I get VHCOL cities, I live in one and bought a home here in 2020. You may not be at the point where you don’t have to optimize for comp yet, and that’s okay.

I get VHCOL cities, I live in one and bought a home here in 2020. You may not be at the point where you don’t have to optimize for comp yet, and that’s okay. But when you are, I hope you take the opportunity to do so. And I hope you consider doing it sooner rather than later, since you may find, as I have, that working on stuff you’re passionate about is one of the ways to do your best work, which often can result in comp increases faster than working on something you care less about. :) Good luck out there!