[aianus]

I've personally lived in both cities and you can live perfectly well on $4k a month with a couple of roommates. Better than the average American even.

Then, if you invest $46k a year for 15 years at a real return of 4% you end up with ~$943k in present day dollars which is right around what the parent was saying.

Not to mention $140k total compensation is relatively low for a senior dev in SF/NYC, you will likely be making a lot more 10 years in.

[gozur88]

Where are you going to get a real return of 4%?

[aianus]

US stock market has averaged 8 over the past 50 years

[gozur88]

That's unlikely to be true in the future for a whole host of reasons.