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As someone who grew up in Chicago and now works in the Bay, 350K is not going to be 1:1 to your 270K lifestyle, OP - hate to say, but a handful of life factors here (eg., property, food / drink, transport, general consumer products, etc.) cost a bit more here.
Putting aside the obviously higher cost for housing, some other minor items to use as data points:
-Coffee & a pastry runs you close to $10 if not above double digits (definitely not the case in Chicago)
-general household goods are ~20% more expensive (eg., I went to buy a box of Advil at Target, was $6, when online and in Chicago stores it’s 4.99)
-Uber and Lyft for the same distances are charged more here than in Chicago based on the cost / mile rate & time pricing
And to all of you giving OP flack, knock it off; yes he and his wife won’t be homeless, but that’s really not the benchmark you should be comparing yourself against. If you’re used to a certain quality of life in X city, you should be given a heads up if it’s going to go down when you move to Y city.
@op agree with google1. I moved from Chicago to the Bay area and bay area is a hell lot expensive BUT the majority is the housing cost. 1 br in the best areas of Chicago city is around 2k and a decent (nothing fancy) 1br in the Bay area is around 3.25k - minus the security you get in Chicago buildings. You will roughly pay an additional an additional 5% in state tax so just that reduces your 350k take home by 17.5. A cheap eat here for two will cost you 30-35 bucks vs around 15-20 in Chicago.
Thank you!!
“Is 7x the median household income enough?” 🙄
What a ridiculous question. Might not offset the differential cost of living, but obviously you’re not going to be homeless.
Median income doesn't tell the whole story. My wife and I make about $160k combined BUT we paid off our mortgage so we could be much better off than newcomers to San Jose who have a big mortgage or rent payment.
Seriously haha can’t be that bad mate, people live off 80k joint income there as well 😂
Meaning if you wanna live in Cali, go make it work. If it’s just for a job, don’t
From Nerdwallet... I'm currently working in Santa Clara / San Jose and this sounds about right.
Sounds accurate, Chicago is very cheap compared to the bay area
Enough to live, not enough to live well, and definitely not enough to live as well as 270 k in Chicago.
OP - don’t listen to the haters. When you ask whether it’s enough I’m sure you mean whether it’s enough to maintain a medium/high standard of living, comparable to where you’re at currently.
To answer your question, $350k is tight, but should be enough depending on where you live.
First off, Kids are extremely expensive here - Decent daycare runs 2-3k/month. Also, median home prices are above $1 million (usually well above that) which equates to ~5-6k. On top of that you still need to save for retirement and pay off any debts you may have (student loans, car payments, insurance, and whatever else). Add the increase in consumer goods prices and it gets ludicrous quick. I’d really make sure you’re confident the move would lead to better future opportunities/growth before taking the plunge.
A comfortable income where you could maintain a mid-higher standard of living would be ~500k.
TLDR: If you’re willing to make a few sacrifices (living further from the city, a lower end daycare, etc) it can definitely work. Just wont be as good as you’re used to.
Hope this was helpful and lmk if you have more specific questions.
Also you won’t have to deal with this bullshit Midwest winters...but you certainly pay the sunshine tax
From a financial standpoint, I’d say 350k in SJ is like 180-200k in Chicago. Lower quality of life, but definitely survivable
Dear god this reeks of entitlement. I’d really like to hear your definition of ‘survivable.’
It's more than enough. Currently living in San Jose (270 household income) and just bought a house too.
You know what, you can actually do the maths yourself.
Compute how much you guys spend and save with current income.
Go online and replace expenses where applicable (mortgage/ rent, taxes, childcare but not student loans).
Then determine what your income needs to be to save/invest the same as before
It’s much easier to do that you think. All the big ticket items info are online (tax, rent, mortgage etc).
I'm a millionaire - will I be ok
Depends on what lifestyle you want to live. $350k won’t be extravagant and you may not be able to buy a house, but if you are ok in a 2bd apartment you will be fine.
That’s a sizable downgrade
this guy
Is $350 it or do you have a total package to consider? (Eg., significant stock plus bonus)
This is TC. Compensation is primarily base + bonus, only a tiny stock amount
People don't realize how good the salary/cost ratio is here in Chicago. Chicago makes like tier 1/2 salary (basically a little less than NYC and SF, and that's it) but is cheaper than almost all other big cities. It is cheaper than Boston, DC, NYC, SF, LA, and even a city like denver.
If you want the best bang for buck, Chicago is place to be. Still a lot to do here too
Worth it if you are in Tech and/or very sociable. You will be amazed at the other opportunities that could come your way. That 350kTC can easily turn into >500k in the next 2-3 yrs. Just do it!
My wife and I bring in about 330k all in. We like living in the the Bay Area cause of the opportunities, young multi cultural population and weather. The cost of living has been crazy however particular renting and housing market. We’ve been thinking about purchasing a house and it’s been hard to save even for down payment with avg. home prices excess of $1.2M and the prices have growing more than 10% and for the last 7 years with the exception of this year. The cost of living is high, real and can be stressful at times, but if you get past that then it is certainly a great place to live.
Do you have kids?
on the way
Probably yes in San Jose. Rest of the Peninsula? Might be tight.