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Spending 2.3m on a house is a bit extravagant, the median house price in nearby San Jose is currently only 1.2m. That means half are even lower! Of course if yo

Spending 2.3m on a house is a bit extravagant, the median house price in nearby San Jose is currently only 1.2m. That means half are even lower! Of course if you want some newly-built 3000 sq ft house in a top 10% school district it's going to cost even more, so it really depends on what you consider reasonable. I guess this just supports your argument that 450k sounds like a lot but in practice it only buys an 'upper middle class' lifestyle. Still, many things don't cost more in HCOL areas (travel, goods you can buy online), or only have a slight premium (food). It's easy to overfocus on expensive housing and services. Actual 'middle class' people don't go on frequent airplane travel or dine out multiple times/week, whereas that's very typical among HCOL tech workers.

darth_avocado 4y ago
If you’ve been looking for a house, you’ll realize that 1.3M houses in San Jose either need some work done or are not in a good school district. I am sure someone who makes $450k will always try to move to the best available school district. Also to your point about expenses. Companies don’t pay you $450k for a 9-5 job. They do that so they can squeeze out as much time of your day as possible. Most tech workers don’t “dine out”, they order in because they have to. And as far as what I said, it’s not to cry how bad it is for someone making 450k. It is to say that it sounds nice, but in practice you can get a comparable lifestyle in say 80k in India or 200k in Europe. The only difference like I said is when you move out of these expensive places to somewhere cheaper. It’s the same comparison to saying you can earn $18-25/hour (35-50k/year) waiting tables in Bay Area. But only make 20k/year in Paris doing the same job in Paris.
- dasil003 4y ago
  The difference is with waiting tables you are living hand to mouth. When you’re making $450k, it just takes a little bit of discipline to build up a huge nest egg and then move somewhere way cheaper to up your standard of living.

darth_avocado 4y ago

If you’ve been looking for a house, you’ll realize that 1.3M houses in San Jose either need some work done or are not in a good school district. I am sure someone who makes $450k will always try to move to the best available school district. Also to your point about expenses. Companies don’t pay you $450k for a 9-5 job. They do that so they can squeeze out as much time of your day as possible. Most tech workers don’t “dine out”, they order in because they have to. And as far as what I said, it’s not to cry how bad it is for someone making 450k. It is to say that it sounds nice, but in practice you can get a comparable lifestyle in say 80k in India or 200k in Europe. The only difference like I said is when you move out of these expensive places to somewhere cheaper. It’s the same comparison to saying you can earn $18-25/hour (35-50k/year) waiting tables in Bay Area. But only make 20k/year in Paris doing the same job in Paris.

dasil003 4y ago
The difference is with waiting tables you are living hand to mouth. When you’re making $450k, it just takes a little bit of discipline to build up a huge nest egg and then move somewhere way cheaper to up your standard of living.