Especially if your skills are both kind of a niche yet in demand and you’re good at what you do, your salary can jump surprisingly quickly here — enough that ev

Especially if your skills are both kind of a niche yet in demand and you’re good at what you do, your salary can jump surprisingly quickly here — enough that even while living well you’ll still come out on top compared to working in a midwestern city. That’s not to mention job security. With some exceptions, in many low CoL areas you’re looking at a sizable gap between jobs simply because the market isn’t as big, and worse, you might end up having to settle for a less than great option or find yourself locked in somewhere for far longer than you’d prefer. Out here, if you’re decent at all this is not an issue... many of us here can easily walk from one job straight into the next, should that be necessary. I might move somewhere more cheap and quiet eventually, but it’ll be once I’ve saved up enough that I’m not beholden to any particular company and I’ve found something that it wouldn’t bother me to be doing for many years. For now, the demand and pace of the SF Bay Area is just too much to give up.