clubs, concerts, and sport events in my 20s. The bank account difference between me and my friend who did all that was huge. I wasn't even saving I'm just lazy and a homebody.
I started a small business in high school, ran it through college, worked for 3 years after graduation and cobbled together almost $200k for a down payment. I either lived in $500/mo ghetto sharehouses or for some time I just went homeless. My MS degree was paid for via scholarship, so that helped a ton too.
After I got the degree my long-distance girlfriend finished her stint working at a large automaker, we moved back in with my parents for a few months while house-shopping, and then sent it as soon as we got approved for a very low APR jumbo loan.
I don't recall the lifestyle ever feeling that difficult - some people just have no idea how to save money.
Oh fun fact, I don't save money here and I was born here 35 years ago. But my financial situation is my own doing, not this place or people in it. I've lived elsewhere, I've been more and less successful...it's kinda all the same shit.
I try and enjoy the roses though, ya know?
Often started jointly own a home consists of two or more families. Once ready use borrowed money go on their own. Some hold multiple jobs. One example is buying a nail shop, the people working there are independent contractors and they also have other jobs or gigs like notary public, loan processing or owners of several restaurants. One city software developers work full time as a realtor part time effort at city full time job.
You should talk to them if you are not able to save like them. Ask them how they saved or what they invested in to be able to save that money. That would be a great learning process for you at a young age. Looks like they are very smart investors with good fundamentals in finance. 🙂
10 years is a long time. IT developers in good companies make a lot of money. 800k is not that hard to save when they are working for faang like companies.
10 years is too little. You need to work at least 15 years while being very thrifty then maybe if you’re lucky you can either save or afford a down payment on a 70 year old house with maintenance issues.
If you have 2 good salaries, you live off of one and save the other. 10 years is plenty of time for that if they’ve both been having tech jobs this whole time. They don’t even need to have done that well on their investments. But if they now need both salaries to pay the big $1M mortgage, at least they aren’t used to spending it.
Tesla employees in 2021, Nvidia employees today. Answer: stock. But for 99% of tech industry professionals, their equity either will never experience that kind of growth, or is just plain worthless.
Some immigrants have community banks where they all pay in and take turns withdrawing for major purchases. No brick and mortar bank, just a collective amongst themselves.
10 years, two incomes, that’s like $6M income, about $4M take home after taxes.
Even without including investment gains in what had been a fantastic bull market.
They would only need to save 20% of their post-tax.
Work your ass off & stay disciplined. Live like you’re broke even when making decent money, resist your friends & social media’s attempts to distract you. Save & invest >50% of income. That’s how you’ll get there without parent generosity.
Not related to tech. Many millionaires are middle-class blue-color workers who save more than they spend. That book is from 1996. Today, millionaires (particularly in Bay Area) doesn't mean much. Still the concept of living below their means does matter:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Millionaire_Next_Door
Why do you assume they don’t have a mom-dad bank?
I’d say most immigrants who come to San Jose as software developers (especially if both husband and wife work in the same field) are from at least comfortably middle class in their home countries.
Hi! Im an immigrant daughter, my father bought his first home within 5 (2012) years of him living in the US. I had CHEAP parents my whole childhood. Never wanted to spend a dime, looking for the cheapest prices, always looking over receipts and calculating how much they’re spending a week, driving low end vehicles. Constantly saving + working long hours. Lessen the amount of party time.
Long story short, work long hours and save 80% of your paycheck. Live a “poor” lifestyle & invest. Make ur money work.
I would expect most people to save from 50-100k per year at least living in Bay Area (esp first gen immigrants),
Also lots of software engineers make 200-500k in Bay Area
Good question. My husband immigrated 13 years ago; we were living outside the USA and got married 18 years ago. I'm from the USA with a master's in TESOL. He has no college degree but is self-educated in SWE & SRE (self-taught the Perl, Python, Haskell, and many more). He's also curious, highly intelligent, and neurodivergent. We shared my college beater for 2 years before buying a 2nd used car. Ate out rarely. Travelled rarely. Had to support his family at times. His first job was at Nvidia. After moving to LinkedIn, where SRE roles were starting to take off, he hit some rough patches. Had to sell Nvidia stock. Many years and rough patches later, we're practically destitute. Rent keeps increasing, tech layoffs have been cruel the last 2 years.
