4 ms·
It all depends on your own situation. I, myself, moved from the Midwest to a very high COL East Coast city 7 or 8 years ago. My salary has pretty much doubled,
by hiram112 10y ago
It all depends on your own situation.
I, myself, moved from the Midwest to a very high COL East Coast city 7 or 8 years ago. My salary has pretty much doubled, though I imagine at this point it is about $40K more than I could get back home.
But I live very frugally, and I have saved a lot of money. The plan is to soon get out of here and buy a nice place somewhere cheaper (South or Midwest) with cash and not worry about making the same salary.
OTOH, I think many people end up losing out financially in places like NYC and SF. If your salary is only $40K more than it would be in Omaha, after taxes, you're probably looking at only $30K. If you rent a typical corporate apartment, you're probably now underwater.
I think we're going to start seeing more and more people refusing to move to SF, NYC, and DC if salaries don't allow similar lifestyles as $20K less in middle America.
- logfromblammo 10y agoI have already blacklisted SF, SV, and NYC for cost of living reasons, DC for typical job quality, and Chicago and Detroit for corrupt and bankrupt local government. The spouse has blacklisted St. Louis for arguably insane reasons, but it's out of bounds nonetheless. That leaves plenty of places to live, but not very many that are well known for having a lot of good software jobs. I don't really want to live in a broom closet with 3 other people that already get on my nerves in the space we're in now. It doesn't matter if you are willing to pay me more if I can't maintain the same standard of living on that.
- mariojv 10y agoBoston could be OK. Cost of living isn't spectacular, but it's much cheaper than the Bay Area, especially if you don't live in the city proper.