[nilkn]

My personal advice:

Be moderately concerned. Live frugally and try to save money if at all possible.

Be more or less concerned based on specific details of your company that I don't know about. Does it have a revenue stream or does it depend completely on funding? Is it just a year old or has it already survived for a decade or more? Are your primary customers other startups (big risk), or do you primarily serve a different industry?

And start looking at jobs you think you might enjoy that are outside the Bay Area. Life is a lot less stressful if you're in a situation where you can save some money without worrying about every single purchase you make. Even a $50k-60k salary which many here might scoff at can take you far in a much cheaper area of the country.

[ryandrake]

> And start looking at jobs you think you might enjoy that are outside the Bay Area. Life is a lot less stressful if you're in a situation where you can save some money without worrying about every single purchase you make. Even a $50k-60k salary which many here might scoff at can take you far in a much cheaper area of the country.

Generally good advice, but here's the thing that often goes undiscussed when talking about cost of living: Many big expenses do not scale with the cost of living. If I have a $80K student loan. It's $80K no matter where in the country I am living. So I'd rather go for the high salary/high cost of living than the low salary/low const of living, in order to maximize the ability to pay for these fixed costs. Cars are the same way.

[sethhochberg]

I'm glad to see someone else making this kind of economic argument, I've often said similar things to friends questioning whether the salary gains in a place like NYC are worth the cost of living - housing costs are extremely variable nationally, but most consumer goods fall into a pretty narrow range.

Of course, I haven't ever actually done the math to confirm that this theory checks out when looked at as percentages of available income after dealing with the extreme costs like housing... but I'd guess it still holds.

[JoblessWonder]

Yeah... your last sentence is the important part. It comes down to doing the math.

Also, while living frugally can make a huge difference in your net available income if you live in a high salary/high cost of living city, it can also be very hard to commit to that lifestyle when your friends/co-workers don't.

[ryandrake]

Yea, for many people their student loan payment is by far their largest expense (even over rent), so it makes sense to maximize, maximize, maximize.

Not sure how your friends' or co-workers' lifestyles have any effect on your own, though. I have friends who work for Google and live what I see as pretty extravagant lifestyles, and overhear co-workers (who must make a shit-ton more than me) talk about their nanny, their maids and their kids' private schools, but it doesn't really have any bearing on my life. You have to live the lifestyle you can afford or you go broke.

[ghaff]

People probably put too much stock in percentages. What do the (after-tax) absolute numbers look like?