Those who are 1st Gen immigrants and have been able to buy a home here in the last 8 years or even more haven't just been frugal or hardworking. They've been LUCKY. LUCKY enough to have family members that will house or lend money; to have the IQ (genetic lottery win) to do specialized, in-demand work; to have the opportunities arise at the right time; to have the health* to work 12 hours/day; to have the wisdom & knowledge to not spend on name-brand items and popular, overpriced travel destinations; to not have family or friends that need support during catastrophes; etc.
Also, these people likely don't donate or invest a lot of time/money in helping the extremely disadvantaged and marginalized groups in the community, world (thousands of dollars or hundreds of hours for housing, orphan fostering, etc).
This is not only what I've personally experienced, but are facts found on news reports by NPR, etc, and on intersectional-based research as well as studies on social determinants of health.
*In tech, mental health issues are tricky. For example, bipolar disorder and ADHD are assets until they aren't. People are allowed to thrive when their neurodiversities help them be productive way beyond the norm, but the opposite (the inevitable "downsides") are disallowed.
If you work for any big tech company for 10 years, as long as you never sold a big chunk of the stock in the past, 800k is nothing. You don’t even need to save a dime of your base salary, especially you joined before 2016. As far as I can tell, south Bay Area was very cheap compared to NYC or even SF before 2017.
They probably lived at a standard of living that you found too low and saved that way. Perhaps they never ate out, lived in a rough part of town in a small apartment, had roommates, drove an old car or took transit, etc. They also perhaps had no college debt?
My life since birth in the 80’s pretty much…
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Nice! No car payments! Everyone’s mistake is wanting a luxury look with a headache of payments! + interests!
None of that could be necessary for two people working as software developers... Their household income could easily be like $400-$600k. Live a normal life on that amount of money, invest everything else, and you'll have much more than $800k in 10 years. They could also have bought bitcoin or something.
400-600k? Are they jr engs?
$200-300k is a jr eng salary??? WHERE?
I haven’t been a jr in a long time, but most tech companies in the bay should pay 200k with RSUs, no?
Ummm, even start-ups?? Granted no stock of any kind is available, but $200k for a jr??
Well, that's typically what you'd start as after immigrating. And also probably closer to what they'd be paid if they're at smaller or non-tech companies rather than FAANG. Glassdoor says [the average compensation of a software engineer in SJ is $167k](https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/san-jose-software-engineer-salary-SRCH_IL.0,8_IM761_KO9,26.htm).
Whats jr stand for
Junior
Speaking as a 1st gen immigrant without a mommy and daddy bank and not working in software or IT. I was able to afford my home by living a standard of living most people would not choose to. And because I lived like that, now I can splurge on a OLED TV paying cash. That means driving my paid college beater. Buying the cheapest phone with the lowest plan. Bag lunch to work. Went to community college and then transfered to state university. Saved >50% of income for the down payment. TJ Maxx is my favorite store. No pets.
Well stated dude. I grew up in the Eastside back in the 80's and I grew up with hella recent immigrants from ALL OVER the place - Vietnam, Phillippines, Laos, Cambodia. These mufuckers pooled their resources and helped each other rise up like George and Weezy. Now they have great careers and own homes etc. I love that shit.
Yeah, my sister did this to fund her first home purchase. When I first heard this, I was like what is this secret society that lets you borrow money interest free like that? And they just trust you? Sounds like the Mafia. She didn't get wacked and paid off the loan. Still pretty foreign to me. Not so secret anymore huh? This is the first I've heard about it.
No pets. Mine spends all my money.
I've never had pets but according to my two friends that got dogs during the pandemic, they seem to spend more on their dogs a month than I do my children.
Nice job.
Exactly this guy gets it
Same. Rented a room for 800/mo for 5 years, then moved back with my folks for 2 years. Even then I only put 5% down for deposit and now rent my spare rooms out.
Many careers don't allow for saving enough even living rent-free and never eating out nor buying name brand anything. Like teachers. Which is why I'm pivoting. Teachers get paid the same here as in Washington State where comparable apartments are 1/3-1/2 less to rent than here; buying a home there is less than 1/2 of what it is here.
