Comment by bradlys | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bradlys | Hacker News Reader

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We tried to move to Santa Cruz. My significant other grew up near there and desperately wants to be near her friends again. Turns out, all the Bay Area peeps wanted to do the same. Rents haven’t gone down there and the competition is really fierce. (“Honey, what if you got a job at Looker/Google?! We could be in Santa Cruz forever!!!”)

Started thinking about moving to Denver...

But, I don’t really want to move yet. See - the thing is - I’m in the Bay Area because I want to make it. I came here because I needed /a/ job. Then I got sucked in and decided I wanted /the/ job. I want to get the big $$$ and be able to afford that nice house in Los Gatos with a 911 in my driveway. Doesn’t mean I would pull the trigger if I had the money - I won’t know until I’m there. But moving away - well, it means that’s definitely never going to happen. I’m not ready to accept that level of failure yet. After all, I’m not even 30 yet. I got a few days left. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

In the same situation also trying to climb the corporate ladder but more interested in early retirement than material wealth. I'm guessing that the FAANG that I work for will go to commute-one-day-per-week for everyone when this is all over so we're taking that bet and moving to Napa this week. 1.5 hour commute one day per week (when we eventually go back) is doable in exchange for the huge decrease in cost vs Santa Cruz (where we also looked). If it doesn't work out, we'll reevaluate in a year and maybe move again. Worst case: we saved a ton of money on real estate for a year.

1.5 hour commute is remote? I have done that for years. I would consider 3 hours one way remote as I have done that too but couldn't last more than 6 weeks before being burned out.

Don't ruin your life for materialism.

You don't need to own a 911 and a nice house in a super expensive part of the world to be happy and have a very successful life.

It's nice and important to have goals, but it seems like you are falling for a classic capitalism trick : you always want more expensive possessions and you keep working hard for that. Overall, nobody really cares about what you are driving and how nice is your kitchen.

You can rent a 911 and a nice house for holidays if it's your dream. And move on.

What's "the" job? Are we talking founder or corporate ladder? How much does this dream house cost?

Having heard this conversation enough times, here is some data:

> The median home value in Los Gatos is $1,984,735.

https://www.zillow.com/los-gatos-ca/home-values/

L6/E6/etc... should do it

https://www.levels.fyi/

Pretty sure the writer’s being sarcastic.

There's comedic embellishments in there but it's all painfully true...

The only thing good about los gatos is that you might see Woz riding around on a segway. That place sucks!

Where from? SF?

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