To give a different spin on your question: you are really asking if should you relocate to a high cost of living environment and geo-arbitrage. SF, NYC, Seattl

To give a different spin on your question: you are really asking if should you relocate to a high cost of living environment and geo-arbitrage. SF, NYC, Seattle, Boston. All of them pay high salaries for highly educated labor. They have to. To retain senior talent, you need to be able to give them enough money to afford transportation, lodging, entertainment, etc. Cost of basic necessities is capitalistic and rises when the average salary does. Like all other environments, most people like to save 10-20% per year for retirement and longer term investment. That 10-20% annual savings in a place with a $400K/yr average salary can go a lot farther in a European city where engineers with €65K/yr average salaries do the same strategy. Of course, when you come back 10+ years later, you'll have missed out on a lot of memories with friends. If friends are less important or you don't feel attached to your environment, then maybe the tradeoff is worth it. The FIRE movement arises from an extreme version of this, where people would rather live in a lifestyle city with little industry upon retirement. Source: I moved from Alabama to Silicon Valley + NYC for a FANG. I loved it. I wasn't attached to Alabama, although I underestimated how much I missed seeing my college friends progress through life. That said, now I'm attached to avoiding winter and don't benefit as much from the geo-arbitrage. I work in system infrastructure, which has significantly better work:life balance options than product or ops.