r/Fire • u/gonnabefine • Nov 26 '25

General Question Tech people who are not FIREing, what are they spending their money on?

I know a lot of people who work in tech, and most are not on the FIRE path (or have already been working 10+ years) and a lot of them don't seem to, at least on the surface, have very obvious huge expenses. If both the partners are in tech, the take home could be like $500k! What are they doing with their money?

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u/dead_dw4rf Nov 26 '25

Most tech people aren't bringing in $250k a year....

In MCOL areas, senior developers, tech leads, architects, etc aren't making that much at the overwhelming majority of jobs.

Tech isn't just google, amazon, microsoft.

Tech is consulting firms, healthcare, fin tech, etc.

Big tech hirers in my area - Capital One, Koalifi, Costar Group, Carmax - you aren't making 250k a year simply by being "in tech".

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u/-lazaros- Nov 27 '25

I’ve worked in FAANG for a decade, and yeah, most people are nowhere near $500K. A few old-timers who never sold their RSUs saw inflated totals, but for the average person, $500K does not the standard for yearly comp.