Ask HN: How do I start feeling secure financially as a tech worker?

Have you considered taking a look at your expenses?

Maybe there's an opportunity to improve - reevaluate your eating habbits, car, fun?

Download csv of last 3/6/9/12 months of payments from your bank

get into Excel and start querying and thinking about it

If you have a couple years worth of your monthly expenses in your savings then I wouldn’t be so worried about it. What you have done with that is to buy you time while you figure out the situation. This is enough for most problems you would face wrt employment.

What calms me down when I’m feeling anxious like you is to write down some plans with different scenarios: good, okay and bad.

Once I have a plan for the “bad” scenario I feel way more comfortable and can chill.

> I have more than a couple years worth of savings

Not counting retirement/pension? That's actually pretty great!

It might be most effective to invest time in networking. That would be a prerequisite for any kind of entrepreneurship, but more practically would help you find a new job quicker if you were laid off.

Get a higher paying job. While that is harder said than done, the process of preparing for such a job search, could keep you prepared for the worst should it come.

That's about all you can do really. The thing I found is make yourself invaluable. That means throwing what interests you technology wise under a bus and learn stuff that isn't glamorous. Pick a niche with a perpetual vacuum yet hedge on something ubiquitous. For me I do AWS crap for the ubiquitous and Linux sysadmin for the vacuum. There are very few people around who truly can do the latter. I picked 20/30 different career paths and scanned around job sites for stupid salaries and contract rates where I don't have to invest much and just do that.

But always have 12 months cash in the bank. That doesn't have to be 12 months of luxury, but 12 months of survival.

Shortened: minimise risks through security and skill hedging.

Increase income, reduce spending.

Alternatively winning the lotto would work too

> ..I have more than a couple years worth of savings...

> ...How do I shake this feeling?...

Sounds like you could consider meditation. You need to be able to state the scenario that you're worried about to be able to deal with it.

You never will never feel financially secure as an employee. That's the whole point.

Use shef.com for food.

Around half of Americans can't afford an unexpected $400 expense. Two years of savings in the bank seems like solid financial security by comparison.

I have worked as a programmer for forty years, through ups and downs, layoffs, recessions. And raised three kids. You roll with it, keep your skills sharp, stay in contact with colleagues, don't burn bridges. Plenty of work always available in the tech industry, paying far more than most people make. Avoid companies that don't make a profit or have narcissists and sociopaths in charge.

It sounds like you could use some basic guidance on finance. Take a look at Financial Peace University. They have online and in-person classes going on all the time.

One thing (among all the other great suggestions) you can do is to make sure you’ve got a budget in place, so you understand what your projected finances look like.

I use YouNeedABudget (YNAB: https://www.youneedabudget.com/) which gives me a lot of confidence about my finances.

It’s not just about making sure you’ve got enough money either, it’s about spending it guilt free, because in your budget, you’ve already spent it. This helps me budget for things like haircuts, and other self-care things without worrying about it or feeling guilty. The net effect is that I look after myself in new ways and feel more confident about where my money is earmarked. This could be a way to help shake your feeling.

You’re asking about how to change a feeling of insecurity to security. My answer is this: give yourself a sense that you have an abundance of options. The feeling of insecurity may stem from a fear of being left without options. So now, not later, interview at a variety of places.

Prepare well for those interviews, and know that if you make it to even 1 place in 10 that you interview (or 20 - whatever it might be), then you have options in case something happens.

You don’t need to actually take any of the jobs. Just create the sense of an abundance of options.

I’m not in your life situation but been wondering this same question recently. I also have at least 6 months worth of savings paid, but my wife works a decent job

First off it’s important to remember you really are fine. You have more savings than majority of people. You work in a lucrative field and have a set of skills that are in demand. Even if the economic situation is dire. Your savings runway alone has me confident in your situation

It’s scary though! The best I would do is worry less about trying to bring in a second income yourself. Don’t deprive yourself of time with your family. Reduce costs at home where you can and pocket those savings.

