Please critique my plan to become a software developer and move to a town with cheap housing in 5-10 years where I can work from home

[kayvin]

Given the popularity of software development as a career, the rise of people working from home, the spread of high-speed Internet in remote areas, and the explosion of property prices in major cities, I'm dumbfounded as to why we aren't seeing more software developers and those able to WFH move to cheaper regions.

Currently, I live in a mid-price area. I am renting right now but all of my bills are included in my rent which is ~$250 a week. I will be working 50 hours a week for the next 5-10 years and will be able to save about $800 a week before tax as long as I am frugal and stick to the basics. That's about $40,000 a year or about $30,000 a year after tax.

Every week, I will have about 118 hours of each day to myself. If you take away 8 x 7 = 56 hours of sleep, that gives me about 57 hours per week to improve myself (of course, there are also things like eating and showering so the actual figure will probably be closer to 50 hours).

My plan is to use these non-working, non-sleeping hours to become a self-taught software developer using free online resources such as edX, Coursera, Udacity, Udemy, MIT OpenCourseWare, Khan Academy, etc.

By the end of 5 years, I will have saved $150,000 in cash and should be able to start looking for a house to buy without the need for a mortgage. By the end of 10 years, I will have saved $300,000 in cash and should definitely be able to buy a house without a mortgage. By then, I should also have a resume featuring a portfolio of projects that will allow me to work remotely whether it be through freelancing, a traditional job with an employer, or my own startup(s) (or a combination of the three).

Once I am confident in my abilities as an experienced web/software developer and am able to make enough money through software development to support myself, I will take my savings and move to a place in New Zealand where houses can be bought for very cheap (e.g. Gore, Greymouth, Taumaranui, Dannevirke, Wanganui, etc.). I will purchase a small 1 or 2 bedroom house between $150,000 to $300,000 with my savings. The only requirement is that the town should have broadband Internet.

For example, something like this would be perfect.

By the end of the 5 (hopefully) or 10 (more realistically) years, I should have my own house that's fully paid, a valuable skill set, and an income stream that supports me whilst allowing me to work from home. I will grow my own fruits and vegetables, place solar panels on my roof, put any extra income I make towards cashflow-generating assets, and generally lead a happy, peaceful, and carefree life away from the hustle and bustle and rat race of 9-to-5 jobs, bosses, corporate meetings, 401ks KiwiSaver, and 30-year mortgages.

Do you think this dream is attainable r/PersonalFinanceNZ/? Is there anyone here following a similar path or who have done so and wouldn't mind sharing their experience?

 

[adefela77]

@kayvin At what point in this 10 year plan are you planning to start working as a software dev?
I'm asking because it's easier to find a remote role as a senior, and for this you need a few years of experience. Notice that there is a big push to force people back into the offices now, so many roles are now "hybrid" with mandatory 2 days in the office or something like that (there's also a pushback from the engineers, so it's not clear where this will end up in a few years).

Also, software devs do not live in ivory towers and usually can't escape "rat race of 9-to-5 jobs, bosses, corporate meetings", unless they are freelancing on Fiverr or something.

Another point is that big centres have a vibrant engineering community, which helps with professional development. You can learn a lot on your own, but do not underestimate the power of learning from others.

Keeping this in mind, it's not a bad plan, and you don't necessarily have to aim to buy a house outright (it may be an elusive goal, and how many years of "sticking to the basics" are you able to take?).

 

[mariposa7]

@adefela77 Spot on re: software dev. I know a bunch, at varying levels. You'll def need to be in a city centre atleast for the first few yrs of your career. Most of them I know also work really hard often beyond the "9-5" as theres a lot of self development eg courses and studying you'd have to do to keep your skills relevant & to stand out - the market is becoming saturated. They do get paid well though

 

[ray2089]

@mariposa7 For now

 

[travis93]

@adefela77 Been there, done that! Keep on going it's def doable. I think you can get better ratings for start. Entry position for web dev is around 70-80k/y. So don't sell yourself cheap, otherwise just make the climb longer. Don't underestimate the toll of a lifetime in front of computer can have. It's at the same time a calm and stressful job. Have been doing this for the last 15 years and if I could choose today, would have done something that does not oblige me to be sit in front of computer all day (and all night, if you want to keep grinding and improving at todays pace). Money is ok, but gets boring fast. Tech is frustrating most of times and time management is abstract, this adds to the insecurities and makes stressful. So thread carefully. Good luck!

