Yeah, not having to live in SV is going to save you a lot of money. Github sponsors don't care where you live; they just care about what you made.

Median home cost in Nebraska $168,900. Median home cost in California $552,800.

Yeah I think 100k a year would go a little farther in one of these places than the other...

Don't forget that California is a big state and a lot of it is not very populated or popular. A house in the bay or LA will probably run you a lot more than that.

The difference is even more pronounced. A very nice house in Nebraska is well under 300K but out of reach of almost all in most of California. Why you would live in either Nebraska or California though is up for debate...

This.

In most parts of the world, $100k/year allows you to live very comfortably indeed.

Yes but the author is American So he'll always have to pay US taxes even if he moves out of the US.(I'm aware about tax treaties but in most cases they still have to pay the difference)

Most places inside the US allow you to live a comfy life with 100k/year too. No need to be in Silicon Valley.

Yes but being American he will be double taxed living outside of the US.

You can exclude the first $107.6k/year from US taxes.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/fore...

this is not true.

It is true depending on the country he lives in. As he's a US citizen, even if he lives overseas he needs to fill in a W-9 form to get the money from GitHub.

He can spend $300/month in many parts of Europe, get good healthcare. Even with paying some taxes to support the US billionaires, he'll live a very good life. In SV for that money he'd have to climb over zombies to go get the groceries

> Even with paying some taxes to support the US billionaires

Medicare and social security alone account for nearly half of the US fed govt spend.

Taxes do not support billionaires. The lack of them does.

But you can get groceries delivered here. Problem solved. :/

Is GitHub sponsors considered as Salary though? Might have some tax breaks if that is not the case.

It may depend on what country you're in, but in the US if you're just some rando, "donations" are still taxable income. The form GitHub sends you for filling purposes is the same one used for contractors.

You only need to pay tax back to the US on your earnings > $100k/year

If the earnings are made outside of the US then he doesn't pay tax on less than 100k. The earnings are in the US so he would need to pay, he still has to fill in a W9 form as he's a US citizen.

Am I reading right that average rent is somewhere around $2500 (roughly £2000)?

You'll see wild swings in these numbers depending on how specific you're being about the type of place being rented and even between services doing the reporting.

Here's a March 2019 article from CBS bay area (based on data from the rental site Zumper):

"Median 1-Bedroom Rent In San Francisco Soars To Nearly $3,700 A Month"

"Elsewhere in the Bay Area, San Jose’s median rent for a one-bedroom was $2,540 (5th highest in the country), while in Oakland it was $2,320 (9th highest)."

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/03/05/median-1-bedroo...

That would be on the expensive side of renting a room, and on the very cheap side for a place to yourself.

That sounds low, but I guess it includes areas well outside of San Francisco? All the apartments in SF and nearby seem to start around the high $3000s