It seems rather flippant to dismiss this out of hand.
That's the main issue people have with SV (and London, and <insert big city here>).
If you're not a person who's happy living in a tiny space you don't own, then it's a grind until you move out.
A long grind. And you're planning, the whole time, to leave it all behind.
> that's enough money to make you in millionaire in ~25 years.
I don't know SV. I do know London.
Starting today, $1M USD in London gets you a decent family home.
In ten years? Forecast not looking good. We're right back to the 'save to move out' point.
It's a mercenary lifestyle.
But, you responded to a guy who was outlining a budget that he said works very well for him. He wasn't asking for your advice or complaining of a problem...
:)
But if he isn't supporting anyone else on his $120k salary, he's full of shit.
I used to intern in the Bay-Area, making ~$60k/year.
Then I graduated, and started earning $90k/year.
As recently as 1 year ago, I was living in San Francisco, which is much much more expensive than Sunnyvale, and earning $125k/year.
During all 3 phases above, I had more money than I knew what to do with.
Let's break it down here.
- 120k/year == 10k/month.
- 3k goes to taxes.
- 1.5k goes to rent (yes, sharing a 2 bedroom with 1 other person isn't the end of the world)
- 1k goes to food and groceries
- 0.5k goes to car payments, insurance, etc.
That leaves you with a whopping 4k left over every month.
Even if you blow half of it on gambling and drinking, and save the other half, that's enough money to make you in millionaire in ~25 years.
The large majority of people living in Silicon Valley get by just fine with much less than 120k. Are you going to be conspicuously rich on 120k? No. Is your life going to be shitty? Absolutely not.