Hacker News Reader

You can save a lot more money, in absolute dollar terms. 20% of 200k is more than 40% of 80k.

People talk about "cost-of-living" like it's some non-negotiable tax that you have to pay to the world. It's true you can't get the same lifestyle at the same price as a low CoL area - no humongous 5 bedroom house with a massive backyard. But it doesn't mean your life has to necessarily suck.

View on HN

You can get the 5 bedroom house 15 minutes away from a decent city, 15 minutes away from work, in most states, and not miss out on much from the SV "lifestyle".

I think the only thing I miss out on by not working in SV is working with true world-class talent.

Who said anything about the SV lifestyle? I was only talking about the high salaries in SV and the financial opportunities resulting from them.

What I meant was you can't have the same lifestyle in SV as you would in a low CoL area - no humongous house etc. You'd have to adapt and especially downsize on living space. But if you're OK doing that the financial rewards are large.

Financial rewards? Like $2 Million for a house that costs 200k in the rest of the country? What savings!

SV is fine if you never want to buy a home, start a family, live without roomates etc..

Reply on news.ycombinator.com