[acconrad]

Same age as you, but in Boston, so relatively similar salary/cost-of-living. One question is - are you actually making $250k base? I feel like for many of these large companies, that's the total compensation package, and much of that "total" is around bonus and stock options. Is it more about sticking around than it is about getting in as a high-level engineer, or is it the pay grade? If I walk into Google and get hired as a senior engineer, most salary reports in the public domain show me making far less than $250k base, even in SF.

[URSpider94]

Boston and SF are NOT comparable these days in terms of cost of living OR job market. Boston is probably #2, but it's a fairly distant #2.

$250k is a normal salary for an engineer with say 10 years experience in the Bay Area. It won't all be in a monthly paycheck, some of it will be in bonuses, restricted stock, etc., but it will be bankable and spendable annually, not locked away in illiquid assets (at least at a large company). Companies with long vesting schedules will supplement the early years with hiring bonuses until shares start to mature.

And this is why rent on a 2BR apartment in Mountain View will run you $3000 per month, and a 900 sq ft condo convenient to nothing in particular runs $850,000.