I'm familiar with these opportunities. They are not entry-level positions, they are highly technical positions which require extensive architectural experience...the sort that individuals often have mid-career (often with children, braces, school tuition, medical co-pays, etc.)

So yes, $300k for a mid-career position is clearly not enough in the Bay Area. Could you raise a family in a 1BR, yes you can! But there is a "shortage" of people who want to raise a family in a 1BR. There is no magic here -- pay would need to be commensurate to experience + cost of living or people simply will not take the job.

You can do a lot better then a 1Br on a 300k salary in the Bay Area. Even in the most expensive parts.

Just for fun:

$300K pre tax. Tax rate of 40% $180K after taxes High Quality Child Care for 2 Children = $6K per month or $72K / year

108K after childcare

3Br house in SF - http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/hhh?search_distance=4&pos...

Call it $6K / month or $72K per year

$36K left after housing + Childcare + taxes.

$3K / month for transportation, food, clothing, vacations. Good luck...

Effective tax rate would come out to about $100k, not 180. Income tax brackets are marginal... https://www.taxact.com/tools/tax-bracket-calculator.asp and https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator#CZ1Kw...

You also just kinda snuck in a random 72k/year for something that was never discussed.

How about a spouse who also works? Would likely cover that 72k right there. 300k was a single person's income in the context above.

How about public school? How about just not sending them to the most expensive private schools possible?

I've just been chewing that over. That childcare cost is phenomenal and illustrates Bay Area prices to me better than housing cost examples. Unless that cost is completely misleading...

> That childcare cost is phenomenal and illustrates Bay Area prices to me better than housing cost examples

You can pay that much for elite child care in places that aren't the Bay Area. The Bay Area probably has more people that are price-insensitive enough to imagine that the kind of places that charge that much are a reasonable minimum for "high-quality" child care, though, but that's more a difference in incomes than costs.

To be fair "elite" here means a child care facility that can stay overtime when I am stuck in the office on production duty till 9pm, which is like every week. This isn't a government job where I'm guaranteed exit at 5pm on the clock.

This is a wildly exaggerated calculation. I make roughly around 300k and my effective taxes (both Fed and State combined) was 28%. I also have daughter and she goes to daycare that costs me $1200/month. I also own a 5 bedroom 2800 sqft house in East Bay, that costed me around a million bucks and the mortgage is around 3500 including insurance and property taxes

That can't be correct. The nominal tax rate for 300K is 33%:

http://www.efile.com/tax-service/tax-calculator/tax-brackets...

California also has the highest State to Federal tax ratio which is around ~ 10% for what you describe. So your number are way off.

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/state-taxes-california...

Mortgage interest deduction, probably. And it seems like we've gone full circle to the original comment about bankers capturing all the income beyond what it should cost to eat every day and build a house to sleep in.

Mortgage deduction, property tax deduction, child credits, business expenses, charity deduction, medical expense deduction, child care deduction. Also, the entire state taxes is deducted.

My 300k is 1/3 in private stock options which may not actually become money for another 5yrs, if ever. They don't accept it in exchange for homes and my 200k income isn't enough to buy a home, esp given there is a mass layoff every 7yrs. House prices go up more than the down payment I save each year so I get further from owning a home. Oh, and the east bay is about 2hrs fro SF so I'd never see my kids even if I bought a home

You make 200k in income, not 300k.

I wish I could upvote this more than once.

East bay is 2 hrs from SF ?? Oakland ?

So how do you get away from FICA/SocialSecurity taxes?

You do not need to spend more on childcare than the average Silicon Valley family earns in a year. Look at the census data and you'll realize you're a bit out of touch with the reality most of those you share a city with live in.

> $300K pre tax. Tax rate of 40%

Unlikely. I mean, with absolutely no deductions, credits, or exemptions at all, your combined state and federal income and payroll taxes at $300K would be about 44% -- assuming a single filer.