Ideally, go look at housing (which is usually the biggest CoL expense) in both locations before accepting the job, have some idea where you'd want to live, and

Ideally, go look at housing (which is usually the biggest CoL expense) in both locations before accepting the job, have some idea where you'd want to live, and do up a budget. Straight "multiply by cost-of-living" adjustments are better than nothing, but often obscure a lot of subtleties. A TV or a cruise costs the same in Silicon Valley as it does in Detroit; a 1 BR apartment or house costs dramatically more; things like food, utilities, and gas are marginally more but not by the same proportion that cost-of-living would suggest. Also don't forget taxes (which can be quite high in high-CoL states), and remember that a dollar saved is the same regardless of where you save it. If you make $50K in Iowa but live on $40K, while you make $200K in San Francisco but live on $160K, you are saving 20% in both cases but the absolute dollar value of your savings in San Francisco could pay for a full year in Iowa. If you're hoping to retire early, you can do that in ~10 years in Silicon Valley but it'd take ~40 elsewhere. (Though remember that lifestyle tends to adjust to income.) Also, don't set your salary requirements based on what it'd take to live off of. Set your salary requirements based on what your peers are making, which you can easily find out through GlassDoor, levels.fyi, etc. these days. It's very easy to low-ball yourself with cost+ accounting, while if you have a good picture of market rates you charge what it'd take to replace you and can bank the excess.