I've personally lived in both cities and you can live perfectly well on $4k a month with a couple of roommates. Better than the average American even. Then, if

I've personally lived in both cities and you can live perfectly well on $4k a month with a couple of roommates. Better than the average American even. Then, if you invest $46k a year for 15 years at a real return of 4% you end up with ~$943k in present day dollars which is right around what the parent was saying. Not to mention $140k total compensation is relatively low for a senior dev in SF/NYC, you will likely be making a lot more 10 years in.