> and the largest of all -- mortgage. I specifically called out housing as it's the biggest expense, but I labelled it as rent. > $120k in SF than average sa

> and the largest of all -- mortgage. I specifically called out housing as it's the biggest expense, but I labelled it as rent. > $120k in SF than average salary in, say, Milan (€33k). By your own admission, mortgage is the largest expense. Your monthly take home in SF after taxes and housing costs of $2500 is $3964. That's more than the gross, pre tax, pre housing cost of the Milan salary you named. Your take home pay _before_ housing is $1950/month in Milan. You're always going to have more money left over in SF. > I still doubt you can afford the same quality of living. There's a different between salary and quality of living. The quality of life in _any_ european city is a very difficult comparison to the QoL in a US city, and it's not a numeric comparison.