[morgante]

It's extremely hard to come up with any across the board cost of living comparison.

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.

[lewisl9029]

> 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.

This is what most of these naive cost-of-living conversions tend to miss, by always assuming a savings rate of 0%.

High income earners like software engineers tend to be able to save a very significant percentage of their income, and the stock market grows at the same percentage no matter where you live (within the US), which compounds the difference in net worth growth.

This is why I vastly favor high cost-of-living, high salary areas when looking for work. Of course, if you project for yourself a 0% or lower potential savings rate at both locations, then the original naive comparison holds, but then you have bigger problems.

[morgante]

> High income earners like software engineers tend to be able to save a very significant percentage of their income

Exactly, especially when you're young. It's very possible to save 50+% of your income as a software engineer in a HCOL.

This is especially useful since nothing says you have to retire where you work. Even before then, lots of high-ticket purchases (like vacations) don't scale with your COL.