I make over 100kGBP at 25. AMA

OP

Original post by Thomazo

Oh, if that’s true then propery might be even better. I have no experience with property. I’ve done index funds and recently some peer to peer lending.

Maybe diversify with a bit of both?

Don't get me wrong. If index funds basically mean that you almost certainly will double your money in 10 years; then I'd say that beats property. Because while you could pick the next Sydney, you could also pick the next Perth (where house prices have crashed). How liquid (correct word?) is money in an index fund though? If you decide that you want to spend it tomorrow, is it easy to just take every penny out?

Reply 42

HighFructose

17

Can anyone become a software contractor or do you have to be A* at what you do?

Reply 43

username232868

14

Original post by 7inchman

I make ~115kGBP at 25, and have made good money for 1.5+ years.
Got 3 Cs at A-Level. An E at AS level
Went to a very average uni; albeit I did do very well. Graduated in 2014.
No grad scheme
I didn't start my own business. This was all done doing standard 9-5 sort of stuff
I'm not in investment banking or finance; although it's something that I might take up
A fair bit of job hopping, including between different countries
Pretty easy jobs, usually a 37.5 hour week
Made mistakes; hence why I want to offer advice as I think more money can be made at a younger age.

I’m trying to get my own business started up
Trying to figure out we’re to go from there
Looking for support etc

Check out my thread
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5169710

Reply 44

Pigster

How does it feel to be a TSR failure?

After all, you didn't get 13A*s at A level and 100% scholarship offers from Cambridge, Oxford, MIT and Harvard etc. etc.

Reply 45

Quady

Original post by 7inchman

I had a few accounts here starting from 18, but they got banned.

So you're a troll?

Reply 46

Reue

Can't name the uni
Can't name the company
Can't be specific about the role

Seems legit.

Reply 47

pereira325

Is computer science the degree to be in for the quid then? I thought the "Asians" were starting to flood the market with their computing prowess, devaluing it.

Reply 48

OP

Original post by TCA2b

This. HMT plans to consult on it, so it may or may not happen and may be deferred post-Brexit. Monumentally stupid idea but when has this stopped the govt?

It's had a horrible effect in the public sector. No one's benefited from it, it's mostly just PR, particularly as "equivalent" public sector employees are hugely expensive.

Interesting. Seems a mess. I've read a few articles and still don't understand the exact line between what is IR35 liable and what isn't. Does this only apply for people contracting through a company? In Australia/NZ there are typically sole traders, partnerships (basically where you save on tax using your wife) and companies.

Original post by TCA2b

Yeah, that's the main reason I am considering it. There's also coding specialised courses but they cost nearly the same amount and don't carry the same rep a good uni does, plus the conversion courses are also coding focused anyway. The main saving is in time spent on it but realistically to compress a CS degree you will need about a year to cover the vast body of material, so that's why they're able to deliver faster completion. Personally, if I am going to re-specialise, I would like to get both the coding courses and the CS theoretical element.

So you are planning on re-specializing in IT? Any particular path in mind? One thing I'm considering is becoming a quant-developer or getting into algorithmic trading. But it might mean taking an initial pay-cut to get my foot in the door as I have no trading/investment experience. Might be worth it. I know a permanent in that sphere can make more than a contract where I currently am. I've seen permanents paying equivalent of 200kGBP in quant.

Reply 49

Original post by 7inchman

Interesting. Seems a mess. I've read a few articles and still don't understand the exact line between what is IR35 liable and what isn't. Does this only apply for people contracting through a company? In Australia/NZ there are typically sole traders, partnerships (basically where you save on tax using your wife) and companies.

Yeah, it's primarily if you operate via a company. Sole traders are exempt, but they have their own tax regime governing their activities which isn't hugely great and most corporate clients aren't interesting in engaging professionals on that basis, they prefer working with private companies. Partnerships are governed by similar legislation to companies. What will change is who is ultimately liable, and this proposal will shift it to end clients. Australia/NZ has, to my knowledge, a pretty bad model, which it now seems the UK seeks to mimic (it's come up in OTS proposals I believe on how to revamp employment law/tax), though it isn't apparent what the actual gain would be except in terms of very short term tax gains that will be eroded longer term, coupled with hampering private industry's ability to source labour flexibly. It's easy to mask the effects in the public sector because HMG controls it directly and it isn't concerned about remaining profitable, so I expect more resistance from the private sector.

So you are planning on re-specializing in IT? Any particular path in mind? One thing I'm considering is becoming a quant-developer or getting into algorithmic trading. But it might mean taking an initial pay-cut to get my foot in the door as I have no trading/investment experience. Might be worth it. I know a permanent in that sphere can make more than a contract where I currently am. I've seen permanents paying equivalent of 200kGBP in quant.

