6 ms·

Ask HN: How much do you save in the SF Bay Area with $120k salary?

• maxwin 9y ago
  would be curious to know take home pay (120k minus tax) as well
  • RickS 9y ago
    take home at 130 was almost exactly 3k/check housing ate 48% of my monthly income
    • justbaker 9y ago
      This is why I'm going to Southern California in the future rather than the Bay Area. Still, housing in California..
      • orange_county 9y ago
        Housing is still expensive in socal with lower salaries. Anything in California is a bad deal in my opinion.
      • dtang 9y ago
        Yeah, orange_county is right: you're not going to find much better down here either. If you're not in Santa Monica paying bay area rent for a rundown shack you're going to make less the further inland you go, and the rents don't get much cheaper.
  • skylark 9y ago
    Salary * 0.6 is a fairly close guesstimate for take home pay in San Francisco if you're making low six figures.
• jcims 9y ago
  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?
  • isuckatcoding 9y ago
    Just curious. How many years of experience do you have?
    • jcims 9y ago
      I'm a dinosaur. 20 yrs in my industry.
      • zerr 9y ago
        Good to hear you don't face ageism. Mind to share specifics - what industry/stack?
        • deleted 9y ago
          [deleted]
      • daxfohl 9y ago
        I'd say no. Not the valley. I just moved my family to Seattle, same situation. I'd been a freelancer in Kalamazoo and the work had mostly dried up, so I got this huge offer and it seemed too good to pass up. I'm having huge doubts as to whether it was the right decision. SV is twice as expensive, I'd not consider it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15082982 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15082982 Also have you lived in SV before? I did years ago and didn't care for it even as a 20-something. At least WA has no state tax, mountains right next door, and eh, I like the culture better. More real, less flashy, and still has some blue-collar too. I think better for families. If your offer is from a big name, then they've certainly got a Seattle office. I'd inquire about that possibility. And salaries are very close, especially considering the state tax. But like I suggested, even Seattle is hard to call a slam dunk. If there was more than one crappy company to work for in Kalamazoo I'd have loved to stay. It's cheap, it's a college town so there's stuff to do, has an amazing arts scene for its size, great outdoor activities, good public schools and park/trail system, and a good mix of political views that still talk to each other. I've lived in IN and OH too, and had less affection for those. So I guess a lot of it depends on your current situation too. But if you've got a decent job with benefits and are living in a place you don't mind, 140K won't get you far in SV. One other quick note: before moving out here I looked at housing prices but didn't realize that the places that were showing up in my budget were all horrible school districts, so if you think you're seeing some nearly-affordable options, cross-reference the school guides.
• sjswe 9y ago
  At $115K, I take home about $5.5K/month, of which I save about $2.5K.
  • jcims 9y ago
    That's commendable. Would you mind breaking down your budget a bit?
  • deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
• matchagaucho 9y ago
  It's really a housing and commute question. Living one hour away from work can reduce cost of living by 25%. But quality of life with that much commuting (?) :-/
• orange_county 9y ago
  Make 110k, take home around 4800 month after taxes and maxed out 401k. 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.
  • zzalpha 9y ago
    So how does that rent compare to the mean in the area, and what are you renting at that price? Because, as an outsider, that seems remarkably low (the averages for SF that I can find suggest 2-3k for a studio or 1-bedroom). Also, how does the rest of your budget break down? Math suggests $1200/mo for all other expenses and I'm curious how that's allocated.
    • orange_county 9y ago
      Yea I have been spending a little too much. It's the moving cost and weddings I have been attending that are killing my budget. Yea rent for studios are between 2k-3k a month. And I'm near downtown with only 20 minute walk to work. I live with my brother but if it wasn't for him, I still prefer to live with other people. Again, depends on the lifestyle that people want. I know people who want their own place, have a car, maybe even a boat. They will have to work in places that aren't NY or SF.
      • zzalpha 9y ago
        So room mate and no transportation costs. That context helps a lot, thanks!
  • solotronics 9y ago
    Dallas, make 110k and take home 6100 and expenses are about 1.8k including car payment and nice 1k sq/ft 1 bedroom apartment in uptown it really depends on where you want to live but man its really nice to live where there are no income taxes
• simplydt 9y ago
  I don't live there but saw this and thought it might help (shows salaries around the world adjusted for cost of life, I found it accurate for London and Berlin). https://www.codementor.io/blog/best-cities-software-engineer-earnings-271vpf599k https://www.codementor.io/blog/best-cities-software-engineer...
