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Ask HN: How much do you save in the SF Bay Area with $120k salary?

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Re: Ask HN: How much do you save in the SF Bay Area with $120k salary?

#61

Post by seattle_spring »

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #57
zzalpha wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OOC, what's your daily commute in total hours spent on the road, and what does it cost you monthly?

I drive 22mi across hwy 92 to work. 44mi x $.535/mi[1] + $5 bridge toll = $28.54 per day to commute to work. That's $~628/mo all-in to commute via car. My additional housing costs in the peninsula would easily be more than that for equivalent housing (2br SFH). Commute is typically 40m-1:10 to work and 28m-1:10 back, depending on when I leave (and time of year). I normally head to the gym after work which means I ski…

Thank you for using IRS mileage rates. It's so intellectually dishonest when someone has a 60 mile commute and says, "Oh it only costs me $3 because my car gets really good mileage!"

Re: Ask HN: How much do you save in the SF Bay Area with $120k salary?

#62

Post by goodoldboys »

jcims wrote: post #4

I'm going crazy trying to sort through this. Got a job offer with one of the big bay area companies. $140K base + bonus/stock to get to $210K. Doesn't seem like enough to move my family there from the midwest, so I'm about to say no because I can't make it work (while saving for retirement/paying for college/etc) on $200K per year? WTF?

You're not alone in that conclusion - I think you either need to have purchased a home during the last real estate correction or be DINKs (or both) for it to really make sense financially.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you save in the SF Bay Area with $120k salary?

#63

Post by ac29 »

seattle_spring wrote: post #61
ProfessorLayton wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drive 22mi across hwy 92 to work. 44mi x $.535/mi[1] + $5 bridge toll = $28.54 per day to commute to work. That's $~628/mo all-in to commute via car. My additional housing costs in the peninsula would easily be more than that for equivalent housing (2br SFH). Commute is typically 40m-1:10 to work and 28m-1:10 back, depending on when I leave (and time of year). I normally head to the gym after work which means I ski…

Thank you for using IRS mileage rates. It's so intellectually dishonest when someone has a 60 mile commute and says, "Oh it only costs me $3 because my car gets really good mileage!"

Those mileage rates are very, very generous though. As a car owner who tracks the expenses pretty closely, I can tell you, driving 10,000 miles a year does not cost anything like $5350, inclusive of car payments (or depreciation if you've paid it off), gas, maintenance, tolls, parking, registration, inevitable tickets, etc. It might be about right if you drive an $80k car that gets 15MPG, though.

Its a reasonable rate to reimburse employees for driving their own vehicles for work by (I'd estimate its about 95%ile of expenses), but a poor rate to estimate general car ownership costs by.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you save in the SF Bay Area with $120k salary?

#64

Post by zzalpha »

ac29 wrote: post #63
seattle_spring wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for using IRS mileage rates. It's so intellectually dishonest when someone has a 60 mile commute and says, "Oh it only costs me $3 because my car gets really good mileage!"

Those mileage rates are very, very generous though. As a car owner who tracks the expenses pretty closely, I can tell you, driving 10,000 miles a year does not cost anything like $5350, inclusive of car payments (or depreciation if you've paid it off), gas, maintenance, tolls, parking, registration, inevitable tickets, etc. It might be about right if you drive an $80k car that gets 15MPG, though. Its a reasonable rat…

Tell us more!

What's the breakdown for your actual all-in commute costs on a per-mile basis, and how have you arrived at those numbers?

Re: Ask HN: How much do you save in the SF Bay Area with $120k salary?

#65

Post by theswaagar »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #54
godot wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not live in the suburbs of bay area (East Bay, for example), and quickly cut 30% of your housing costs? Obviously the commute sucks (I endure it daily), but it makes the numbers work. It boggles my mind that most software workers think that they have to live in SF. Bonus: There's Walmart and strip malls in the East Bay. :) Agreed with your other points though. Not having staate income tax is a huge bonus.

> It boggles my mind that most software workers think that they have to live in SF Because they don't want to spend 6 hours a day commuting?

6 hours is kind of an exaggeration, it's more like 2 hours total which could be well worth it

Re: Ask HN: How much do you save in the SF Bay Area with $120k salary?

#66

Post by icedchai »

mnm1 wrote: post #36
trjordan wrote: post #25

Unfortunately, you're not going to get an exact answer here, because everybody's lifestyle is slightly different. However, you can guess what's going to be the big changes in your budget. I think there will be 4: 1) Your take-home pay will change. Use a calculator for you exact number, but according to [1], a single person will take home about $6,400 / month. 2) Unless you live in Manhattan, your rent will dramatical…

$5M in 10 years at $120k? Even at $200k it's $2M before tax without living expenses. I don't see how you get to $5M unless you're working at Google etc. and even then it's extremely unlikely. You'd have to save half a million a year. Where is this dream job?

Maybe he's counting on winning the stock options lottery. Pretty unlikely, based on my experience.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you save in the SF Bay Area with $120k salary?

#67

Post by tedsanders »

zzalpha wrote: post #39
tedsanders wrote: post #26

I spend $1150 on rent. $100 on utilities. $300 on food. $150 on transportation. Plus a few hundred for annual expenses of flying home and buying new clothes. Adds up to a little over 20k per year. Plenty of families in the Bay Area earn less than $120k and get by. I feel very fortunate to earn more.

What's your living situation that makes $1150 per month possible? Room mates?

Three people in a three-bedroom apartment in Millbrae.

Craigslist shows many rooms in the Bay Area less than $1,500, though almost no studios.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you save in the SF Bay Area with $120k salary?

#68

Post by daxfohl »

daxfohl wrote: post #35
jcims wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a dinosaur. 20 yrs in my industry.

I'd say no. Not the valley. I just moved my family to Seattle, same situation. I'd been a freelancer in Kalamazoo and the work had mostly dried up, so I got this huge offer and it seemed too good to pass up. I'm having huge doubts as to whether it was the right decision. SV is twice as expensive, I'd not consider it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15082982 Also have you lived in SV before? I did years ago and d…

Also I think if you're in SWE and have 20 years experience in anything beyond VB6 or COBOL you're being vastly lowballed. Most relos from MW to west coast are. Feel free to DM me, same name at gmail or twitter.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you save in the SF Bay Area with $120k salary?

#69

Post by tluyben2 »

bdcravens wrote: post #48
JamesBarney wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Houston sr. devs(3+ years of experience if your driven, 7 if your not) are easily making 100k+. And most devs who are on hacker news could easily make 140k+.

I'll second the comment about $100k in Houston, though in general most of the jobs are in health care or energy, and you'll find yourself doing something like .NET or ColdFusion. I do think you overestimate the average skill level on HN though :-)

What is wrong with .NET? For some reason it is not sexy here but c# and certainly f# are great languages and large parts of the stack is open source. Not quite sure why it is seen as something negative especially when something like JS is seen as positive.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you save in the SF Bay Area with $120k salary?

#70

Post by bdcravens »

tluyben2 wrote: post #69
bdcravens wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll second the comment about $100k in Houston, though in general most of the jobs are in health care or energy, and you'll find yourself doing something like .NET or ColdFusion. I do think you overestimate the average skill level on HN though :-)

What is wrong with .NET? For some reason it is not sexy here but c# and certainly f# are great languages and large parts of the stack is open source. Not quite sure why it is seen as something negative especially when something like JS is seen as positive.

> What is wrong with .NET?

Nothing at all. I've done quite a bit of it (ColdFusion too!). Nothing wrong with health care or energy industries either. I do think there's a lot of the HN crowd that only have eyes for the hip languages or fun startups though, whether it makes sense or not.

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