Hacker News Reader

Comment by gresrun | Hacker News Reader

I know I chose to move out here because it was the best career move I could make. Having a FANG company on my resume plus the ridiculous salary and equity while I'm here would be foolish to pass up.

View on HN

I grew up in the Bay Area. Spent several years at a FAANG company. About 2/3 of the time, I lived with my parents. The remainder was with housemates. In my early 30s, I decided that I couldn't continue living with parents, while there wasn't any place in the BA that I cared to pay money to live in.

Now I live in NYC, same salary, but finally have my own place that's not shared with others. I live in a 30th floor studio apartment in Manhattan, take the subway to work, and pay less rent than my friends in the Bay Area who live in 1-bed apartments.

Average rent in NYC - $3,375

Average rent in SF - $3,558

I don't know your situation but NYC is basically in the same boat (just with a better rail system).

That's a coarse comparison. Most housing in the bay area is multi-room units. Even the relatively new apartments in North San Jose are mostly 2 bedrooms. If you're single and want your own place, there's very few studios and 1 bedroom apartments to go around.

For a more precise comparison, see: https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/new-yor...

As of this writing, rent for a one bedroom apartment is 30% more in SF than in NYC.

My rent is $2640. I know people in Pacifica, Palo Alto, and Mountain View paying anywhere from $2700 to $3200 for a 1 bedroom.

Bay Area is a far more pleasant environment to live in than North Atlantic

I agree actually. I don't intend to stay here for the long term, but I don't plan to move back to the bay area anytime soon either. I already spent most of my life there.

the ridiculous salary and equity while I'm here would be foolish to pass up

So - how much of the "ridiculous" salary is left after subtracting living costs and taxes, actually?

Much more than other places in the US. I keep seeing this type of comment, do the math, 2-3X salary increase, rent 2X increase, but rent is only ~25% of your salary, cost of things around ~25% higher. You are much better of in Silicon Valley as a techy in general.

Besides rent, are other things really 25% higher in the Bay Area? Taxes are a bit higher, but cars, computers are about the same, groceries can even be cheaper. A plane ticket to Tokyo is probably even cheaper than most places.

Hell, even rent is cheaper in Tokyo: https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/san-fra...

Now factor in the fact that you spend 15 hours a week driving - not working, jogging, cooking, singing, or making friends. Factor in the gas and maintenance for your car and the medical costs to you for your sedentary time and to society for your exhaust.

"driving" could be "riding a bus" aka "working at the office".

Few programmers are doing that.. you can rent 3 bedroom homes for under $4k within 20 minute driving distance of any job.

The super commuters tend to be lower paid workers.

Unless you want to have square footage and not have roommates.

Average FANG salary is $200k with roughly another $200k in equity each year spread out over 4 years. So that's roughly $400k per year in total comp. Conservatively 40% of that is going to taxes, so take home is closer to $240,000.

While $240,000 is a nice salary it's not even close to what you'd need to afford a house in SV. And that's just housing. All in all it feels like a bad deal.

While $240,000 is a nice salary it's not even close to what you'd need to afford a house in SV

This cannot be correct. If you are taking home $20,000 a month and cannot have a house in SV the problem is not affordability but availability. Or what kind of house are you talking about.

You can move out of SV when you want to buy a house.

Do you have a source for the average FANG salary being $200k cash plus $200k in equity?

Glassdoor shows Google software engineers make a base of $127k cash plus $75k bonus and stock:

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Salaries-E9079.htm

Senior software engineers make more, but there seem to be many fewer of them relative to software engineer.

It can still make sense to live there while you're young, save a bunch, and then move to a lower cost of living area later. I know a few people who did this. Then you can buy a house in a great neighborhood in a smaller city closer to things you like doing. Because of compound growth saving as much as you can when you're young and have few obligations really adds up later in life.

I make ~175k/year cash, and I'm able to put away about 60k/year in savings. If you add in the equity I'm receiving (currently illiquid, but company is one of the mega-corns), I'm able to save an additional 60-100k/year on top of savings from salary.

I live a decent life, 2 annual international trips, own a car, lease a ski house with friends in the winter, if you make over 120k, life in the bay area is quite nice.

You're putting $5k away every month when your take home pay is ~$8k a month?

I assume you must live a VERY spartan life in the Bay. Basically pay your rent (which must be shared or very cheap for the Bay) and utilities and not do much else...

I mean the average Bay area rent is more than the difference between your take home and your savings...

edit: I'm using ADP's calculator, don't know why SmartAsset is different but ADP is pretty legit so I'm going to continue to lean towards those numbers.

Take-home pay on $175K in CA is $10k/month, not $8k/month

https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator#RZ3V1...

Sharing an apartment isn't "spartan", it's "normal"

Earning 10k/month after taxes and still having to share an apartment is not normal.

If you're single I can see the advantages (beyond the obvious financial savings) of sharing an apartment. Doesn't really work as a couple/family.

I was saving much less per month because as a couple we rented our own single bedroom apartment and my SO doesn't work. However, we still managed to save enough in 5 years (while still not having sold most of the vested equity) to buy a house in the Bay Area. So I agree that the pay is worth the hassle, so far at least.

I'm curious how much you spend for food monthly (including restaurants)? Somewhat surprisingly this is the highest cost for us, after rent/mortgage, and we do cook a lot at home (go out maybe twice a month).

Sharing an apartment isn't "spartan", it's "normal"

It may be "the new normal" in the Bay Area and other hyperstressed markets.

But it's not a living standard most people aspire to.

> Sharing an apartment isn't "spartan", it's "normal"

From my perspective, as the sole income earner of a family of four, that's a pretty shocking statement.

I feel like I've built a very comfortable life for myself and my family, and I make quite a bit less than that.

Take home is closer to $10k. I'm assuming he's including 401k as part of his savings as well

Might be but most I find 401ks rare in the Bay due to most startups not offering them...

A lot. My expenses (having moved from NZ) are probably 2-2.5x of what my friends back home pay - and I don't live a particularly frugal life. My income is 4-5x (probably even higher) what they make. Tech people on HN in the Bay Area talk about saving $25-50k / yr. The average household income in America is roughly $50k.

*Caveat: I'm unmarried and don't have kids. I don't own a house yet. I think that might change the equation a bit.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com