Downloading my expenses from the past year into CSV and just plotting that out in Excel helped a lot.

You’re fine. If you don’t feel fine the good news is you can afford years of therapy and still be very wealthy. It seems likely you’re feeling insecure because you’re comparing yourself to others around you who are even more wealthy. This is not a good use of your energies. Go hug your kid, kiss your wife, and sleep well.

Having even 6 months of savings (outside of retirement funds, money you might be saving for a house, etc.) puts you in a very good place, and well ahead of most people.

With a second child on the way and having seen co-workers get laid off, it's entirely understandable that you're nervous. Diversifying your income isn't what you need to do, instead you may benefit from talking to a financial advisor to make sure you're allocating your excess income appropriately to prepare for the future. Talking to a therapist about your concerns could also help you work through the anxiety.

I don't think there is much you can do. Based on what you have written, I would assume you already invest a good portion in 401K, index funds, and other options.

If you have savings which aren't counted in that, you are better than 90% of the people out there who are happy and chugging along.

I would recommend building document with your backup plans and runaway. That should give you ample time to reflect.

Dont be a tech worker. Especially with a family. Especially if they have placed you in an area where you cant afford real estate.

Corporate robot execs are programmed to exploit that trap/insecurity. They will use it every review to extract as much they can and throw you out when required. They have no other moves cause if they dont do it some other corporate robot will, and take their jobs.

To shake this kind of feeling, I like to "calculate" how things should go wrong for the worst case scenario to realize: if there aren't enough steps, I know what to work on, but usually it really makes me realize that I've built enough safety nets.

E.g.: right now, there are two possibilities: that I get laid off, or not. If not, everything good. If yes, there are two possibilities: that I find a job in a month or less, or not. If yes, all good. If not, I still have 2 months of savings that I can easily spread to 4 months reducing all accessories expenses. Is it enough time? If yes, all good, if not, I can buy other 6 months selling assets. Are they enough? If yes, all good, if not, I have different layers of social nets that can help me (I am not going in details here, but I have at least other 5 steps before becoming homeless, and all of them have a very low probably of failure, barring a nuclear war).

So, the worst case scenario is less probable that being hit by a car while going to my current job, so not really something I should worry about

You probably can't. This is just a fact of modern life in a society that's polarized along a division of wealth inequality. If you're on the wrong side then you have to get used to never feeling secure. Any single catastrophic event can end your economic security.

You can hedge against it with good insurance, but that doesn't protect you against a lot of externalities (you can't insure against a second great depression for example). The only way to actually resolve it is to become "fuck you money" rich. Very few people manage that.

The best route forwards is to stoicly resolve to enjoy what you have while you have it and accept what life gives when things change. This might be harder than getting fuck you money though.

If you have no debt, two years of savings, can afford one parent to stay at home, and work in tech, you are ahead of the overwhelmingly vast majority of people. If this simple fact doesn't make you feel secure, I'd suggest that no amount of money will make you feel secure.

Instead, focus on increasing your employability. If the economy crashed, could you easily get a job? If not, what skills do you need to learn to be in that position?

It sounds more like you’re asking about an emotional block than actual financial health. Give yourself some credit. A multi-year safety net is far more savings than most people have, and you shouldn’t dismiss that just because you haven’t bought a house. Just remember that there are people who raise families doing all kinds of jobs that earn less and offer less security. Your skills probably won’t evaporate like some JS framework. You were capable of skilling up to get where you are, and if you needed to you could reskill.

Maybe invest some of that pile in a few therapy sessions to see if you’re still living some maladaptive coping strategy that helped protect you when things were thinner. It helped me, anyway.

Take ownership of your own wealth management outside of work, if possible find a good financial planner and see what they have to say.

Invest your money, save your money, live frugally in the meantime.

If you have more than a couple (I assume this means >2) years of living expenses in the bank then you have nothing to worry about. If you lose your job do you realistically think it will take more than two years of interviewing to find another?