[lotsofpulp]

And the remaining 30 years of life you have low ability to earn income, but face higher taxes and healthcare spend.

To me, FU money is passive investments which yield a couple hundred thousand a year from businesses that can keep up with inflation.

[s1artibartfast]

Perhaps that gets at my intended point, which is that different people have different comfort and stability thresholds.

If someone doesn't feel comfortable leaving a job to bet on a startup project with 20 years of mortgage payments in the bank, it is unlikely they ever will.

[marvin]

1 million is 40.000 dollars per year indefinitely, by the 4% rule, with a small risk of ruin that you'll most likely see coming years in advance.

It should be possible to live in the Bay Area on that, given that the place still has cashiers, cleaning personnel and maintenance workers. It won't be a middle-class lifestyle, but you'd have to make _some_ sacrifices in order to indefinitely work at whatever you want in the most expensive place in the world.

[abacadaba]

Never having visited myself, this is what I don't get about the bay area. How is it still a functioning city? How far out do you have to live to be able to afford rent on a non-tech bro salary?

[redis_mlc]

You posed some simple-sounding questions, but the Bay Area is a very complex real estate market to understand.

So I'll just give you some simple answers.

If you don't already own a house, it's not a functioning area for families, or those wanting to own a house, aka "priced out forever."

Commuting farther is an option in other parts of the USA, but not the Bay Area, since it's constrained by hills and the Bay.

The non-owners living here need a gaffe of some kind:

* shared accommodation

* fly into a city airport with a private plane

* know a Prop 13 owner (ultra-low property tax) who wants to rent to a friend

* find an in-law unit coming onto the rental market

* navigate the Sunset area flop houses

* connections to ethnic communities with below-market asks

* get employer to chip in

* homestead a sketchy area of Oakland

* be a multi-unit superintendent (those used to offer a free apt. on-site, but recently I heard of almost market rent being charged)

[abacadaba]

but why would anyone do this not making a stupid salary? i don't get the appeal why anyone would put up with that just to have the privilege of serving coffee to techies in a formerly cool city. (not to imply that techies aren't cool)

[lotsofpulp]

> It should be possible to live in the Bay Area on that, given that the place still has cashiers, cleaning personnel and maintenance workers.

There’s no reason pay for cashiers, cleaning personnel, and maintenance workers can’t rise, or to meet the demand of labor with a little bit of automation also. Making $40k per year as a cashier means $80k as a couple or roommates.