[quote=sdrealtor]I would guess that the surveys are always lagging behind a little bit. Those figures also represent some kind of average. Around here people average and below are more typically renters. Those at the average and above are the ones that skew towards the homeownership[/quote]
$122k/year fresh out of college isn’t bad at all.
So when I was out of college, my salary was around $39.5k/year at Qualcomm (forget about the stock options for now).
Back then (when dinosaurs roamed the earth), rent for a studio 1/1 was around $700/month in UTC
I looked up the same studio just now, and it’s 1890/month for 500 sqft.
rent-to-income back then was 21.3%
rent-to-income now is 18.6%
So relatively speaking, software engineers are doing roughly the same. Nominally, they are doing better. But the tax rate for $122k is also much more than someone making $39.5k so after taxes, is probably about the same. With $122k though, you can put a lot more into your 401k and get a lot more 401k match ,though… So that’s an added bonus. Back then, I couldn’t contribute the full 401k amount each year, because I didn’t make enough. Kids these days can contribute the full $20.5k/ year, and they won’t even notice it if they do the pre-tax 401k and they will get all their gains tax free if they do the Roth 401k, which wasn’t even an option when I was starting out. So kids these days have it a lot better in many ways. They can hit their 7 figure retirement accounts when their in their late thirties or early 40ies if they play their cards right, versus later 40ies/early 50ies that it took some of us older people to achieve.
The real issue is for (any) engineers is after you’ve been in the industry for some time… The salary (especially if you stay at the same company) starts to plateau really really fast….And while there are plenty of +$200k software engineer jobs, you really have to be good, and not just so-so…without moving into management….
That why eventually people not so great move into management eventually…people like me. ha ha.
