$100k/year rents you one hell of a nice apartment, though, right? It must be competitive with whatever you can get in a LCOL area. 150k/500k were numbers I pul

$100k/year rents you one hell of a nice apartment, though, right? It must be competitive with whatever you can get in a LCOL area. 150k/500k were numbers I pulled out of the air for "well compensated engineers" in L/HCOL. I absolutely agree that people who are not well compensated are fucked. But the thing I've never understood is people who could make 500k by moving to the Bay Area arguing that they're better off staying in a LCOL for purely financial reasons. Now, note that I currently do not live in the Bay Area and have consistently refused to move there for employment reasons, because there are other things to value besides money. But I've definitely seen the argument made on a purely financial basis, and I think it is misguided.