I don’t know Alex_angel… Most of the really educated 28-33 year olds I know are still dreaming of the pre-melt down high tech days. They are not making the big bucks. But they do have big dreams and don’t feel fulfilled by the current economy. I will agree that there is an awful lot of money around. My friend in NJ was a sub-prime mortgage guy. He is writing 5% of the volume that he was previously doing. He is running out of the money and the lifestyle he had built for himself. It seems to me that with the current vogue of living way above one’s means, that even the high earners will get pounded if the economy softens. And I think it will. That’s why I sold my business – I wanted to get out while the risk was still manageable.
By the way dude – I was living that life in the 90’s. Most of they younger guys (I was 15-20 years older than them) were worth that on paper. After it crashed they went back to Raman. and had huge tax bills to boot!
A friend of mine was buying options at the time. Ended up being wiped out and owed 150K in taxes. Also paid something like 60K in just trade fees!
In 1998-9 I would pay entry level programmers 80-90K. I had to teach them to program. I had to accept that they would come to work drunk, and cry about their recent breakup with some girl. I had to give them options and promises for future rewards or they could walk across the hall and get a similar or better job the same day. These now 28-35 year old tech guys would swim through a river of refuse for a good 60-90K job now. And still have to find a place to live in their budget.