  • JamesBarney 9y ago
    I can attest Houston is a great city for saving money. I was able to save $40,000 living in a nice 1400 sq ft house in a beautiful historic neighborhood, 5 minutes from downtown. This is while my wife was going to school and not working, we were going out to eat and/or drinks 4-7 times a week, and taking two week long vacation each year. Used the savings to quit my job try and get a startup or consultancy going.
• trjordan 9y ago
  Unfortunately, you're not going to get an exact answer here, because everybody's lifestyle is slightly different. However, you can guess what's going to be the big changes in your budget. I think there will be 4: 1) Your take-home pay will change. Use a calculator for you exact number, but according to [1], a single person will take home about $6,400 / month. 2) Unless you live in Manhattan, your rent will dramatically increase. Like everywhere, there's a huge range. Want to live in Oakland with a roommate and bike to BART? You could probably find $1,500 / month. Want a new construction 2 bedroom downtown or close to Caltrain on the peninsula? $5,000 / month. Houses can easily run $8,000 / month with mortgage + taxes if you can scrape together the $300k down payment. Look around on Zillow and ballpark it. 3) Eating "nice" food out isn't cheap. There's plenty of good, cheap eats, but if you're thinking date night, it's easy to drop $120 for 2 people then go off and order half a dozen $8 beers. The high end is really bad -- there's a bunch of amazing restaurants that are $75 - $100 for 6-8 courses. If you're moving from a small city, these simply don't exist. This might be a shock if you're used to eating at "the best place in town" for a special occasion. 4) Depending on where you are in life, there's a bunch of family-ish things that can really eat up a budget. Dog walkers are $20 / day. Infant day care is $2,000 / month. Getting around is kind of a pain if you don't exclusively live, work, and play in the city, which can be fixed by giving Uber $25 / ride. And unlike other cities, there isn't anything that's remarkably cheap (e.g. when I lived in VA, groceries were like half the price I expected. It was great.) Ultimately, though, a lot of people make it work. The networking and career attitudes in tech are unmatched (I moved from Boston at age 30), the weather is great, and it turns out that a bunch of my friends who I thought had disappeared had just moved out here and they all hang out. If you're just in it for the money, it's a close call. Your best bet is to work out here between age 22 and when you have kids, then move somewhere affordable with the $5mil you made during that time. But that's not exactly why I moved here -- I've learned more in the last 2 years than I thought possible, and I've fundamentally altered the arc of my career. I may leave at some point, but I'm glad I moved out here. [1] https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-paycheck-calculator https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-paycheck-calculator
  • JamesBarney 9y ago
    Judging from this thread, very few people are going to be saving 5 million dollars by the time they retire much less decide to have kids.
• tedsanders 9y ago
  I spend $1150 on rent. $100 on utilities. $300 on food. $150 on transportation. Plus a few hundred for annual expenses of flying home and buying new clothes. Adds up to a little over 20k per year. Plenty of families in the Bay Area earn less than $120k and get by. I feel very fortunate to earn more.
  • zzalpha 9y ago
    What's your living situation that makes $1150 per month possible? Room mates?
    • tedsanders 9y ago
      Three people in a three-bedroom apartment in Millbrae. Craigslist shows many rooms in the Bay Area less than $1,500, though almost no studios.
• et-al 9y ago
  linkregister had a conservative breakdown of a fresh graduate saving $1k/month: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13010868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13010868 Numbers are from a year ago, but rents haven't increased too much since then, and we had assumed the grad's salary was $100k.
• patapscoBM 9y ago
  Apologies for the throwaway, and numbers are rough $140k: - 1500/mo in 401k - 6200 after-tax, after 401k income - 2800 savings from after-tax income - Total discounted savings/mo, roughly: 2800 + .85 * 1500 = 4075 Is the bay area cost of living expensive? Absolutely. But I'd argue if you're a generally frugal person you'll save more (in absolute terms) here than anyplace else. I doubt I could get much above $100k anywhere else but NYC.
  • zzalpha 9y ago
    So 3400/mo or less in expenses? Mind breaking that down? What's your housing situation? Transportation costs?
  • chank 9y ago
    $100K+ is doable in just about EVERY major metro area outside of New York as a developer depending on experience. e.g. You won't find that for jr-mid level positions but Sr. and up you can easily.
