11–20 of 74 posts
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take home at 130 was almost exactly 3k/check housing ate 48% of my monthly income
This is why I'm going to Southern California in the future rather than the Bay Area. Still, housing in California..
But quality of life with that much commuting (?) :-/
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you're not crazy. i have tried to come up with a scenario that would let SF match the material wealth I have in seattle for less than 300k/year (2x increase), but to no avail. It's just not a sensible place to have a family.
Exactly. If I saw a path to $300K in the next 2-3 years I'd probably just gut it out, but nobody is going to make a commitment like that to me, sooo.
At $115K, I take home about $5.5K/month, of which I save about $2.5K.
Rent $1600 in SF (lucky here). But I still have over $2k month after all expenses. As a single person, I consider myself fortunate.
People will complain about living expenses but they need to calculate the income - expenses plus what the area you want to live in. City living isn't always a viable option for people. Whereas some people love it.
I don't think I can find any urban city that I can live in and find myself in a situation where I can bank more than $2k a month after expenses and maxed out 401k.
SoCal was an option for me. However I hate the suburbs, hate having a car and the salaries for new grads were 50-80k where most rents were still at least $1300.
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?
The biggest expenses to consider in SF besides the obvious housing costs:
- Food + drink + groceries are way, way, way more expensive. There is no Walmart in the city. Get used to corner stores that charge a hefty premium. I miss Walmart and strip shopping malls.
- Income taxes. Tennessee for example has 0% income state tax, excluding dividends. The 0% state income tax in Tennessee also includes capital gains (stocks, company selling) which is huge.
- Health insurance. San Francisco according to my quick research using Blue Shield retail prices are some of the most expensive in the entire United States. I pay $500 a month for a middle of the road plan (single). That's a car payment for a nice BMW or Mercedes. Absolutely absurd.
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Exactly. If I saw a path to $300K in the next 2-3 years I'd probably just gut it out, but nobody is going to make a commitment like that to me, sooo.
FWIW if you’re working at on of the Big 5 that’s pretty achievable, although primarily in RSUs. I started at $125k and was at over $300k total after three years. Obviously at a start up it’s going to be very different.