 

[gabbleduck]

@adefela77 Yep, software engineer, completely agree here.
And unless you're totally autonomous and working on your own subject (without too many people involved) remote work usually take a toll of productivity and efficiency from my experience

 

[kayvin]

@adefela77 If all goes well then I could be able to start working as a junior dev after a few years even though it probably won't be WFH. Right now, I live in a mid-sized town rather than the boondocks so such jobs should be possible.

Ideally, I'd love to be able to get by with just freelancing and/or making money through my own means though. If that's not sufficient to pay the bills however then a WFH arrangement with a traditional employer would be the next best thing.

 

[ss51]

@kayvin It sounds like you're trying to find an easy road. In that case WFH with a traditional employer will be lower stress than freelancing.

Find a specialty that your employer considers complicated, slowly automate yourself down to a few hours of work per day. As a freelancer you have to hustle more to find jobs and need to prove yourself over and over to new clients.

 

[adefela77]

@kayvin Career growth trajectories can be vastly different depending on the first role you take. Try to find one where you'd level up quickly. It may be difficult in a mid-sized town. Ideally you'd join a grad program of one of the big players, that would really boost your career. I'm guessing you don't want to be stuck in Gore writing PHP for the rest of your life.

 

[kazu]

@kayvin Software development values responding to change over following a set plan - does your plan allow for flex in scope and other things you can’t possibly plan for?

Maybe just take it a month or two at a time.. things can change super quickly.

 

[brendanjamesstephen]

@kazu Dude is waterfall modeling life

 

[kazu]

@brendanjamesstephen We all know how well that works!

 

[arniej]

@kazu It pretty much the only thing that /does/ work. What is Agile (as commonly practiced, not as defined) if not just a series of mini waterfalls?

/s

 

[dwilk]

@brendanjamesstephen good chuckle, thanks

 

[kayvin]

@kazu I have no wife, no health issues. I'm not overweight, don't smoke, rarely drink, and not interested in having kids. I understand that circumstances can change but right now, things seem pretty stable for me.

 

[niasia]

@kayvin if I was transitioning from another career to software engineering, I’d pay a bootcamp for 6 months to get into the market as soon as possible. Worst case scenario you don’t like the career and only lost 6 months and a bit of money learning something new, instead of spending 5 to 10 whole years planning for something you wouldn’t like.

As a junior dev you’d likely need to work from the office, and that means being in a big center. It is still worth it, even with the high rent, because you will potentialise your income way faster and learn way faster.

By the end of 5 years you’ll likely be able to apply for senior positions and work from home for an American company. At that stage, I doubt you’d be thinking about buying a terrible house like that.

 

[resjudicata]

@niasia I second the bootcamp option, if you can afford it. It's a very efficient way to get a portfolio and learn enough to get a junior role. Also nice to have some sort of course on your CV. I did a 3 month bootcamp for front end development about 7 years ago, and got a junior job a couple months after finishing it. Now I'm a senior developer. I did have to work in a city for a few years to get enough experience to be in a position with more flexibility, but I was fine with that.

 

[resjudicata]

@kayvin Good laugh mate, how old are you? I especially enjoyed the showering part.

All I can say is that the best you can do is forget about your pipe dream back-of-a-napkin plans and instead open up a code editor and start doing something. If you actually like it and are mildly good at it, then consider getting proper education. Two years from now, god knows what your life will be like.

NB: Soft dev w/ too many years of exp.

 

[kayvin]

@resjudicata Late 20s.

I actually did my degree in biochemistry which at the bachelor's level is only good for jobs that pay barely above minimum wage and unfortunately isn't the kind of degree that allows one to work from home.

I do have some experience already with Python, HTML/CSS, etc. But it's all at a beginner level though.

 

[tanyastark]

@kayvin Leaving NZ would be much easier mate.