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I made 6 figures at my Facebook dream job – but couldn't afford the Bay Area

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Re: I made 6 figures at my Facebook dream job – but couldn't afford the Bay Area

#71

Post by zeveb »

grecy wrote: post #58
swsieber wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People want the nice things their parents had, but not on the same timeline. They don't realize that nice things take a while to accumulate. Yes my parents drive a Prius. But growing up in a family with 5 other siblings, they pretty much drove beaters. And our house started with, as we so fondly called them, the seven ugly carpets of the world. And those were slowly replaced over time. The house we lived in until I w…

> People want the nice things their parents had, but not on the same timeline I don't think that's telling the whole tale. Soon after my parents got married in '74 they bought their first home, brand new. It cost 5 years of my Dad's salary at the time (a new teacher). So with the two of them working, they paid it off in just over 3 years. Go find me a house for sale now that's less than 10 or 15 years of an individua…

> Go find me a house for sale now that's less than 10 or 15 years of an individuals salary.

My condo is worth 1-1½ times my salary.

'The Census ACS 1-year survey reports that the median household income for the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Texas metro area was $59,530 in 2014, the latest figures available.'[1]

'The median home value in Dallas is $147,400.'[2]

$147,400 is 2.47 years. Double that, if you think the median household has two incomes.

U.S. median household income is $56,500. There are plenty of houses to be had for less than $565,000­–$847,500.

[1] http://www.deptofnumbers.com/income/texas/dallas/

[2] http://www.zillow.com/dallas-tx/home-values/

[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/14/business/economy/us-census...

Re: I made 6 figures at my Facebook dream job – but couldn't afford the Bay Area

#72

Post by TheCoelacanth »

cyberpanther wrote: post #16
dgacmu wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"a niceish $40,000 car," ish. High on the list of signs that you've bought far too much into lifestyle inflation is thinking that a car costing 70% of the US median household income is only "nice-ish."

Lets take the product of Silicon Valley, the Tesla. Even take the cheap one at $35,000. I don't think that is much to expect in a lifestyle also considering you make more than most people. Henry Ford back in the day raised wages and cut hours because he noticed not even his employees had money or time to enjoy his product. I think Silicon Valley is at this same point. Work your butt off to not enjoy life. If your sin…

Tesla is a luxury brand. You can get a new car for half of that. A used one for even less. And a six figure income is barely higher the median for the area.

Re: I made 6 figures at my Facebook dream job – but couldn't afford the Bay Area

#73

Post by atombath »

skybrian wrote: post #69
atombath wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does no one here buy cars? I forgive you. A $40k car will likely come with a 5yr loan that's cheaper than student loans. That'd actually be $8k/yr+interest... which is not 40% of your salary. Find something else to judge the guy for.

You could also by a nice used car for 10-15k or so, pay cash, and have no payments for many years. People who can afford better will willingly do this to save cash for other things. If you refuse to play the game well it's probably because you have weird ideas about what you "deserve".

Definitely. Also, getting a new car that prioritizes reliability is a smart move as well. The author didn't do this though. A nice(imo) new car can be had for less than ~$25k and his $40k tells me he wanted something a little more flashy. I agree these overextended purchases usually come down to someone's ego getting in the way. A direct consequence of our "what you buy defines you" culture.

Re: I made 6 figures at my Facebook dream job – but couldn't afford the Bay Area

#74

Post by api_or_ipa »

alain94040 wrote: post #52

On craigslist, I find 2-bedroom houses in Santa Clara for $2300 [1]. That would give you a very decent commute to Facebook (much better than living in the East Bay). That's $28K/year. His net salary should be around $65K. You should be able to go out more than once a month with the money. [1] http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/5780924443.html

I wonder why the author wholesale ruled out apartments when homes like the one you linked to are all together very similar in living space.

On a side note the Bay areas' affordability problem could be greatly reduced if more dense housing stock was pursued. Sadly, I fear too many of us demand living in houses as an unassailable demand.

Re: I made 6 figures at my Facebook dream job – but couldn't afford the Bay Area

#75

Post by hapless »

atombath wrote: post #63
hapless wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spending 40% of your annual income on a car while supporting an entire family on that income is grossly irresponsible, regardless of the geography.

I guess I'll respond everywhere you tried to make this point. A $40k car will likely come with a 5yr loan that's cheaper than student loans. That'd actually be $8k/yr+interest... which is not 40% of your salary. Find something else to judge the guy for.

Even if it's 0% interest across 5 years, it's still forty thousand dollars. Whether you pay it all at once, or in dribs and drabs each month, you are paying more than you can reasonably afford.

