re: The Dark Downside Of The Work-From-Home Trend

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A lot of people have debt. That debt doesn't shrink if you move to Hattiesburg or grow if you move to Palo Alto.

Many consumer goods just cost what they cost. A Corvette costs pretty much the same amount in both Hattiesburg and Palo Alto. It's not all about the mortgage payment.

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The median home cost in Palo Alto is $2.9 million. It’s $150k in Hattiesburg.

Using two different online cost of living calculators, a $175k salary in San Francisco metro would require a $74-83k salary in Hattiesburg to maintain the same standard of living. Neither of these calculators let me select Palo Alto, specifically, as an option. However, a third calculator that did let me select Palo Alto says that a $75k salary in Hattiesberg would require $517k in Palo Alto to maintain the same standard of living, primarily due to housing cost.

Let’s use the San Francisco metro numbers since they are more conservative and at least I could find a backup source. That means that if you make $175k, move from the Bay Area to Hattiesberg, maintain the same standard of living, and don’t take a pay cut, you have an additional $100k in disposable income.

That goes a long way toward paying down debt or retiring.