This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sundas Khalid, a Google employee in her 30s who lives in Seattle. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Growing up, my family didn’t have a lot of money, and I wasn’t very financially literate.
I was always into saving, but investing was like a foreign world to me.
In 2013, I broke into tech with an internship at Amazon, which led to a full-time data engineering role, and I started earning good money, $77,000 in my first full-time year. In 2019, I joined Google, where I’m now a principal analytics lead.
After years of growing my salary, last year I earned $292,000 working in Big Tech — and $302,000 from my side hustle in content creation, where I share advice about breaking into tech.
Over the years, I’ve learned more about navigating finances and investing. Here are the tips I use to grow and manage my wealth.
Giving the first number in a salary negotiation is a mistake
When recruiters used to ask me for my salary expectations, I’d tell them my total compensation at the time, but I began to realize it didn’t work in my favour. If I wasn’t earning my market value, a company could offer me a lower salary based on the number I shared.
Now, I’ll either tell the recruiter I don’t want to share my salary expectations or that I want to do the interview before telling them. Then, I’ll turn the question back on them by asking what the average salary range is for the role. If that range aligns with my expectations, I’ll move forward with the next stage of the interview.
If I get a job offer, I use online tools, such as levels.fyi, to understand what people at my level of seniority in my location earn at that company, to help me negotiate my salary.
When asking for a higher salary than what a company has offered, you should communicate what value you’ll bring to the business and team. I prefer doing this in writing over email, because I’m good at written communication, but often, negotiations happen over the phone. In those instances, I’ll often do a dry run with a mentor, who’ll give me feedback about how to phrase things. Having a script or bullet points ready ahead of time can also help with nerves.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that these tips work better when the job market is good, as you may have less negotiating power in a bad market.
Learn to invest by investing in a good book
I used to keep all my money in my bank account instead of investing it. I wasn’t proactive about investing in my 401(k) earlier in my career either.
I read two books to boost my financial literacy: “The Simple Path to Wealth” by JL Collins, which talks about index funds, and “I Will Teach You to Be Rich” by Ramit Sethi, which taught me about credit and banking.
Spending $20 on a good book can be the best investment in your financial future, providing a comprehensive, end-to-end guide that you can supplement with online resources. For example, I watched countless YouTube videos and read blogs about Roth IRAs, a type of retirement account, to get my head around them.
Instead of putting all my money in savings, I’ve now set up an automated payment of $2,500 from my monthly salary into a Vanguard personal stock portfolio. I try to keep six months’ worth of living costs in my savings account, and if I accumulate extra, I’ll also invest this into index funds, so I’m not keeping more money in savings than necessary.
As your income grows, make sure your lifestyle costs don’t creep up, so you have more disposable income to invest. I avoid buying designer clothes to live frugally.
Have multiple income streams
I started posting career content on Instagram in 2016, and it has grown into a side business where I share educational videos about breaking into tech on platforms including YouTube, and earn money from brand partnerships. Last year, I earned $302,000 in revenue.
My intention for sharing career tips wasn’t to make money, and the importance of having a side income didn’t hit me until tech companies started laying people off around 2023. Having multiple income streams is now essential. If I were to lose my job, I have a plan to fall back on, which gives me a lot of mental peace.
If you’re starting a side hustle alongside a full-time job, ideally choose something you’re passionate about and that makes you money at the same time. If you’re not excited about it, you’ll likely give up after a month or two.
Talk to your coworkers about money
Money can be a taboo topic. When I was at Amazon, I never talked about it with coworkers.
The more I learned about investing and money, the more comfortable I became talking about it. It’s now more normal for me to talk with colleagues about how much we earn.
This has been really helpful for my content creation business. In the past, when negotiating brand partnership contracts, I’ve sometimes reached out to another creator I know who’s worked with that brand to ask how much they got paid. The creators in my network are very transparent with each other.
For anyone who thinks they’re late to investing or financial literacy, you can catch up, just like I did.
Do you have a story to share about managing your finances in a high-earning profession? Contact this reporter at [email protected].
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