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Many of these salaries are in Silicon Valley, where the cost of living is sky-high. It takes a six figure salary to live decently in these areas. I've seen a number of posts and comments to the effect of lowering their standard of living my moving to Silicon Valley - even with the higher salary.

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Not sure where you get this idea that one cannot live in San Francisco/Silicon Valley without a six figure salary. Thousands of people live in San Francisco and do not work in tech and surely make much less than six figures while still live relatively well.

I live in San Francisco. 35-40% of my income goes to oil the tax wheels, another good 15 % goes to make sure I can live within the city. If you keep doing the math, you don't save much at the end. I am not saying I live paycheck to paycheck but the city is so freaking expensive that you don't save much. In fact, a friend making 30% or so less in Austin did the math and found out he could save much more than I could. On the other hand, I am not complaining, I choose to live in this great and amazing city.

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