Meta engineer demonstrates FIRE lifestyle: $300k annual salary, $4k monthly spending, living in the US without a car, and achieving "early retirement" by 30.

A young Meta software engineer revealed his $306,500 annual salary and his FIRE lifestyle goal of retiring with $1.6 million by age 30 in a Business Insider "Cost of Living" video. (Context: Meta employees proposed that if they could fully automate their own jobs, the company should provide five years of salary compensation before laying them off.) (Background: 2026 Asia Cost of Living Ranking: Taipei's cost of living surpasses Tokyo, but purchasing power lags behind Japan and South Korea.) Key Highlights: - Meta engineer earns $306,500 annually; after taxes and retirement contributions, he takes home only $4,000 per month, with one-sixth of his salary going into his 401(k). - No sofa, no TV, a metal filing cabinet as a nightstand, $2,600 monthly rent, car-free commute, and monthly savings of $5,000 to $20,000. - Goal: Accumulate $1.6 million by age 30 to retire; projected net worth of $7 million by age 40, following the FIRE 4% rule. A robot vacuum, a DJ controller, and an empty living room. When Raymond Zeng opens the door to his San Francisco Bay Area apartment, the first impression isn't "this is the home of a Meta engineer earning over $300,000 a year," but rather "which college student is renting this studio?" In the bedroom, there is only a bed, a pillow, and a charging cable; the nightstand is a metal filing cabinet. The highlight of the bathroom is a bidet installed for $400, and the balcony is empty. "Many friends say my lifestyle is Spartan," he tells the camera. "But it's a deliberate choice." By "deliberate," he means his 401(k) account is growing by five figures every month, and he plans to quit working by age 30. Raymond Zeng is a software engineer at Meta, with a role spanning coding, project management, and data analysis, working 40 to 50 hours a week. His total annual compensation is $306,500, covering base salary, stock vesting, and performance bonuses. What happens after his paycheck arrives? First, the retirement accounts: he maxes out his 401(k) employee contribution at $24,500, plus after-tax contributions to reach the IRS annual limit of $72,000. This alone accounts for one-sixth of his annual income. Next, he maxes out his Roth IRA. He also maxes out his HSA (Health Savings Account). The remaining funds are invested in a brokerage account, allocated 80% in US stocks and 20% in international markets. The actual amount deposited into his bank account at the end of the month is $4,000. An engineer at a top Silicon Valley tech company takes home about the same amount after taxes as a part-time barista in San Francisco. However, his retirement accounts are growing at a rate of $5,000 to $20,000 per month, depending on whether stock vesting or bonuses hit that month. In July 2025, he moved from Dallas to the Bay Area. The company provided a relocation specialist, but after doing all the research himself, he signed the lease without seeing the apartment in person. The monthly rent is $2,600, including community facility fees. He says similar apartments closer to the office cost $3,500 to $3,700, so he chose to live further away. He doesn't own a car, commuting via BART and Meta's shuttle buses, with a five-minute walk to the nearest station. Thus, his monthly transportation expense is $0 to $30. He didn't have a car in Dallas either, where he lived for two years—I bow to his discipline. His monthly grocery budget is $300. His monthly dining-out budget is $75, and he usually spends less than that. His breakfast and lunch are subsidized by Meta, and he cooks dinner himself, including protein, a bag of frozen dumplings he made himself when bored, and sugary herbal tea bags ("This stuff is delicious, but the sugar content is also super high"). He took the cameraman to an Asian supermarket to buy short ribs at $10.99 per pound, then went to a Western supermarket to buy white bread, white rice, a dozen eggs, a bottle of cola, and a gallon of whole milk, with a total bill of $22.34.