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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

#81

Post by wehadfun »

aardvark291 wrote: post #61
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."

Seriously. I have a cushy tech-job yet still drive the hatchback I bought fifteen years ago for $2000. Choices...

I still drive a no frils Chevy I bought 10 years ago what happened to me was a wife + kid. Sure I could have bought wife a 19K car but with everone driving around trucks and SUVs it doesn't matter how great your air bags are the laws of physics are not in your favor. 40K is easy for a decent sized car/truck/suv

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

#82

Post by brockers »

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…

Nobody "deserves" or should "expect" a lifestyle. Life is simply a series of choices. If you choose to have a $40,000 car on 100K income, then you choose to take money from your stocks because you choose a lifestyle over substance.

I make more than 100k, and I have never bought a car for more than $14,000... why? Because I choose my family over my lifestyle.

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

#84

Post by Grishnakh »

bbctol wrote: post #45
Grishnakh wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that, it's the part about having to live with roommates in a tiny apartment. I did that in college. Why would I want to go back to that lifestyle? Why should I? If that's all you can afford by working at a super-high-end job these days, then what is the point? (Again, remember that $100k is well above the average family income in the US right now; a single guy making that much should be able to live very, ve…

Part of the reason he's making that much is because he's in the Bay Area; Facebook would pay their employees less if they were based elsewhere. He can't say he deserves a certain lifestyle based on salary, and is being punished unfairly by location, because those are not at all separate factors.

I don't buy it. He deserves that lifestyle because the job he does requires an advanced education, and we're constantly told these jobs are critically important to society and that there's a massive shortage of these workers. Hence, they deserve pay high enough to afford an upper-middle-class lifestyle, which definitely does not mean living in a small apartment with roommates or anything like that.

If you're saying that he does not deserve an upper-middle-class lifestyle with a higher-than-median-price car, then we've been sold a bill of goods.

If I wanted to live in a tiny apartment with roommates and never get married and have a family (because what woman is going to do that with you when you can't afford your own place?), then why would I bother going to college for a difficult degree, racking up student loan debt, and working hard in a difficult profession to build up a professional resume and quality work experience? I could just go work at a grocery store, and/or get on welfare, right?

What exactly is the point of striving to accomplish something if you're not going to be rewarded for it at all?

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

#85

Post by roberto »

Grishnakh wrote: post #84
bbctol wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the reason he's making that much is because he's in the Bay Area; Facebook would pay their employees less if they were based elsewhere. He can't say he deserves a certain lifestyle based on salary, and is being punished unfairly by location, because those are not at all separate factors.

I don't buy it. He deserves that lifestyle because the job he does requires an advanced education, and we're constantly told these jobs are critically important to society and that there's a massive shortage of these workers. Hence, they deserve pay high enough to afford an upper-middle-class lifestyle, which definitely does not mean living in a small apartment with roommates or anything like that. If you're saying t…

> because what woman is going to do that with you when you can't afford your own place?

The good ones.

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

#86

Post by monochr »

brockers wrote: post #82
cyberpanther wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Nobody "deserves" or should "expect" a lifestyle. Life is simply a series of choices. If you choose to have a $40,000 car on 100K income, then you choose to take money from your stocks because you choose a lifestyle over substance. I make more than 100k, and I have never bought a car for more than $14,000... why? Because I choose my family over my lifestyle.

And no one deserves customers. What silicon valley is doing is destroying the consumers that would be buying its products.

The guy doesn't work at Tesla, but if the average employee in Tesla can't afford their standard model and have enough money left over to live they are not a viable company, as Henry Ford figured out more than a century ago.

It's capitalism 101, you cut labour costs only to find that you've cut demand as well.

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

#87

Post by nunez »

zeveb wrote: post #28

> I’d been granted a few thousand shares when I got hired, and after the company had its IPO in 2012, I sold all the shares that had vested. … We could finally rent a house for just our family, no roommate. In order to afford that, selling stock became necessary every quarter it vested. Obviously, this is not the path to financial security, but when the sum of money that lands in front of you isn’t life changing, you…

It's very easy to say all of this from an armchair. Not doing those things is harder when your friends are doing them. Some people are better at averting that social pressure than others.

