[rarrrrr]

A home in Palo Alto costs 3.5 megabucks, but without Prop 13, property taxes are around 85 kilobucks/year. Over 30 years, assuming 2.5% inflation, that's another 3.8 megabucks just to stay in said house. And add basic cost-of-living, say 40 kilobucks/year, adjusted for inflation over 30 years would be 1.8 megabucks. Throw in an extra million for miscellany (3.5 + 3.8 + 1.8 + 1.0), a net balance sheet (after maturation of investments) should target around 10.1 megabucks to stay in Palo Alto if not splurging. It's possible to move elsewhere in the US and only need around (0.5 + 1.8 + 1.0) 3.3 megabucks. (Assumes buying a house for cash right now.)

     > def over_time(years, inflation, amount)
     >   years.times.inject(0) { |acc,y| acc + (inflation ** y) * amount }
     > end
    => :over_time
     > over_time(30, 1.025, 85_000.0)
    => 3731729.7688780855
     > over_time(30, 1.025, 40_000.0)
    => 1756108.1265308638
     >

EDIT 0: Refactored using inject()

EDIT 1: An engineer salary of 200k inflation adjusted over 40 years is 13.5 megabucks.

     > over_time(65-25, 1.025, 200_000.0)
    => 13480510.707119755