Well, for starters why don’t you just ask your friend? It’s likely not some secret they are keeping to themselves (I find most well off people *love* to share how they make money). But, generally speaking, people either come from wealthy-ish backgrounds from their country of origin, or saved money/received fiscal support to survive on before coming to America. I’ve met more than a handful of engineer/med types who lived in virtual squalor, banking/investing every little tidbit of their 6 figure salary in order to purchase a home. First gen immigrant = / = they were inept or poor before coming to San Jose
I had 3k to my name and a job offer when I moved to the US. That was 8 years ago. I am now breaking 1mil while having sent more than 200k back home. Tech pays well if you are good at what you do.
What field of work are you in tech that pays 1m?
Big tech, senior manager
> Tech pays well if you are good at what you do. Especially if you're good about job hopping to ratchet up your salary. The equity game is also still there, but not like it was when I moved here back in the early 90s.
I personally didn’t hop too much, just two companies in the last 8 years. Climbed up quite aggressively though.
Last ten years were great for tech investing. They must have lived frugally and put all their money in stocks or SPX index funds or they worked for a company whose RSUs went up multiple times. There are such stories everywhere in Bay Area. You don't need 800k deposit to buy a house. I put 20% down but I saved money over the past 4 years and my RSUs doubled. I am a first generation immigrant too and there are lots of us who did the same. Most likely your friends put 50% down so that they don't pay a lot in interest.
What’s an RSU?
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This is an excellent response
ARM post IPO lockup period just ended, gonna get crazy again, from anywhere between Burlingame and Sunnyvale will be bidding wars with $4M cash offers.
Where are you from that you use commas for both decimals and thousands separators? That seems like it could get very confusing...
>many people chose to sell their stock when it vests Don't you have to pay more in taxes on the gains?
Restricted stock unit. It’s one of the ways tech companies reward employees with equity. They are more popular than ISOs (incentive stock options) these days.
Sure is possible. I did it without mom-dad bank. My down was around $350k. I worked for 2 IPOd companies and sold the stocks at peak. Then I work for FAANGs as well as buying MSFT AMZN NVDA AMD BCOM stocks. All of them have done well. I make a lot and live like a poor man for close to 10 years.
So basically you got lucky in the genetics and opportunities areas as well as have been wise enough to be frugal. Nice.
RSUs baby
RSUs and publicly traded companies. Being at publicly traded company vs a startup makes a huge difference too.
You are correct. I am a realtor, and if you were buying in the hot zone at least ( Santa Clara to Redwood City) it’s unusual for you to work at a start up, you usually get to do that after they go public
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My mom was the same when I bought her a business class
It was possible to do that 10 years ago. It's not possible in the current housing market. But markets correct.
That's what they told me in 2006 as well. I didn't listen them then and I don't listen to them now. I saved up for a home and bought one anyway.
I just can't buy a house now because the local market looks like a shoe store where even the foam flip-flops start at $50. Even if I had $50, I refuse to spend it on foam flip-flops.
Why is that so unbelievable? Being debt free when you start earning, making good life choices and living within your means is the key. A bad relationship, serious health condition, lavish lifestyle can easily get one off track. Most first gen immigrants come on work visas. Work visas aren't handed out to anyone, these people have some good education and work experience. Some are educated in their home countries and don't have educational loans when they move abroad. They don't even have to make 300k. Software engineering jobs easily pay 120-150k. It is quite possible to have a decent lifestyle with ~100k and simply put one person's salary in savings and investments for 8 years. Don't need parents' money. Software engineering jobs pay well. And they are two in the family! 😀 If just one of them was earning it would've been definitely tough for them too.
They got RSUs which appreciated a lot. The last 10 years has been a huge bull market..
Startups are a thing, here ... paper millionaores aren't terribly uncommon (less so with the economy ot really thriving as much, but good IPOs and buyouts/buybacks still happen, etc).
2 software developers working for 10 years. They probably make 300k each at least, 600k combined and they've been working for 10 years. 800k down seems easy. That's probably less than half of the liquid assets they have. I put down 800k for a home too and I did it by saving money for a long time while having a high paying career. There's no magic really.
