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If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?

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Re: If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?

#81
post #44

Work remotely, live in Budapest like a King.

Kings don't have to work.

Good or at least decent kings have to work quite a lot. Or at least had to when being a king meant something. You still have to rule the kingdom, and watch you back so your lords and your relatives do not depose you. Of course, you can give up and just relax, but this can end up bad for you and the state...

Re: If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?

#82
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're happy, stop fantasizing about leaving :) You already have a family. For younger people without responsibilities, I do suggest they think about the Bay Area. If you have the right set of skills, you can skyrocket your career rapidly. If you don't like it, move back home and hopefully you gained some valuable life experience. I've seen staff engineers at age 25 at Facebook and Google... Very rare, but having…

Perhaps you can skyrocket your career rapidly, at least in terms of tax bracket, but is that what you want your life to be about? My coworkers and I are doing all sorts of things that seem unlikely in the Bay Area. I have 11 kids. I once lived in San Jose, where that would not come cheap. The person in the office next to me has sheep on 11 acres, and he can shoot an AR-15 in his yard. He grew up in San Francisco, whe…

> I have 11 kids.

I think its a pretty safe assumption that your paradigm of life differs significantly from most people on this forum. More concretely, having that many kids automatically make it a different calculus to decide an optimal place to live.

Re: If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?

#83
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a really interesting point. I often fantasize about leaving "my" city of Frankfurt/Germany, but I always wonder if anywhere else is actually better for ME, wherever on the bell curve I might be. Before I was 30 I became CTO of a great company here, i really wonder if I had made such a career anywhere else if I'd moved to somewhere with a more vibrant tech-scene where my specific skill combination isn't as rela…

If you're happy, stop fantasizing about leaving :) You already have a family. For younger people without responsibilities, I do suggest they think about the Bay Area. If you have the right set of skills, you can skyrocket your career rapidly. If you don't like it, move back home and hopefully you gained some valuable life experience. I've seen staff engineers at age 25 at Facebook and Google... Very rare, but having…

Recently moved to the Bay from Austin. Got a lot of flak for going in the opposite direction, but I've been super happy with my decision. People talk of the quality of living difference, but if you don't have a family, that is complete bullshit. My compensation immediately doubled and even after paying higher taxes, paying higher rent and so on, I'm still saving substantially more, all the while when working with smarter people and learning a lot everyday. And if anything were to happen to my current job, there are SO MANY Opportunities that it wouldn't be hard to quickly find another job.

Other benefits: your high comp lets you live close to work. Walking to work has been an amazing quality of life improvement in itself. Not worrying about traffic/train schedules relieves your brain of that added calculus (but it might just be that I worry too much). Perks are also better at SF based companies (catered lunch, better health plans, fresh coffee in the office etc.). SF food is comparable to Austin (although a lot more Michelin Starred restaurants, I'm not fancy enough to go to them regularly). And lastly the much touted Amazing weather. Its 100 in Austin right now but a cool 60 in SF.

Re: If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?

#84

Anyone with industry knowledge can look at those median salary numbers and instantly tell that the data set is faulty.

Do cost of living calculators take into account the more static pricing of non-necessities? For example, maybe an apartment in the Bay Area costs, say, 300% what it costs in a major mid-western city. Groceries are 150% more expensive and other necessities are equally as expensive. (All numbers made up for the sake of example) After you pay for the things you need though, you move on to things you want. Investments in…

I disagree with the other comment; the COL calculators must NOT be taken as face value. Just like you pointed out the rent and state taxes are perhaps the biggest increase in expense. Groceries are more expensive but NOT by 150%; especially if you shopped at higher end Grocery stores (like Whole Foods v/s Walmart). Other major things, like furniture, appliances, electronics are more or less the same (except there is a CA recycling fee for electronics, but it isn't that much).

The financial upside is so much that its just ridiculous. The comp ceiling does not exist in SFBA or is substantially higher than anywhere else in the US. From a purely financial success, you should absolutely seriously consider moving to SFBA.

Re: If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?

#85

San Antonio is interesting. Have only visited. Enjoyed touristy bars on the Riverwalk. But its less than an hour from Austin. And I'm guessing even more affordable.

I would not recommend San Antonio, except if you've decided to work remotely (and can find remote gigs). Yes its definitely more affordable but you're very limited in the job opportunities to those in defense/IT kind of work. Rackspace was the big exception, but its not doing all that well recently. If you had to move to a new city, definitely go for Austin, even with the overpriced real estate. The opportunity-gap more than enough makes up for the difference, and Austin is booming.

Re: If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?

#86
post #66

Hmm, I'm not sure I want to move to Baltimore or Detroit even if they have tons of "help wanted" ads published. Especially after reading something like this: https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2015/08/07/baltimore-surges-pa... Of course, it's from 2015, but has much changed in 3 years?

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