    • rCK94wVCBk 9y ago
      Throwaway, but for perspective in Minneapolis there's quite a few Sr dev positions pay $125k+, if you play your cards right there's even a few $210k jobs for people with 3-5yrs experience.
      • heuermh 9y ago
        ok, Throwaway, I'll bite. My username at usual suspects.
  • JamesBarney 9y ago
    In Houston sr. devs(3+ years of experience if your driven, 7 if your not) are easily making 100k+. And most devs who are on hacker news could easily make 140k+.
    • tylorr 9y ago
• slad 9y ago
  Interesting comments but curious to know from the perspective of racism and related issues. As an Immigrant from India, and Living in California (for over 10 years) at this time seems to be best bet from that perspective. With expanding family, I have been contemplating a lot to move outside of CA for cost saving but thoughts about racial issues plaguing the country just makes me nervous.
  • dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago
    Did you experience it yourself? I haven't heard many reports about racial violence against Indians. As a white person, I occasionally experienced verbal aggression from Black people (didn't talk back, so it ended that way). I think the other way round is more or less a taboo these days.
• nicolashahn 9y ago
  I live in San Francisco and have made 120k for the last year (just recently got a raise to 130k). I don't have a family to support, and live with friends renting a bedroom for 1600/mo in a 4br in Bernal Heights (I prefer to live with people, so not having a 1br apartment downtown helps a lot). My take home is around 77k annually and I got about 1300 back from taxes last year. I eat out/go to bars a couple times a week, but mainly try to cook for myself. I have a few hobbies that eat money and I end up spending a couple hundred at least every month on them. I travel every 3-4 months, have gone to Seattle, NY, Vancouver, LA in the last year. With all this I've still saved somewhere between 30-35k. I also bought a motorcycle with all the crap that comes with that (gear, insurance, parts, etc) in that period, so if I hadn't then I'd probably have another 8k or so. I honestly make more than enough money to live comfortably and when I moved to the city I was only making 80k and my rent was the same. I still felt I had enough to live comfortably but I wasn't able to save nearly as much. 120k will be fine as a single person in SF. If you have a family maybe not.
• Maro 9y ago
  Hey, I was in a similar situation 2 years ago when I had a similar offer from one of Facebook, although in the high-cost European city of London. Pros: - you will learn a lot at these companies - you will work with very smart people, which is a great experience - your expectations (toward yourself, your peers, the product you're working on) will be torn apart and recalibrated at a much higher level, which is a good thing - working on products that are used by 100s millions / billions of people is a positive human experience because you're helping give people services that improve their lives (buying books so they can learn to program, building products so they can keep in touch with their loved ones, helping them find information on the web, etc.) But, keep in mind: - these are big companies, so the peopleware is slow: getting promoted takes time and depends on a myriad of factors outside your control; don't _count_ on it [in the first 2 years] - the signing/relocation bonus won't be around in year#2, so dependending on how much of a refresher you get, you could make less in year#2 - stock prices fluctuate! it could go down 30% (as well as up 70%) in the next 9 months; as a rule of thumb, make sure your base salary covers living expenses - as a rule of thumb, assume your refresher grant will be 1/2 of the initial stock grant, and has the same vesting schedule; use Quora to get more details on your specific company, or ask a friend who works there - be sure to use the correct tax rates (also for stocks) when net'ing the offer numbers (look out for federal and state taxes, income vs cap.gains) - if you're a software engineer, the offer numbers seems a bit low vs your 20 years of experience for SV, esp. the stock part --- either this company pays less than others or they're under-leveling you --- if you care, ask your recruiter what level they put you at --- there's rational reasons for these big tech companies to under-level people with lots of experience, which is that they have their own internal stack and ways of doing things, plus they're very good at spinning people up in their bootcamp programs, so they don't care _that_ much about prior experience - if you take the offer, you will probably soon meet people at the company (or in SV) who are doing roughly the same job as you are, are a _lot_ younger, but have _significantly_ better packages because they had better signaling (went to top uni, had competing offers); depending on who you are, this may end up bothering you Another thing to consider: many of these companies also have offices in the US, but outside of SV, eg. Seattle, Washington, Texas, NYC, where I believe they offer roughly the same packages, but cost of living / commutes are much more reasonable. Good luck!
• twobyfour 9y ago
  I'm shocked by some of these answers. Is SF that ridiculously expensive these days? For reference, I was saving 50% of take-home on a $90k salary three years ago, living without roommates in a nice neighborhood in NYC - which isn't exactly known for being inexpensive. What do you spend that much money on?