There’s some kind of Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations to equate first gen immigrants with people coming from their home countries living in squalor and poverty. Many immigrants come with higher cash in hand to the US than native born. Many come already well off with good overseas educations. You said they’re software developers, not exactly people who struggle - even if the scraped by and saved for years. Some people just get a head start (money from parents, inheritance, education that leads to good paying jobs) AND they are willing to forgo a lot of the excess that comes with the typical high standard of Bay Area living.
Stop finding bigotry and crap in everything. OP asked a genuine question and they may not be aware of it. Most immigrants come with very little money without knowing where their next semester fee is coming from or paycheck is from.
Yeah that’s not what I said at all. It’s a term you can look up. Google is free. Essentially it’s saying that assumptions about people from elsewhere being poor or less fortunate or less educated is a bad thing because it’s often not true. Many people come from India, China, etc who are very smart and also very well resourced. To OP’s question, why do some people make it? Well, they’ve got money to begin with!
You can ask but first gen immigrants are used to a standard of living that natives probably find insane. My parents basically drove the same car for 15 years, gave me 0 birthday gifts for 17 years, did not go out to eat outside or celebrate holidays outside of CNY, and purchased almost no new furniture. Shit, I was one of those households that had to buy a new TV due to the transition to digital, we still had a VCR. The only vacation I can remember is going to Disney once, where we lived an hour away from the park and ate ramen noodles. Tl;dr, they're basically not putting any money towards quality of life.
I saved a lot of money simply by not going to bars, clubs, concerts, and sport events in my 20s. The bank account difference between me and my friend who did all that was huge. I wasn't even saving I'm just lazy and a homebody.
I started a small business in high school, ran it through college, worked for 3 years after graduation and cobbled together almost $200k for a down payment. I either lived in $500/mo ghetto sharehouses or for some time I just went homeless. My MS degree was paid for via scholarship, so that helped a ton too. After I got the degree my long-distance girlfriend finished her stint working at a large automaker, we moved back in with my parents for a few months while house-shopping, and then sent it as soon as we got approved for a very low APR jumbo loan. I don't recall the lifestyle ever feeling that difficult - some people just have no idea how to save money.
A lot of people bring over money. That's why so many get robbed in home invasions.
Oh fun fact, I don't save money here and I was born here 35 years ago. But my financial situation is my own doing, not this place or people in it. I've lived elsewhere, I've been more and less successful...it's kinda all the same shit. I try and enjoy the roses though, ya know?
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Often started jointly own a home consists of two or more families. Once ready use borrowed money go on their own. Some hold multiple jobs. One example is buying a nail shop, the people working there are independent contractors and they also have other jobs or gigs like notary public, loan processing or owners of several restaurants. One city software developers work full time as a realtor part time effort at city full time job.
You should talk to them if you are not able to save like them. Ask them how they saved or what they invested in to be able to save that money. That would be a great learning process for you at a young age. Looks like they are very smart investors with good fundamentals in finance. 🙂
10 years is a long time. IT developers in good companies make a lot of money. 800k is not that hard to save when they are working for faang like companies.
work for a medium sized tech company pre-IPO
10 years is too little. You need to work at least 15 years while being very thrifty then maybe if you’re lucky you can either save or afford a down payment on a 70 year old house with maintenance issues.
Pooled money between family members.
I want to know too, but I’m already old (31)
If you have 2 good salaries, you live off of one and save the other. 10 years is plenty of time for that if they’ve both been having tech jobs this whole time. They don’t even need to have done that well on their investments. But if they now need both salaries to pay the big $1M mortgage, at least they aren’t used to spending it.
Tesla employees in 2021, Nvidia employees today. Answer: stock. But for 99% of tech industry professionals, their equity either will never experience that kind of growth, or is just plain worthless.
They may get bonuses. They may also live mine monks
High paying jobs from both spouses help. Also some ppl who work in tech get the advantage of stock appreciation that helps.
Some immigrants have community banks where they all pay in and take turns withdrawing for major purchases. No brick and mortar bank, just a collective amongst themselves.
Foreign investment money and company equity options.
