From my point of view, I make 400k right now with 7 years of experience at a large tech company. I could reasonably retire in a year or two at my current level of expenses. I could probably make the next level with a fair bit of work in something like 3 to 4 years from now and expect to make somewhere between 500k to 600k, but to me that doesn't seem to seriously change my life trajectory (this is only a bump of 70-140k after tax). Without devoting to something like 10 to 20 more years of working and becoming a director or something similarly soul sucking, I don't see a route where I could reasonably have much more than say 10 million 10 years from now.
So I've thought about saving up enough to comfortably retire, and then going to work in a more risky company for the chance to get a life changing amount of equity (something more than single digit millions). I don't know that I will though, because the odds are seriously bad.
> I don't see a route where I could reasonably have much more than say 10 million 10 years from now.
You have to ask yourself this- how much is enough, and how hard are you willing to work/risk for it? On the low end, how much is the minimum, and what pros would make that acceptable, quality of life, risk, anxiety levels, etc.
Your way forward will be much clearer when you know what your parameters are, even though life may happen between now and the end date of your plans.
I constantly am :) well, not constantly, but I've put thought into it. I'm not exactly thrifty, but I spend way below what I could. I've been trying to spend less (eat out less, live in a cheaper apartment, etc.,) to see how comfortable that feels to try and figure out what sort of budget I'm happy with.
On the flip side, it's funny to think about what life would look like if I spent all my disposable income, but it's not really an experiment I want to run haha.
I think the most likely scenario is that I take some time off and decide to continue working similarly to now, but I think it'll be nice to have some confidence that I can have more freedom to choose what I want to do if I show myself that I could afford to retire. I largely like my job. I wish there was less stress and external pressure, but it seems difficult to keep the parts of my job that I like without those.
Being a founding engineer at what grows into a billion-dollar company basically is $10 million 10 years from now, but against incredibly long odds, whereas staying at bigger companies makes it more likely than not. There's no risk premium.
Maybe, hopefully I realize it by the time I'm not too young :) I don't know that I necessarily have goals. I definitely don't want to become a director or anything like that or feel like I need 10 million dollars to be happy, if that's what you got out of my post.
So I've thought about saving up enough to comfortably retire, and then going to work in a more risky company for the chance to get a life changing amount of equity (something more than single digit millions). I don't know that I will though, because the odds are seriously bad.