Do you still want to live close to SV when you're not working there anymore?
Your burn-down rate for your retirement fund is predicated pretty substantially by the standard of living you maintain after you retire. If a lot of your day to day activities become indefensible once you can't justify it based on work concerns, then your costs may be lower.
Look, for instance, at all the fancy cars that real estate agents have to drive to exude competence. They end up leasing a high end car, when maybe all they want is a 2013 Subaru Outback for activities and half a closet of clothes from Duluth and Patagonia that last forever. Once you pull on that thread, then moving to an exurb might make sense too.
I would say that something you need to know about yourself by the time you reach your FIRE goals is what you want to do with the extra 10 hours a day once it's not working for a boss. Even if that means adding a couple years onto your plan.
Because if you know the answer to that question, many of those answers don't require a tier 1 market. And since you're doing it late in life, it might occur to you that if you move to the mecca of beer making or kayak building, you'll be competing with people who are way, way more experienced than you are. Maybe you want to live in a 'rising star' city of a 200-600 thousand people, where your relationship with the community can be more reciprocal, but you can still find a decent turkish coffee and bulgogi tacos. That place is going to be tons cheaper than where you are now.
Do you still want to live close to SV when you're not working there anymore?
Your burn-down rate for your retirement fund is predicated pretty substantially by the standard of living you maintain after you retire. If a lot of your day to day activities become indefensible once you can't justify it based on work concerns, then your costs may be lower.
Look, for instance, at all the fancy cars that real estate agents have to drive to exude competence. They end up leasing a high end car, when maybe all they want is a 2013 Subaru Outback for activities and half a closet of clothes from Duluth and Patagonia that last forever. Once you pull on that thread, then moving to an exurb might make sense too.