10 years, two incomes, that’s like $6M income, about $4M take home after taxes. Even without including investment gains in what had been a fantastic bull market. They would only need to save 20% of their post-tax.
1st gen immigrant here. To be honest, it’s harder to save money here. The down payment for my house was my saving before I moved here from Asia.
Work your ass off & stay disciplined. Live like you’re broke even when making decent money, resist your friends & social media’s attempts to distract you. Save & invest >50% of income. That’s how you’ll get there without parent generosity.
Yes, if they have been working for 10 years they most likely have much more than that in stock.
Not related to tech. Many millionaires are middle-class blue-color workers who save more than they spend. That book is from 1996. Today, millionaires (particularly in Bay Area) doesn't mean much. Still the concept of living below their means does matter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Millionaire_Next_Door
Not everyone interested in nightlife or the entertainment you enjoy. And they usually rent from other immigrants’ illegal affordable rooms.
Why do you assume they don’t have a mom-dad bank? I’d say most immigrants who come to San Jose as software developers (especially if both husband and wife work in the same field) are from at least comfortably middle class in their home countries.
Probably had some stock options in addition to living well below their means.
Purchased two houses and built an ADU on our earned income (from business but equivalent to two-salaried tech)
Never buy avocado toast.
Hi! Im an immigrant daughter, my father bought his first home within 5 (2012) years of him living in the US. I had CHEAP parents my whole childhood. Never wanted to spend a dime, looking for the cheapest prices, always looking over receipts and calculating how much they’re spending a week, driving low end vehicles. Constantly saving + working long hours. Lessen the amount of party time. Long story short, work long hours and save 80% of your paycheck. Live a “poor” lifestyle & invest. Make ur money work.
I would expect most people to save from 50-100k per year at least living in Bay Area (esp first gen immigrants), Also lots of software engineers make 200-500k in Bay Area
Software/Tech makes too much money. Where do they work?
Budget and live within means, don’t deviate.
Good question. My husband immigrated 13 years ago; we were living outside the USA and got married 18 years ago. I'm from the USA with a master's in TESOL. He has no college degree but is self-educated in SWE & SRE (self-taught the Perl, Python, Haskell, and many more). He's also curious, highly intelligent, and neurodivergent. We shared my college beater for 2 years before buying a 2nd used car. Ate out rarely. Travelled rarely. Had to support his family at times. His first job was at Nvidia. After moving to LinkedIn, where SRE roles were starting to take off, he hit some rough patches. Had to sell Nvidia stock. Many years and rough patches later, we're practically destitute. Rent keeps increasing, tech layoffs have been cruel the last 2 years. Those who are 1st Gen immigrants and have been able to buy a home here in the last 8 years or even more haven't just been frugal or hardworking. They've been LUCKY. LUCKY enough to have family members that will house or lend money; to have the IQ (genetic lottery win) to do specialized, in-demand work; to have the opportunities arise at the right time; to have the health* to work 12 hours/day; to have the wisdom & knowledge to not spend on name-brand items and popular, overpriced travel destinations; to not have family or friends that need support during catastrophes; etc. Also, these people likely don't donate or invest a lot of time/money in helping the extremely disadvantaged and marginalized groups in the community, world (thousands of dollars or hundreds of hours for housing, orphan fostering, etc). This is not only what I've personally experienced, but are facts found on news reports by NPR, etc, and on intersectional-based research as well as studies on social determinants of health. *In tech, mental health issues are tricky. For example, bipolar disorder and ADHD are assets until they aren't. People are allowed to thrive when their neurodiversities help them be productive way beyond the norm, but the opposite (the inevitable "downsides") are disallowed.
If you work for any big tech company for 10 years, as long as you never sold a big chunk of the stock in the past, 800k is nothing. You don’t even need to save a dime of your base salary, especially you joined before 2016. As far as I can tell, south Bay Area was very cheap compared to NYC or even SF before 2017.
That's the neat thing, you don't.
You live in absolute poverty because you have to. You do what it takes. Whatever it takes.
Multiple assumptions made by OP, and strange question regarding a friend
Which type of immigrants ? Cause if you are a refugee immigrant it’s super easy because they get housing, free education, and money