Almost but not quite - at high ends of salary the marginal tax rate is 38%, so $50k->$100k doesn't necessarily make you richer, it just makes Uncle Sam happier.
Exactly. Parent is exaggerating. Also, highest
tax bracket is 37% (2018). Yeah, I'm arguing about 1%, but that's also for individuals making over 500k, or couples making over 600k.
50k to 100k income raise bumps you up 2% in tax rate from 22% to 24% (assuming individual).
If parent was talking about raise on top of what they have, then the worse affected rate of change would be the 24% rate ($82,501 to $157,500) to 32% rate ($157,501 to $200,000).
These numbers are similar, but less affected with MFJ.
Not really - the same tax dollars buy less service and infrastructure when the workers and suppliers also need to function in high CoL areas. A $2.5bn mile of subway in New York isn't a priori better than a $600bn mile of subway in Seattle. A $59k entry level teacher in San Francisco isn't a priori better than a $33k entry level teacher in Wisconsin.
I don't consider myself an expert at all, but the way I approached it is that I went in knowing roughly what it would take for me to move, and expecting that they wouldn't match it. So I was comfortable asking for that amount even expecting them to not be able to meet it, and I was comfortable rejecting offers that didn't meet it. And so then when they did meet it, it was a pleasant surprise.
I think most of what people talk about "negotiating skills" or "driving a hard bargain" is pretending to be in this situation despite it not being true. But in my case I genuinely was in this situation, so I did not have to use a lot of skill (besides the mental aspect of being confident in how I felt)
Note that options have turned out to be pretty mediocre on average for me. $400k over 9 years at MSFT was a significant chunk of compensation, but they weren't life-changing. It's possible that startup2 can still make me a bunch of money, because I own the stock and they're profitable, but I basically count the probability as 0. Get RSUs.
