A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay • Hacker News Board

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#141

Post by gozur88 » Fri, Aug 18, 2017, 8:52 PM UTC

godelski wrote: post #127

gozur88 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Large salaries only lead to higher savings if they don't get gobbled up by taxes and a high CoL.

You should be putting away a small percentage of your salary per month. Or else you are living above your means. So 5% of a high salary is larger than 5% of a lower. Or can be even higher than 10% of another area.

I don't think it's reasonable to say you should be putting away a percentage of your gross. You have taxes and expenses, and your savings comes out of what's left. My point was that "what's left" part can be larger even with a smaller salary, depending on where you live.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#142

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 18, 2017, 8:56 PM UTC

sidlls wrote: post #89

mychael wrote: post #86

Pros/Cons of living in the Bay Area for most tech workers: Pros - Proudly displaying "San Francisco" in your Twitter bio. - An abundance of career opportunities. Cons - Making six figures, but still living with roommates. - Commuting to work in awful public transportation. - Becoming desensitized to poverty and fecal matter on the streets. - Feeling unwelcome by locals. - Not being able to afford to live in a cool pa…

You forgot at least two pros: - Large salaries lead to higher savings rates - Opportunities are just not comparable almost anywhere less expensive: there are tens of thousands of jobs from hundreds of employers here in the Bay Area for technology that pays well, compared with hundreds or maybe a few thousand jobs for maybe a dozen or few tens of employers Also the "monoculture" dig applies to tech specifically: in te…

[deleted]

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#143

Post by chrissnell » Fri, Aug 18, 2017, 8:59 PM UTC

As someone who works remotely and who posts remote-friendly openings for his team in the Who's Hiring HN thread, it's kind of amazing to me that more people aren't actively looking to get out.

I live and work in a small midwestern town because my wife's military job has us here. If I was single, however, I would make the most of my remoteness and try working from a variety of towns. Here's some places that I would try if I was a young remote worker:

- A small Colorado/Utah/Montana ski town. Some place like Telluride, where I could ski/hike/bike in the mornings

- A fun desert town with great recreation like Moab, UT...Prescott, AZ...Bend, OR...

- A beach town in S. Florida during the winter

- Costa Rica, Panama, Bay Islands of Honduras in the wintertime

- Thailand

- South coast of Texas in the Winter, Texas Hill Country in the fall

It could be so much fun...

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#144

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 18, 2017, 9:00 PM UTC

kbenson wrote: post #136

dyim wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI, you don't need to pay $3k - I lived in the Mission / Potrero Hill area (with roommates, mind you) for a few years, and my rent had always been between $1000-1850/mo. Centrally located, safe(-ish), and beautiful. You can run through Bernal Heights Park, get ice cream at Humphrey Slocombe, and bike to the 24 Hour Fitness on 16th and Potrero. If you're in tech, you can definitely live well in SF :)

Or commute a little. If you're paying multiples the cost to live 30 minutes away and commute, that's because you've attributed a high value on that locality, so complaining that it's too expensive doesn't make much sense.

[deleted]

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#145

Post by marzell » Fri, Aug 18, 2017, 9:01 PM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #120

mychael wrote: post #86

Pros/Cons of living in the Bay Area for most tech workers: Pros - Proudly displaying "San Francisco" in your Twitter bio. - An abundance of career opportunities. Cons - Making six figures, but still living with roommates. - Commuting to work in awful public transportation. - Becoming desensitized to poverty and fecal matter on the streets. - Feeling unwelcome by locals. - Not being able to afford to live in a cool pa…

Also in the pros category: - Great weather. 8 months out of the year, it's basically guaranteed that if you walk outside it'll be sunny & 70. - Good outdoor parks. - Openness to ideas. - Every kind of food imaginable. - Relatively bike-friendly (Peninsula; uncertain about SF itself). Additional cons: - Traffic. - Poor public transportation

In my experience, 8 months out of the year it will be very windy and ~60 degrees. Even if the rest of the bay has good weather on a particular day, there's a good chance it's foggy over much of the peninsula.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#146

Post by jpao79 » Fri, Aug 18, 2017, 9:02 PM UTC

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #128

jpao79 wrote: post #42

He (and Sam Altman for all YC companies) should have the startup(s) all de-locate to the same town that's within driving distance of the Silicon Valley. I bet you could convince a lot of tech people to move to Santa Cruz or Monterey. You could also recruit from UC Santa Cruz and Cal Poly. Both downtown Santa Cruz and downtown Monterey feel pretty small town urban-y. Plus the Silicon Valley VC's can play golf at Pebbl…

Reno seems like a good option, not counting quality-of-life (I've never been there, so couldn't say). Housing is actually reasonably priced, it's in Nevada with no state income tax, and it's a 4 hour drive or a pretty cheap bus ride to get back to SF. I know a few folks who work remotely with SF companies that live in Reno. They'll make the trek occasionally to come into the office, too.

Reno is pretty sweet, pretty decent outdoor activities. Up and coming downtown too. Plus your friends who stay in the Bay Area can visit you on the weekend during the ski season.

I remember when I was in semiconductor sales engineer I visited International Gaming Technology out there (video game slot machines). It was surprisingly not very desert like at all in the spring. The fields were covered in green grass.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#147

Post by tonyedgecombe » Fri, Aug 18, 2017, 9:03 PM UTC

ringaroundthetx wrote: post #72

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From someone outside the US, I'm amazed that states vary their income tax so much, I would have thought it's a magnet for fraud and corruption.

Can you elaborate on how that specific fraud and corruption would work? Many states and some entire countries simply don't fund themselves by stealing from people's paycheck, but usually passively tax other kinds of transactions. There are lots of opportunities using combinations of the 50 states, territories and non-US jurisdictions.

Tax isn't stealing, that is a rather silly argument.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#148

Post by btilly » Fri, Aug 18, 2017, 9:05 PM UTC

That is a horrible format. I don't want to listen. I want to scroll and read at my speed. The most that I can use is what, 15% of my screen? And partway through reading it, it decided to start playing anyways and jump back to the beginning.

If someone (eg me) wants a transcript, make it easy to get the transcript!

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#149

Post by bradlys » Fri, Aug 18, 2017, 9:06 PM UTC

marzell wrote: post #145

nostrademons wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also in the pros category: - Great weather. 8 months out of the year, it's basically guaranteed that if you walk outside it'll be sunny & 70. - Good outdoor parks. - Openness to ideas. - Every kind of food imaginable. - Relatively bike-friendly (Peninsula; uncertain about SF itself). Additional cons: - Traffic. - Poor public transportation

In my experience, 8 months out of the year it will be very windy and ~60 degrees. Even if the rest of the bay has good weather on a particular day, there's a good chance it's foggy over much of the peninsula.

This isn't my experience. I've lived in the bay area for a while now. It's very warm and sunny most of the year. The peninsula gets too much sun if anything. It's getting over 95F too many days of the year now.

Fog is really only a thing to Pacifica/San Bruno. After that, fog doesn't really occur that much.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#150

Post by astrange » Fri, Aug 18, 2017, 9:08 PM UTC

Spivak wrote: post #132

aaron-lebo wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then you have to work at Facebook.

Say what you want about the business side, but everyone I've talked to from Facebook on the engineering side loves it.

Everyone I talk to there is practically contemplating suicide (their words) before their RSUs vest. Trying to add some process just doesn't go over well, apparently!