A Question about Salaries in New Jersy

[LiquidLen]

Hello,
I'm from Israel, I'm 26 years old and I live in Tel Aviv.
I am up for a position to relocate from Israel to Jersey city.
As a programmer with 7 years of experience, and no degree, how much should I be making?

[CowboyAndIndian]

Very hard to answer this.

Depends on the company you are working for, Financial firms in NY will pay more than others.

Depends on the technology. If you have some esoteric skills (say C++) or the latest stuff, then you will earn more.
 - What do you have that is in demand and there are very few people available with this skill set.
 -  Just one technology may not be enough, Financial firms need database skills (Oracle) and scripting (Perl or Python) for all jobs.
 - What business knowledge do you have? Software developers must know the business to write code.

Hope this helps.

[mxt0133]

I used to work for a financial service firm in Jersey City and it really depends on your experience and skills not years of experience.  Financial firms will pay a premium if you fit their list of skill sets, they do not like to train  on the job because of the nature of the industry.  As soon as engineers gain a certain skill set they jump ship to the highest bidder.

So for exact numbers I had about 6 years experience in .Net C# full stack development and started at 100k (without bonus, could go from 10-30%) in 2006 which was on the low end.  The closer you get to NYC the higher your salary will be.  If you make it over the Hudson into NYC you can easily get 10-20% higher pay.  The job market took a hit during 2009 but is back to it's highs for software engineers.

[LiquidLen]

I did a lot of stuff in which I'm generally good at. Did java, did C#, MVC4, other Web stuff (html, css, jquery, etc.). I did some algorithms research, SQL and PL/SQL (which is what i'm going to be tested about), and I've been some kind of a DBA in my last job (while mostly functioning as a server side developer).
In Israel I have a very high pay rate in Israeli standards (if that is any indication of being good at what I do).
does that give some indication? is 100k dollars a lot? is that after taxes or before? (I make about that in Israel, but that's before taxes and becomes about 63k). how soon will I be able to retire if I'm being frugal (obviously a kindof vague question, so I'm sorry in advance)?

[mxt0133]

The numbers are all pre-tax and the 100k figure is base salary with bonuses in the range of 10-30% for financial firms as incentive pay and as a way to keep you around for one more year. 

I would recommend going to glassdoor.com and research the company you are applying to and see what their salary range is for the position you will.  If they don't have any data then research other companies of similar side and industry to give you an idea of what is the market salary what you will be doing.

As far as retirement, that depends on your savings rate and investment returns.  Use this side to determine how long it will take you to retire:  https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement?income=50000&initialBalance=0&expenses=20000&annualPct=5&withdrawalRate=4

The key point is savings rates has a higher impact on how soon you can retire vs investment returns.  So keep you expenses low and income high and you can retire in a relatively short time.

[LiquidLen]

what should be my net wage if I make that?

I already understand that savings have higher impact, but what I meant to ask is if I don't go to restaurants (and prepare my own food), bike to work and don't get a car, get an inexpensive phone plan, get a apt in new jersey instead of NY, etc.
Will I be able to retire easily and quickly on that salary?

[CowboyAndIndian]

what should be my net wage if I make that?

I already understand that savings have higher impact, but what I meant to ask is if I don't go to restaurants (and prepare my own food), bike to work and don't get a car, get an inexpensive phone plan, get a apt in new jersey instead of NY, etc.
Will I be able to retire easily and quickly on that salary?

In short, yes, you can retire easily on that salary.

The longer answer now.

• Jersey City is not cheap especially if  if you live closer to NY, i.e. closer to Hudson river. So 1 bedroom apt. in Newport or around Exchange place may cost about $2500, you will be able to find something a lot cheaper if you go to the western part of the city. That being said, the west of the city has more crime. If you can find an apartment you can share, it will be a lot cheaper.
  If you can control this cost, you should be able to do well.
• You do not need a car if you live in Jersey city. The PATH trains are great to go to the city or to Newark. NJ Transit has bus service. You can reach the three major airports using public transportation. You have ferries from Jersey City to New York
• Net wage depends on the taxes. Taxes depend on how much you save tax deferred (401k etc) as well as your deductions. So, I cannot  tell you what your net wages will be.