The CTO himself owned a home a couple blocks off of the beach in one of the most desirable ZIP codes in my state. I, myself, best I could hope for on that salary is a plywood DR Horton house 20+ miles upriver in a neighborhood that gets robbed weekly by “Kia Boys.”

What was once a very desirable, very secure job became a joke thanks to failing wages and rampant inflation. Best-worst option was a remote job for a mid-salary and move to the sticks, pay off the house fast, and try to coast that remote lifestyle as long as possible.

Somehow my grandfather did this as a painter.

Inflation is a killer.

It’s not a “personal story” - the finances of living are a bitch and my math isn’t magically different, I’m not keeping up with any Jones’.

I have a lesser standard of living than my (single) mother buying a home in the 1980s here in the 2020s.

Offer a real rebuttal or kindly piss off, this isn’t Reddit.

>Please don't post comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills.

I don't think they're saying $150-300K will be easy, but it should be doable in raising 3 kids if you make sacrifices:

1. Seriously cut down on vacations. As an example, in the first 19 years of my life I slept in a hotel for perhaps 10 nights total (over 3 separate vacations). We did not feel at all deprived. Those who do are definitely "keeping up with the Joneses".

2. Don't buy new (or even recent) cars. Once your kids are old enough to ditch the booster seat, a Camry or Accord sized car is plenty.

3. Eliminate most subscriptions and streaming services.

4. No private schools.

5. Birthday parties for kids: Keep the budget low. It's OK not to offer a meal. Cake and snacks is fine. Limited/no decoration. Just get a good cake and stuff for them to play with.

6. Eat out only on special occasions. When I was a kid, we'd get junk food once a week, and everything else was home cooked. Actual dine-in "proper" restaurants? Perhaps oncea year. Learn recipes that can be cooked quickly.

7. Don't live in SV or Boston.

8. No, you don't need to get furniture for every room in the house (if you have a decent sized house). Have a 5 (or even 10) year plan for adding furniture and other niceties to the house.

9. If the yard is expensive to maintain, stop maintaining it if you can get away with it.

10. Don't pay more than $400 for a phone, and keep it for at least 3 years (my last one was bought for less and lasted 7 years). Only buy used phones.

The part that probably craters all of the above is medical issues (high premiums + deductibles). I offer no solution for you.

(I break a lot of these rules, but I also don't complain - I know where my problem lies).

Unfortunately, the last 10-15 years has truly shifted what was once a low or middle tier CoL area into a higher tier. The Carolina Lowcountry went from hidden gem to a playground for the rich, or as a friend once put it “Antebellum Disneyland.”

I’ve used the example in other areas - my first team lead bought his house at 300k and sold it for over 1M last year. You just can’t compete anymore, I get similar stories from my Nashville and Texas colleagues.

The only winning move is to not play.

Yikes. How big is the house?

I assure you that I live in an above average COL area, and with $200K it's doable. With $300K you can get most of the luxuries I mentioned in the list (but won't retire early).

more and more people are just choosing not to play that game