For high-earning workers, it's hard to break free from 'golden handcuffs'

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240221-workers-shake-off-golden-handcuffs

by edward • 2 years ago

32 50 2 years ago

No mention of what seems more likely to me than it being down to prestige or feelings of self-worth: if you're making a fortune, you may well have huge mortgage payments, car payments, expenses related to your children, your parents, etc. 'Escaping' those is likely much harder than finding the confidence to switch careers.

lapcat4• 2 years ago

Houses can be sold, especially in this market, a seller's market. Cars can be sold. Children don't need to be spoiled.

ncgl• 2 years ago

Agreed, the original commenter was highlighting how difficult those decisions can be psychologically. I mean, you try to convince your spouse to sell the house and move into a cottage and see how it goes.

silverquiet4• 2 years ago

Husbands can be divorced. Alimony/child support can be ordered.

mancerayder3• 2 years ago

And expensive cities with.. of course return to office! So crazy high rents. It's more than golden handcuffs, since it means moving town.

fshbbdssbbgdd3• 2 years ago

Certainly the trick is to choose not to make these expensive commitments to spend money before you earn it. It’s much harder to claw back once you and your family get used to luxuries.

nunez• 2 years ago

way way way easier said than done for many people

danlugo92• 2 years ago

Hack to life: Always always aim to only spend 50% of your salary each month.

charlie0• 2 years ago

Agreed and here's a better hack: Alway aim to only spend 40% of your salary each month.

bluechair• 2 years ago

Agreed and here's a better hack: Alway aim to only spend 39% of your salary each month

syspec• 2 years ago

7 minute abs

barbazoo2• 2 years ago

That won't protect you from lifestyle creep over the years though.

marcusverus2• 2 years ago

How do you figure? If you're always saving/investing half, you've capped the creep.

nytesky2• 2 years ago

Housing makes that very difficult. Throw in some kids (daycare, summer camps, sports and music enrichment if you want them to have a chance in dog eat dog world) and you need big $$$ to hit 50%. I mean 30% goes to taxes right away!

silverquiet4• 2 years ago

I'd rather be able to retire than have children. I suspect I'm not alone given falling birthrates.

marcusverus2• 2 years ago

50% is high for most, but seems like a good target for the upper-middle class outside of HCOL areas. I'm amazed at how many high-income folks save 5-10% and view the rest of their income as blow money.

If you have the means save aggressively, you may well be able to retire 10+ years earlier than the standard. Yet millions people are foregoing a decade of freedom in exchange for the fleeting satisfaction that comes from having marginally better stuff.

fshbbdssbbgdd3• 2 years ago

A lot of the expensive stuff for kids to “have a chance” is BS, not very relevant to their life outcomes, basically parents being grifted and engaging in status competitions you could choose to opt out of.

ianburrell• 2 years ago

One trick is to always save bonuses. Live on salary and save anything extra.

mancerayder3• 2 years ago

So don't live in a top tier city, or if you do, have roommates like a college student.

I'm sorry, that's ridiculously naive.

tekla2• 2 years ago

At some point /shrug. If you want to live like you're richer than you are, go on right ahead. Incredibly illogical but whatever.

goodguy29495• 2 years ago

It just seems to be so brutal to be poor.

After years of living in San Mateo county, I moved across the bay to a reasonably nice apartment complex in Hayward. Within a week, I noticed pro-nazi messages in Spanish carved into the picnic tables at the local park. Within a few months, my car had been broken into twice, my garage had been broken in 4 times, and someone set a bush on fire next to my car and it melted some of the plastic on the front driver's quarter panel. I moved away but not everyone has the option.

I get why people work so hard to avoid being poor!

piecerough• 2 years ago

That seems brutal, indeed. Why did you move there in the first place?

abeppu• 2 years ago

"Pre-2008, it was easier to grind it out and retire early – but very few now are able to make their millions and stop working at 35," she says.

I kinda doubt that "more than a few" were making their millions and retiring at 35 even pre-2008, but perhaps someone can correct me. Was there a wave of early retirements that stopped at the great recession?

AnimalMuppet2• 2 years ago

A lot of people at Microsoft, but as the country as whole goes, that's still "very few".

ilrwbwrkhv• 2 years ago

Anybody who writes code should be earning north of 500k at least either through salary and stocks or a business. Anything less than that and you're better off being a HVAC guy.

semiquaver• 2 years ago

Not everyone lives in the Bay Area or NYC.

AnimalMuppet2• 2 years ago

Not many HVAC guys make anything approaching 500k.

riehwvfbk• 2 years ago

That's quite a bit more than a senior engineer at a FAANG makes. For most people senior is the terminal level. So, most engineers would be better off as HVAC guys?

Interestingly, I once met a plumber who used to be an engineer. He said he is much happier. So the HVAC thing could be true, but the Bay Area doesn't need this many HVAC guys...

slavetologic• 2 years ago

Yup completely agree

pdimitar• 2 years ago

OK. How?

klardotsh• 2 years ago

I am about a decade into this career and only 5 months ago signed an offer that, assuming absolute max bonus every cycle, barely gets me to a bit shy of half of that TC.

Opportunities to change that outside of FAANG are few and far between, but sure, I guess I have chosen a pointless path in life, I'll go abandon my ability to work 100% remote from anywhere in the US and go be an HVAC guy instead. Seems legit.

kjellsbells• 2 years ago

There is also a sunk cost element to things, esp if the comp is in stock with a vesting schedule. "If I stay here just a little bit longer, $xx stock vests". And before you know it, you are five years in, burned out, but can't bring yourself to leave.

ilaksh2• 2 years ago

As someone who has spent much of their working life doing low-paying software development contracts, I have to say excessive hours and other unpleasant conditions are not in any way restricted to high paying jobs.

Right now I feel trapped in an Upwork contract. Not because it's too much money to pass up, far from it, it's near the federal poverty line, but because my bank account is still close to red. The low paying contracts came because I spent too much time trying to "launch my own startup" and became somewhat desperate and had to start taking any contract I could get. The last few times I didn't wait so long and was able to be more careful and had nice clients. This time the clients have been problematic.

The boss is in eastern europe and has extremely high expectations for work output and seems to inevitably find deficits in my work on a daily basis.

I actually had someone contact me from HN about a potential contract, but had to put them off due to the critical bank account level and daily demands of the current contract. There is no room for error really.

hansvm2• 2 years ago

If you feel the contract is reasonable and are honor-bound to keep it, that's one thing, but it sounds like you disagree with their demands and are just desperate for cash. In that scenario, does something like doordash fit the bill (in my tests in the Bay, with a bit of planning it's $30-$40/hr post-tax and depreciation, $40-$50 revenue, the latter of which is more relevant if you're trying to escape a situation)? A few 80-hour weeks might be unpleasant, but it's just a few weeks to give you the buffer to let you escape from your current situation.

ilaksh2• 2 years ago

I don't own a car (hate driving) and 80 hour weeks would literally kill me (assuming I didn't crash the car). Thanks for the suggestion though.

throwaway22032• 2 years ago

In my experience the vast majority of people just don't actually think about money in a holistic way beyond specific purchasing goals.

They might think of a home deposit, or keeping up the payments on their mortgage, maybe even paying off the mortgage, having a pension, etc.

But it's very rare that people think, well, I spend X a month, if I had 2X I could get by for 2 months without working, 12X a year, etc.

So then the entire focus just becomes raising the salary. Taking a pay cut, taking time off, etc, basically becomes an impossibility like moving the Moon.

For high-earning workers, it's hard to break free from 'golden handcuffs'

Related Stories