[majormajor]

I can tell you personally that going TX -> CA 60k->120k I was able to save way more money (in the five figures a year range) despite taxes and despite housing costs in a way that the naive "online cost of living calculators" wouldn't tell you about.

Yes, the square footage of my apartment went way down. Pretty much everyone out here lives in less space, generally it's less a "standard of living" thing than a "that's the norm" thing, but obviously if you really need 2K sqft you're going to want to evaluate things separately.

[tcoppi]

> Yes, the square footage of my apartment went way down. Pretty much everyone out here lives in less space, generally it's less a "standard of living" thing than a "that's the norm" thing

I see you've gotten Stockholm Syndrome already :) But yes, it is definitely an individual-situation type of thing for sure. I'm merely responding to the blanket assertion that just because you ~double your salary in a ~2x CoL area you are always coming out ahead. As you say there are assumptions built into calculators that you personally have to decide how to value, and how you value things like a good commute, schools, and a backyard can change over time as well.