That being said, I'm making $115k in Dallas and have zero intention of having kids on this salary. One kid is expensive; I can't imagine having two or more. The sacrifice would be too much for me to handle. Even when I made $160k in New York I wouldn't have considered it.

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

#88

Post by nunez »

dgacmu wrote: post #6
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #4

What the title should read is "couldn't afford a lifestyle I felt was befitting someone making six figures in the bay area"

"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."

I hate this argument.

Perhaps you wouldn't consider spending $40k on a car. But I'm sure that there are items that you would splurge on, even if you didn't.

Some people really enjoy cars. I mean, yeah, you're not going to get sympathies from people about the Bay Area being "so hard" to live in (let's be real: it is really fucking expensive to live out there), but at the end of the day, it's your cash.

Then again, I'm biased; I would never drive a cheap beater car. Too uncomfortable, too unreliable, too much sadness. I like cars.

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

#89

Post by nunez »

Tech is a well-paying job in areas where you need to be well-paid to live somewhat comfortably. It isn't nearly as lucrative in other areas unless you're a remote worker and you negotiate well and/or you work in the right industry (finance, healthcare, law).

At least that's what I'm beginning to notice anyway.

The fiscally responsible thing to do would be to move to New York City, take a $100k+ job, live about 45-60 minutes away in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island or the Bronx, create an emergency fund, get promoted a few times and spend a good while finding a high-paying job in the area you actually want to live in that has a significantly lower COL.

The thing about SF is that it isn't just the rent that kills you. You also get taxed like crazy for everything and, from what I've heard from coworkers over the years, you'll need to have a car to be realistically mobile outside of the Bay (unless you never leave the Bay, of course). Insurance premiums cost more there and CA gas is the most expensive in the nation.

As much as we like to complain about it, public transit in NYC is amazing. You legitimately don't need a car to live there. It's darn convenient in the outerboroughs, but it isn't a necessity and, in many cases, it's a pain in the ass. Speed limits are low city-wide. Expressways top out at 50 and are usually set at 40 because of population density and shitty road conditions. People are super aggressive. NYC is not fun to drive in. Manhattan is much much worse.

Nearly the entire city is reachable by train and/or bus. You can save a lot of money this way.

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

#90

Post by dgacmu »

nunez wrote: post #88
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."

I hate this argument. Perhaps you wouldn't consider spending $40k on a car. But I'm sure that there are items that you would splurge on, even if you didn't. Some people really enjoy cars. I mean, yeah, you're not going to get sympathies from people about the Bay Area being "so hard" to live in (let's be real: it is really fucking expensive to live out there), but at the end of the day, it's your cash. Then again, I'm…

No, I'm just saying that when you've inflated your idea of reasonably comfortable living to require a $40k car, that you should at least be somewhat self-aware that you're making a very deliberate tradeoff and spending far more than is required to achieve "nice." A newish Camry is "nice." It's reliable, it's comfortable. In fact, it's one of the most long-term reliable cars on the road. It's not exciting. It's not spectacular. It's obviously not what the person in the article wants. It's ~$23k new. Prius V. The list continues.

There's a large gap between a $40k car and a "cheap beater." It's full of ... nice cars. There've been plenty of other examples in this thread.

The author of the article didn't want a nice car. He wanted to indulge an expensive passion for high-end cars. I'm not going to criticize the passion - I'm in the middle of a hideously indulgent kitchen remodel (which is costing quite a bit more than that car, alas). Where I disagree is with the implied lack of awareness that these expensive hobbies are one of the underlying factors that rendered his lifestyle incompatible with his salary.

"I love expensive, fast cars, and found that by getting a good job in a low-cost-of-living area, I could feed my family and still indulge my passion" -- good on you! Three thumbs up for making that move. I just moved back to Pittsburgh from Palo Alto. You'll get no disagreement about the cost of living in the bay area in general. Housing is offensively expensive there.

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