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Or you can just not live in a high cost of living area…

Sure but most of tech companies have regional income adjustments and generally speaking your income adjusts in proportion to cost of living. Usually that means its worth living in a high cost of living area because your savings also scale. If you get $220k in rural montana instead of $350k in SF I don't think you come out ahead.

The adjustment at the FAANG I work at is 15% less for base salary for the lowest cost of living areas. Stock grants are the same, if the stock price were to be perfectly stable this would be bit less than half of my total comp. This means at my level I make ~9% less because I live in the Midwest instead of the Bay Area. You definitely come out ahead.

The adjustment in base for me would have been about the same.

But then you got to live in SF…

But the adjustment isn’t that much different.

Right. When I worked for Facebook in Boston my partner and I each paid $1500/month for a 2/1 in Cambridge. In-unit dishwasher but coin-op laundry in the basement. I also drove a 10-year-old Nissan.

Maintaining a (grad_student)++ standard of living while working at big tech means your savings go up fast.

Alas, my current monthly mortgage is certainly not $1500.

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