£200k is in the region of what I hear of good quants earning. The average is apparently £70k, which is still good. I don't think I have that kind of facility with numbers, to do that, but I am planning on learning software development due to its growing necessity, and considering doing a few years in that and then moving into business or systems analysis, both of which benefit from a CS/coding background, and the latter of which requires it. AI and blockchains also seem to be pretty good areas to look into though ATM. :biggrin:

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 50

OP

Original post by pereira325

Is computer science the degree to be in for the quid then? I thought the "Asians" were starting to flood the market with their computing prowess, devaluing it.

From what I've heard from Chinese work mates, top companies in China now pay their top engineers really good money. One guy mentioned HP, where the top developers are on 6 figures GBP - this is with much lower taxes. So Chinese don't immigrate so much now.

But you're right to some extent. Russia for example has a lot of very strong developers who get paid very little money in their home country. However what you say is true for almost every sector. About the one sphere where immigrants will never flood the job market is politics - the politicians won't let that happen :biggrin:

Reply 51

OP

Original post by TCA2b

£200k is in the region of what I hear of good quants earning. The average is apparently £70k, which is still good. I don't think I have that kind of facility with numbers, to do that, but I am planning on learning software development due to its growing necessity, and considering doing a few years in that and then moving into business or systems analysis, both of which benefit from a CS/coding background, and the latter of which requires it. AI and blockchains also seem to be pretty good areas to look into though ATM. :biggrin:

Yeah the average for a quant-analyst really isn't that high, considering the hours and the likely-hood of living in a city with sky high real estate.

I'm not sure about the maths part of the quant-developer field. I'm in the middle of an interview process for a trading firm at present, but have only been given programming tasks. No maths at all. My understanding is that quant-analysts basically design the trading algorithms, then quant-developers implement a highly optimal solution. I have a C++ background, so I do have some relevant experience for it. I just don't know the domain side.

Yeah, Blockchain is very interesting sphere to be in! It's a shame that in uni they are fixated on teaching relational databases. No love for distributed databases, or databases like blockchain which have a totally different structure.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 52

OP

Original post by HighFructose

Can anyone become a software contractor or do you have to be A* at what you do?

It's a bit harder to get contract roles without at least 5 years experience. You would need to be pretty good. Best bet is to find a job where you can just code 8 hours a day. My first job was awful. I mostly did bug-fixing, the tech stack was really old (C++98) and I basically spent a year there having learnt very little. My second job was just doing cool stuff for 8 hours a day; and I became a top class coder very quickly. 8 hours a day for 250 working days a year... you'll definitely learn to code :smile:

Reply 53

CTLeafez

22

How do you feel about being taxed 40% on your income or do you use some "creative" banking in Switzerland...? :biggrin:

Going from £115k to £69k must be a tad annoying.

Reply 54

Ladbants

Original post by Reue

Can't name the uni
Can't name the company
Can't be specific about the role

Seems legit.

I am suspicious about why he can't name the uni but perhaps he just doesn't want to. But the company might be small or the job he does might be specialised so if he reveals them then someone might be able to find him on LinkedIn or something like that. I don't think it's right to immediately call bs on him at this stage, especially when he's not showing off and is trying to be inspiring

Reply 55

OP

Original post by CTLevers

How do you feel about being taxed 40% on your income or do you use some "creative" banking in Switzerland...? :biggrin:

Going from £115k to £69k must be a tad annoying.

Once you contract, the tax system becomes a complete mess with too many loop holes to count. But it's less than PAYE. How much less depends on your situation. In Australia, a man with a wife and 4-5 older kids can in theory pay 0% tax even on a huge salary.There's too many permutations to list, especially as listing them will be pointless as it'd be different for the UK :smile:

Reply 56

OP

Original post by Pigster

How does it feel to be a TSR failure?

After all, you didn't get 13A*s at A level and 100% scholarship offers from Cambridge, Oxford, MIT and Harvard etc. etc.

Haha yeah A-Levels is something that I never needed after I got into uni. I've never put them on a CV and nobody has ever asked.

Reply 57

Original post by 7inchman

Haha yeah A-Levels is something that I never needed after I got into uni. I've never put them on a CV and nobody has ever asked.

Yeah, although grad schemes still tend to want to know the results, but it's mostly pointless listing it. I'd still list a Maths A level, though. :biggrin:

Reply 58

Original post by CTLevers

How do you feel about being taxed 40% on your income or do you use some "creative" banking in Switzerland...? :biggrin:

Going from £115k to £69k must be a tad annoying.

Bear in mind you are taxed on an annual basis. So it won't necessarily be taxed as a lump sum unless he earned it in a year. Seeing as he was a contractor, you can also stagger dividend releases. The tax treatment of contracting isn't really that decisive in pursuing it, what makes it good IMO is that you control how the entirety of your earnings used, plus you're given expected to function on a more independent basis than the typical employee.

40% is pretty friggin ridiculous, and the fact that it kicks in as low as £45k (or less in Scotland) makes it even worse. It may seem like a lot of money to some people but price inflation reduces its purchasing power, as do non-income taxes.

Reply 59