You Don't Need to Move to San Francisco to Earn 6 Figures. You Need to Change Your Strategy.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Money.

We all love coding. We love solving problems. But we also have bills to pay.

A common myth in our industry is that to earn a "Top Tier" salary ( $100k+ / year), you need to move to San Francisco, London, or New York. You need to pay $3,000 in rent and endure a 2-hour commute.

This is false.

In 2026, geography is no longer a limit on your income—it’s just a timezone. I am a developer based in Rwanda, building enterprise-grade software with Java and Angular.

Here is the roadmap I’ve seen work for developers who want to break the local salary ceiling and tap into the global market.

1.The "Geography Hack" (Arbitrage)

If you are a senior developer working for a local company in a lower-cost region, your salary is capped by the local market, not your skill level.

To hit 6 figures, you must detach your income from your location.

The Old Way: Move to a tech hub -> Get a high salary -> Spend 60% on living costs.
The New Way: Stay where you are -> Work remotely for a US/EU company -> Live like a king.

The Strategy: Stop applying to local job boards. Focus exclusively on "Remote-First" companies that hire globally. Platforms like Hacker News (Who is Hiring), We Work Remotely, and Toptal don't care where you sit; they care if you can ship.

2.The "Enterprise" Stack is Gold

There is a lot of hype around the "newest" framework of the month. But if you want a high salary, look at what the Fortune 500 uses.

I stick to Java (Spring Boot) + Angular. Why? Because Banks, Insurance Companies, and huge Enterprises run on this stack.

They have money.
They value stability over "shiny new toys."
They pay premium rates for developers who can handle complex, large-scale architectures.

If you know how to manage memory in Java and handle state in a complex Angular app, you are more valuable to a bank than a "Full Stack Wizard" who learned 10 frameworks last week.

3. Stop Being a "Coder", Start Being a "Product Engineer"

This is the hardest shift. A Coder waits for a ticket, writes the function, and pushes the code. A Product Engineer asks: "Does this feature actually solve the user's problem?"

I recently built my own SaaS (a Resume Builder called Resumemind). Building it taught me more about deployment, costs, user UX, and SEO than 5 years of just "coding tickets."

When you can tell a potential employer, "I don't just write code; I understand how to ship a product that generates revenue," you instantly move into a higher salary bracket. They aren't paying for your code; they are paying for your business impact.

4. The "Contractor" Shortcut

Sometimes, the easiest way to hit $100k isn't a salary—it's a contract.

Salary: $60k/year (Safe, benefits, slow growth).
Contract: $50/hour.

Do the math: $50/hour * 40 hours * 50 weeks = $100,000.

For a US company, $50/hour is a "standard" or even "low" rate for a Senior Dev. For you, it might be 5x your local market rate. Don't be afraid to contract. It’s higher risk, but the reward is immediate.