Financial freedom's step 1: get a $400k salary

Mike Winters: writing for CNBC about a woman who has "mini-retired" at 37 years old:

In April 2024, Florence Poirel left her $390,000-a-year job at Google for what she calls a “mini retirement.”

I know these posts are easy rage bait, but I still find it fun to find the catch that enabled this person to have amazing financial independence. Usually it's a rich parent, but this time it's that you and your partner make a combined $1 million or so per year in salary (they don't specify her partner's salary in the article, but considering he also worked at Google and was 17 years older than her, I'm putting my money on it being at least as much as her).

So yeah, if you too can get yourself a job that pays in the top 3% of Americans (and top 1% in Switzerland, where they live) and a partner who does the same, bringing you into the top 0.4% of household incomes, then you are likely going to be in a good spot. "This one simple trick!" 🫠

I guess it is worth saying that someone who is bad with money when they make $50,000 will likely be decently bad with money if they suddenly earn $500,000, so there are some things most people can do to be smarter with money. I presume this is what this article is trying to do, but my god, they really should profile people who are remotely normal as their success stories in these things. "Here's how someone in the top 1% is able to live comfortably" just doesn't hit, you know? Wow, think you!