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As someone from outside the US, how much do you need to earn in order to live well in this area? There was one slide stating a minimum of $100K for a family of

by dvirsky 12y ago

As someone from outside the US, how much do you need to earn in order to live well in this area? There was one slide stating a minimum of $100K for a family of four just to "escape poverty". Is that really the case? And if so, how do early stage founders who aren't already rich manage to get by?

doki_pen 12y ago
They don't have a family of four. They are usually young and single.
- dvirsky 12y ago
  AFAIK the median/average age of founders is around 40.
  - yitchelle 12y ago
    but are usually single and/or have no dependents, right?
  - doki_pen 12y ago
    Is that true for tech start ups in the bay area? I'd be interested to know if the investors have different founder salary expectations for older founders.
joedavison 12y ago
$100k as a minimum to raise a family and have a reasonable (read: tolerable -- not luxurious) lifestyle in Silicon Valley is very accurate. If anything, it's low. On $100k, you wouldn't really be able to save very much, so the idea that you could somehow "escape poverty" while raising a family in Silicon Valley on that salary is somewhat of a stretch. In Silicon Valley, a "middle class" family typically means two highly educated adults each earning six figure incomes.
Domenic_S 12y ago
Depends on what you mean by "living well". On the Peninsula in a good neighborhood with a 2k+ sqft house and 2 kids in private school, yearly vacations, newish cars? $400k household income minimum imo. It's really a meaningless numbers game - no matter where you live, you have to trim your lifestyle to what your income supports.
svachalek 12y ago
$3000/mo for rent is pretty basic but safe housing for a family of 4 in most of the area; there are broad areas of the bay area map that you won't be able to find it that cheap at all. On the other hand it's possible to go lower by driving a bit more or compromising a bit. Part of the trouble is that income taxes are not based on local economies, so they'd be taxed as if they were quite well off even though they're struggling. A startup founder is not likely to have dependents so can divide by 4, and then not worry about things like how good the school district is. Although they may not be "rich" in the conventional sense, they likely have an education and connections that the guys who are stocking the grocery shelves can only dream of, and parents or someone else they can always fall back on if worst comes to worst.
maerF0x0 12y ago
anecdotally the founders I know were young, single and were roommates due to financial constraints. It wasnt until after funding was established that they could afford to live on their own. The cost per bedroom drops in 2-4 bedroom places compared to studio/1bd, naturally.

by dvirsky 12y ago

doki_pen 12y ago

They don't have a family of four. They are usually young and single.

dvirsky 12y ago
AFAIK the median/average age of founders is around 40.
- yitchelle 12y ago
  but are usually single and/or have no dependents, right?
- doki_pen 12y ago
  Is that true for tech start ups in the bay area? I'd be interested to know if the investors have different founder salary expectations for older founders.

joedavison 12y ago

$100k as a minimum to raise a family and have a reasonable (read: tolerable -- not luxurious) lifestyle in Silicon Valley is very accurate. If anything, it's low. On $100k, you wouldn't really be able to save very much, so the idea that you could somehow "escape poverty" while raising a family in Silicon Valley on that salary is somewhat of a stretch. In Silicon Valley, a "middle class" family typically means two highly educated adults each earning six figure incomes.

Domenic_S 12y ago

Depends on what you mean by "living well". On the Peninsula in a good neighborhood with a 2k+ sqft house and 2 kids in private school, yearly vacations, newish cars? $400k household income minimum imo. It's really a meaningless numbers game - no matter where you live, you have to trim your lifestyle to what your income supports.

svachalek 12y ago

$3000/mo for rent is pretty basic but safe housing for a family of 4 in most of the area; there are broad areas of the bay area map that you won't be able to find it that cheap at all. On the other hand it's possible to go lower by driving a bit more or compromising a bit. Part of the trouble is that income taxes are not based on local economies, so they'd be taxed as if they were quite well off even though they're struggling. A startup founder is not likely to have dependents so can divide by 4, and then not worry about things like how good the school district is. Although they may not be "rich" in the conventional sense, they likely have an education and connections that the guys who are stocking the grocery shelves can only dream of, and parents or someone else they can always fall back on if worst comes to worst.

maerF0x0 12y ago

anecdotally the founders I know were young, single and were roommates due to financial constraints. It wasnt until after funding was established that they could afford to live on their own. The cost per bedroom drops in 2-4 bedroom places compared to studio/1bd, naturally.