Because why would we? I was lucky with ex Nvidia. Racked up significant NW at 30 year old. I like tech work and job. We live a normal lifestyle, kid goes to public school, wife works as EM in a different company. I don't dream of retirement. I definitely don't want to move to Europe. Schedule keeps me sane. Earning and compounding are my passion. It's not even about money, I just like seeing the number go up

Their entire identity is tied to their job, and leaving it means they may have to face that fact.

Retire in London 💀

Lifestyle creep. Also Bay Area. Once they are 40s they have 2 kids, a 4 bedroom house, 2 cars, probably. Need good schools. In the Bay Area today this house is probably 2.5m+. If the kids need daycare it’s $3k a month per kid. In a while you’ll want to start saving for their college fund which is maybe $30k a year for tuition per kid on the cheap end. Pretty soon you’re stuck in this grind of paying $15k-$20k a month minimum to sustain this lifestyle. I have a friend who is doing $14k just for mortgage now.

Mind your own business.

Lack of long term critical thinking skills; the fatal flaw is assuming the only costs to working just “one more year”, every year, are your time and energy. The biggest cost is actually your personal identity, and people absentmindedly keep trading it away til one day they realize they have neither an identity outside of work, nor the time to form one. This triggers an existential crisis where they double down on work. I realized this early on at a FAANG where my manager and her husband were both L7+ DINK with no plans on having children. Even with conservative estimates, with stock increases they must’ve easily had $5-10 mil around age 40. I remember going from feelings of envy to pity as I realized they legitimately had nothing better to do than play politics at a tech company 60 hours a week.

I was feeling the same way, that you get a few millions and then retire. But then I pushed hard and got promoted to L8 with 2M TC and realized it is nothing. Finally I got 5B inheritance and retired.

I wouldn’t live in Spain. Living in London is hella expensive. You’re probably not buying a great place outright and living without working with 3M. At 10M, maybe

Because we don't have welfare here like you guys in Europe.

risk of early death cancer/heart attack/cardiac arrest/stroke/pneumonia. risks is 10x higher if you retire too early before you're 40/50/60. my son who's at NVDA since graduation could have FIRED with >10M NW before his 30 bd few years ago. there're tens of thousands like him in BA. all hitting 35 and going to be worth 100M before they're 40. they still work, for the love of technology than anything else. they polled $ to buy 100' luxury superyacht last year. in next few years, they are planning to share most expensive Gulfstream. simply put, it's because they can. maybe it's due to excellent weather here in CA, who knows? maybe it's due to the excellent things to do in CA & thousands of great restaurants in USA, where ppl fly in just for dinner & go back right after dessert? I can't achieve why my sons had achieved, not in 100x lifetimes as I'm already well into my 60s. my mantra is simple, why worry about others? btw, as Indian born American citizen, I always say London, Spain, UK & EU or even EEA are just expensive rent for shit holes, with depressed salary, with horse poo & human urine, and pickpockets. you may want to visit Bay Area, Pebble Beach, Carmel & check out why billionaires refused to retire, even to their 80s. you want to be in same company of smart people. and no where else on this planet, can you find more than BA. I think that's the reason