(To say nothing of the prudence in financing a depreciating asset)

Re: I made 6 figures at my Facebook dream job – but couldn't afford the Bay Area

#76

Post by Grishnakh »

VLM wrote: post #30
pmiller2 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not exaggerate. $100K/year in the Bay Area (as a single person) isn't living it up, but it's not "a near-poverty lifestyle." It's a "living in the East Bay with roommates, commuting at least an hour, (very) occasionally going out," lifestyle but it's eating good food with a roof over your head. If that sounds like poverty, well, you should see real poverty sometime.

""living in the East Bay with roommates, commuting at least an hour, (very) occasionally going out," but it's eating good food with a roof over your head." That sounds like me as a part time student / part time grocery store minimum wage shelf stocker around 1990 in the greater Chicago land area (well, within a very distant orbit of Chicago). I suppose most people would have considered me very poor at that time. I wa…

Thank you, this is my point exactly. Why should anyone work hard to get an advanced education and build a good professional resume, then go to work at a job that pays far above the average family income for the US, just so he can live like a part-time grocery store worker?

Re: I made 6 figures at my Facebook dream job – but couldn't afford the Bay Area

#77

Post by tzs »

grecy wrote: post #58
swsieber wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People want the nice things their parents had, but not on the same timeline. They don't realize that nice things take a while to accumulate. Yes my parents drive a Prius. But growing up in a family with 5 other siblings, they pretty much drove beaters. And our house started with, as we so fondly called them, the seven ugly carpets of the world. And those were slowly replaced over time. The house we lived in until I w…

> People want the nice things their parents had, but not on the same timeline I don't think that's telling the whole tale. Soon after my parents got married in '74 they bought their first home, brand new. It cost 5 years of my Dad's salary at the time (a new teacher). So with the two of them working, they paid it off in just over 3 years. Go find me a house for sale now that's less than 10 or 15 years of an individua…

> Go find me a house for sale now that's less than 10 or 15 years of an individuals salary.

There seem to be a few houses in San Francisco for sale now that are under $600k: https://www.redfin.com/city/17151/CA/San-Francisco/filter/so...

Raising the limit to $1 million, which is less than 10 to 15 years of many tech people's salary, greatly increases the number available.

Note I've set the filter to only include houses. It excludes condos, townhouses, and multi-family dwellings.

Re: I made 6 figures at my Facebook dream job – but couldn't afford the Bay Area

#78

Post by skybrian »

pmiller2 wrote: post #70
skybrian wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could probably do better than that. East bay rents aren't that high (yet) and I'm guessing Facebook has shuttle buses.

I doubt you can do much better. You'll have to compromise on either the commute or the rent. Live near BART and you'll pay up for the convenience. Oakland is the 4th most expensive city to rent in the US; further out and you start looking at even longer commutes. You literally can't get less than an hour commute by public transportation into SF from the East Bay. Trust me, I've tried. Live by yourself, and you won't…

I believe you but your constraint is getting to SF. For someone working at Facebook (like in the article), they are on one end of the Dumbarton bridge. The East Bay is not that far away.

Re: I made 6 figures at my Facebook dream job – but couldn't afford the Bay Area

#79

Post by hsod »

grecy wrote: post #58
swsieber wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People want the nice things their parents had, but not on the same timeline. They don't realize that nice things take a while to accumulate. Yes my parents drive a Prius. But growing up in a family with 5 other siblings, they pretty much drove beaters. And our house started with, as we so fondly called them, the seven ugly carpets of the world. And those were slowly replaced over time. The house we lived in until I w…

> People want the nice things their parents had, but not on the same timeline I don't think that's telling the whole tale. Soon after my parents got married in '74 they bought their first home, brand new. It cost 5 years of my Dad's salary at the time (a new teacher). So with the two of them working, they paid it off in just over 3 years. Go find me a house for sale now that's less than 10 or 15 years of an individua…

Median American household income 2015: $56,500 [0]

Median American home sale price July 2016: $244,100 [1]

[0]: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-poverty-idUSKC... [1]: https://ycharts.com/indicators/sales_price_of_existing_homes

Re: I made 6 figures at my Facebook dream job – but couldn't afford the Bay Area

#80

Post by brockers »

hapless wrote: post #49
timtadh wrote: post #21

I think the point is: his salary while not high by SF was high in nearly any other location in the US. In any other location, he and his family could live how they wanted. In any other location, have a $40,000 car instead of a $10,000 or less car is a perfectly reasonable. In any other location, eating out more than once a month would be perfectly reasonable. Having a expensive hobby racing cars is reasonable, just n…

Spending 40% of your annual income on a car while supporting an entire family on that income is grossly irresponsible, regardless of the geography.

no kidding... $40,000 is a nice'ish car?
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