Is this tongue in cheek? Because it reads as more worldly and self aware but is largely about living a more extravagant, expensive and luxurious lifestyle.
But what parent was saying is that a small assisted living apartment is cheaper than a big unassisted house.
Are you sure you’re not just comparing two areas of different cost of living?
Heck, this is basically the modus operandi of most luxury student accommodation in London.
Find one with a restaurant on the bottom floor and you're done.
It'll cost close to 5K/mo all in for decent square footage. That's before food, which will probably run around 50/day at least. Still very achievable on a dev salary in a major market, as long as you don't make any other expensive life decisions (i.e., children). Not what I would spend my money on, but certainly an option if it's what you want
That's 50% of your salary(after taxes) if you're making 140k, but 1/4th of dev salaries in SF start above that.
https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/salary/results?l=San+Francisc...