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by abtinf
3236 days ago
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Perhaps its been a long time since you calculated those numbers, or you don't have first hand familiarity with the SF bay area, but your 2x estimate is woefully under comp. For the general bay area, you need to add another x. And if want to live in SF proper, add still another x. The SF bay area is such an extreme outlier that none of the cost of living comparison calculators are accurate. Taxes, housing, childcare, quality of schools, gas prices, and on and on and on pile onto the expense. Even things like traffic tickets add up: a red light ticket in California will cost over $500 before even factoring in higher insurance costs; this is roughly quintuple most of the country. I pay less than $0.08/kWh for electricity; bay area rates are 3-4x that. I lived in the bay area for a long time before moving to a suburb of Seattle, where I own a nice home and live near excellent schools. I estimate that I would have to make at least 2.5x more to maintain the same standard of living in the bay area (forget about SF). |
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For example, you mentioned a red light ticket. That presupposes you drive a car, which is pretty much required in NC but far from a necessity in the SFBA.
Not to mention that while your expenses might increase substantially, there's no reason you have to keep your savings rate consistent. I'd much rather save 30% of $200k/yr than 40% of $80k/yr.