Tens of millions is only "pretty close to financial security". Wow.
Granted, this threshold is less than $10M, but it isn't orders of magnitude less
All of which is to say that it is basically impossible to stay in the Bay long-term unless you make an absolute fuckton of money.
Well, you do have two other options.
One is to commute in 2hr or more every day. Which a lot of service workers have to do.
The other is to share a house or apartment with roommates (if you're single) or with another family (surprisingly common, because what else can you do?).
These are both lifestyle decisions that differ substantially from what most people think of as "normal", past your 20s.
What I'm saying is, merely living a "normal middle class" lifestyle in the Bay requires absurd money. So I can understand why people act like absurd money is normal.
Rent is like $3k/mo, so $36k/yr. Say you have modest living expenses of another $34k/yr. Now you're at $70k/yr to break even. That leaves you with $90k to save/compound.
So, ok, you're doing very well as a renter with $5M invested, even in the Bay Area. And, given that you have more than twice the income you need, you'd probably be ok with only $2-2.5M. As in, breaking even with passive income.
Which would work so long as you don't want to own a house, and so long as markets don't melt down. That extra security seems to cost extra.
If you used cromd's figures of $5M in funds and lifestyle expenses of $400k/year you'd have spent ~80% of the principal (although you'd probably have reigned in your spending unless you were mad)
A boat doesn't just need to survive the harbour's average water level - it needs to survive low tide and high tide.
For me, financial security means something more like: money will be low on my list of problems. I could get more money by turning my attention there. I might have to work, but it could be some low-stress job, and losing it isn't a big deal. I could afford extra care for an elderly parent. I won't be knocked out by most random things that pop up, specific to my personal life, though I can't control what happens to my country etc.
For some, it means they don't have to work at all, and can't be ruined by market downturns that last decades. And further for some others, it means they can survive wars and societal collapse.
I think both are valid to wish for, though at a certain point it's a burden on yourself to control things you can't control. If there's a 1.1% chance of widespread nuclear war in our lifetime, and you want to be 99% certain your lifestyle won't take a hit, one needs to save and spend a ton to be able to weather it all.
But it’s a bit ridiculous to get 42 million USD and not be satisfied. And the original comment is ridiculous to suggest that it’s not sufficient compensation.
If you make 25k/year getting 1M is almost as good as getting 42M, because you are not used to thinking about anything you can do with 42M that you can't do with 1M. However, if your salary has been 10M/year, you most likely can easily see many ways to spend 42M, which are not something you think about often when you make 250k/year.
Does this make sense?
There’s nowhere in the world where the cost of living requires $10M/year. To spend that much money you are forced to spend it on high-end luxuries. Of course there are people who could easily consume that amount of money, but most people on that income would put it into investment instead of consumption.
It's a different question how many people actually spend 10M/year - I have no data about that, but I can easily see myself spending that much if my income has been 40M/year for several years. To me personally spending that money would not necessarily mean buying some high-end luxuries. It would probably involve trying to make some changes in the world and influence things. But yes, luxuries and interesting experiences too. If you're interested in this question, try finding more information about lives of famous rich people.
I've seen example of people selling their company, retiring early and stay low-mid budget. One particular example is very wealthy but live in a small house, drive a 10y old compact hatchback car. You wouldn't know his fortune just by looking at his habits. He enjoy more a BBQ with his neighbors than going to expensive places to eat and help around when someone in the village needs an additional hand. He is still probably spending a lot more than I do traveling on holidays and he has nicer furnitures but he is still doing it like most people do, only a few weeks a year when the kids are out of school. What he has is the ability to justify buying expensive but sturdy stuff that last, instead of things that break and have to be replaced on a regular basis.